By Billion-dollar questions parents that understand the essence of life insurance ask are:
- Should I buy life insurance for my child(ren)?
- What kind of life insurance coverage will the most appropriate for children?
- And how do I get the life insurance coverage for my child?
Life insurance for children has been sparking many controversies and debates in the last couple of years. While the proponents are of the view that the policy is a way to protect the insurability of the children, the oppositions believe that the primary concern of the parents should be to attend to other critical financial matters like buying a home and saving towards the children’s tuition.
In spite of these diversified perspectives, the fact remains that securing life insurance coverage for your child could be a good venture and can help you secure your business and their future too.
You would discover the reasons why many parents are interested in securing an affordable life insurance coverage for their children and how to go about it.
Also, we would highlight the reasons or possible factors that influence the decision of parents to secure life insurance for their children.
How Do I Secure Life Insurance for My Child?
So, you’ve decided to go ahead with the life insurance coverage for your child, but you don’t know how to go about it? We’ve got you covered with the tips below.
Purchase a Term Life Insurance Policy
The first and one of the most used approaches if for you to purchase the term life insurance policy. Such insurance is primarily in place for a couple, but there is still an opening for additions.
The opportunity, known as the “rider,” empowers you and your spouse to extend a small amount accruable to their life insurances, to other members of the family, such as the children.
As posited by the proponents of this policy, it is one of the most flexible and the fastest ways to secure life insurance coverage for children.
Aside from the small amounts of money drawn from the primary coverage of the parents, the children also stand a chance to become the primary beneficiaries of the coverage when the parents pass away.
Purchase a Permanent Life Insurance Policy
If you aren’t willing to bring the children into the picture in the early stages of their lives, then you may want to purchase the permanent life insurance policy. In such an instance, the children would only become beneficiaries of the coverage once they become adults.
The idea here is that the parents or even the grandparents of the children in question would buy or purchase the permanent life insurance coverage in their name. Then, once their kids or grandchildren attain the age brackets of adulthood, they would then make the children the policy owners.
Why Should I Secure Life Insurance Coverage for My Child?
With the arguments for or against the purchase of life insurance coverage for children, you might be torn in between going ahead with the idea or dropping it entirely.
Highlighted below are some of the reasons why you should purchase a good life insurance coverage for your child.
- Uncertainty of Life
Because parents are the primary providers for the kids’ needs until they become adults, it becomes imperative to secure their future ahead of time. Death can come at any time, and an unprepared parent might end up leaving the children in financial despair.
Related: Life Insurance for Pregnant Women
By buying the life insurance coverage for your kids, you can be sure that their financial protection is guaranteed.
- Doubles as an Emergency Fund
There might be times of financial difficulty when you’re short of cash. The funds in the life insurance coverage could come in handy to save the day.
- The Child’s Qualification for Life Insurance is Uncertain
To some parents, the financial feature of their children might be under threats, because they might not have sufficient funds to acquire life insurance later in the future. That informs the reason why they go the extra mile to purchase the life insurance coverage that also extends to their children.
- Provides a Saving Vehicle
One of the reasons why parents are passionate about securing the life insurance coverage for their kids is because of the savings undertone to the policy.
In such instances, the coverage has a savings aspect called the “cash value,” whereby the policy owner can borrow against the cash value. They may also want to surrender the policy for the money. Hence, in times of urgent financial needs, the life insurance coverage could guarantee a guaranteed percentage return on the cash value in the policy.
Reasons Why People Don’t Buy Life Insurance
Despite the unique undertones and the upsides to the life insurance coverage, some other perspectives to the policy seem to kick against more adoptions of life insurance. Here are some of the reasons why people don’t buy life insurance.
- Insufficiency of Life Insurance
You and your spouse want the best financial protection for your children, but you don’t have the means to achieve that. Many parents are not able to continue with the life insurance coverage because they have insufficient funds to go ahead with the addition of another party.
- The Fees Are More than the Rate of Return
While looking at the cash value or the rate of return, it’s also essential to consider the fees accruable to it.
In most cases, the policyholders tend to discover later on that the charges associated with life insurance coverage eat deep into the rate of return.
- It Locks the Child’s Qualification for More Life Insurance
Another potential downside that reduces the expected adoptions of life insurance coverage is the possible reduction of the child’s qualification for more life insurance. That is the case because such “passed down” life insurance coverage tends to overshadow the others.
Final Words
Life insurance coverage has both the good and the wrong sides. So, ensure you check the potential problems and the benefits of securing life insurance policy before you continue. Above all, don’t fail to use the clues above to arrive at an informed decision because so many corrupt insurance companies are out there to rip you off.
