Discover real-life examples of the impact of life insurance.

Life insurance agents typically share hypothetical stories about how life insurance can save families from financial ruin following the death of a loved one. Fortunately, many families have felt the real-life impact of life insurance after the death of a spouse, parent, or other family member. 

The real-life stories below come by way of LIFE (the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Americans take personal financial responsibility through the ownership of life insurance and related products, including disability and long-term care insurance):

The Impact of Life Insurance for Jim & Clara Bix

Jim Bix was a young, recently married electronics technician when the unthinkable happened: He was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease. As his health began to deteriorate from the illness, Jim needed to turn to his wife Clara, and his two daughters.

Clara recounted this struggle in a feature story for the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), a nonprofit that aims to help consumers make smart insurance decisions.

But, while she says the initial news was bad, Jim’s health stabilized over the next 20 years. During this time, Clara says Jim kept his family in their home and his daughters enrolled in a great private school.

Jim’s good fortune, however, wasn’t destined to last. Just when his health took a turn for the worse, the family received more bad news. Clara would need surgery to remove a cancerous kidney tumor.

After her successful operation and a brief spell of happiness for the family, Jim succumbed to his illness. But, while the family may have fallen on hard times, smart decisions made by Jim helped keep the family afloat through these difficult circumstances. Jim had paid extra to double his coverage amount, and as a result, despite his untimely demise, the Bixes were able to enjoy the same lifestyle they had before his passing.

“Life insurance was the greatest gift my dad could give us,” says Brittany. “It has allowed us to live life the same way as when he was here with us.”

According to the source, Brittany was so thankful for what insurance was able to provide for her family that she is now planning to pursue a career as a licensed insurance agent, hoping to pass on the gift of financial security to more families dealing with difficult situations like those her family faced.

The Impact of Life Insurance for Bill & Connie Hobson

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education’s (LIFE) series of personal life insurance videos are clear and positive reminders of the importance of these policies. Families shattered by the death of a loved one need all the support they can get, and a life insurance policy is an ideal method of ensuring economic safety.

One of the stories by LIFE focused on Bill and Connie Hobson, who were your average American couple. Bill had a job at AT&T as a product specialist that paid well, but complications began to occur when he noticed the strength in his hand had begun to weaken. Eventually, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

This degenerative neurological disorder can take years to develop, and over time Bill became less and less able to work. Yet it was before and during this time that Bill began putting his affairs in order, which included purchasing a term life insurance policy to supplement other policies he had obtained from AT&T. When Bill passed away in 2009, the Hobsons were devastated but able to recover financially thanks to his forward planning.

Combined, Bill’s death benefits enabled Connie and the couple’s daughters to set enough money aside to both prepare for the future and settle some of their existing debt. Connie’s financial planner set up a retirement account while utilizing Bill’s 401(k) and pension payouts to ensure economic stability while her kids were still in school.

If you would like to learn more about the advantages of life insurance policies and how they can change your life, contact us today.

David & Sarah Lewis

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) has long supported the idea of educating everyday folks about the benefits of a life insurance policy. In one of their “Real LIFE Stories” segments, the organization told the story of Sarah Lewis, who was faced with an uncertain financial future following the death of her husband.

David Lewis was a pediatric cardiologist who spent a considerable amount of time working overseas, especially in Latin America. Despite the long-distance trips, he made a commitment to protect his family , and working with a life insurance specialist, David purchased a life insurance policy. He even reviewed it with a professional twice a year to make sure that he and his loved ones were safeguarded in case anything should happen to him. His efforts put in place a level of financial protection for his wife and their three children.

Tragedy struck in 2001, when David suffered a heart attack and died in Ecuador. When he passed away, Sarah was able to access these funds to settle a number of financial liabilities that the family was facing. Not only did she pay off her mortgage and credit card debt, she also put money away for her children’s college educations. The remainder of the benefits were used to help maintain the Lewis family’s quality of life as they adjusted to a future without David.

“The greatest gift you can give your family is to think ahead and be prepared,” Sarah said in the LIFE interview.

If you’re unsure about which benefits that a life insurance policy can offer, visit LifeInsure.com today. We offer online life insurance quotes as well as general information regarding the purchase and use of a life insurance policy. Call us today at 866-691-0100 to learn more about this useful form of financial protection.

Boomer Esiason

In an earlier post, we mentioned that former NFL player and current sports commentator Boomer Esiason served as the spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month (2013), which annually runs through September. Today, we’ll explain the reasons why the former MVP and Pro Bowler chose to include life insurance in his financial planning process.

In an interview with the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), Esiason said that he learned the importance of life insurance at an early age. His mother died of cancer when he was seven, leaving his father to raise three children alone. Although she was not the breadwinner in the home, his mother’s absence made life difficult for the family. Esiason told the foundation that if his mother had purchased a life insurance policy, his father could have used the money to hire someone to keep the household running.

Because of his experience as a child, Esiason didn’t think twice about purchasing a life insurance policy for himself.

“When I became an NFL football player and decided to have kids in the early 90s, I recognized that I didn’t want to have happen to my kids what happened to us, as struggling when I grew up,” Esiason told Forbes.

The importance of life insurance is further compounded by the fact that Esiason’s son, Gunnar, has cystic fibrosis.

“If I don’t protect future […] then if we ever found ourselves in the situation that I found myself in when I was seven, it would be an unmitigated disaster,” Esiason told the Forbes.

As this story illustrates, losing a loved one is always difficult, but it can be easier financially if you take the right steps for your family. For online life insurance quotes that can help you begin planning for the future, use the quote box in this article.