How do you discuss a life insurance policy with your grandparent?
Filed in Insurance on Feb.22, 2010
alicia asked:
My grandmother is almost sixty years and she does not have a life insurance policy. We were talking and I asked her what she had in place in case of a situation. She said nothing. Her plan is for us to sell her house and split the money.
Mark
My grandmother is almost sixty years and she does not have a life insurance policy. We were talking and I asked her what she had in place in case of a situation. She said nothing. Her plan is for us to sell her house and split the money.
Mark
February 24th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Megan
That’s a touchy subject but you should point out to her that a life insurance policy is there in case she dies and will cover the costs of any burden you will have to put out to cover her death taxes and funeral costs. I assume she doesn’t have a will either so that would be even more costly to you because her estate will have to go through probate court before it’s released to her heirs. Remember, you are taxed the most when you are dead.
February 25th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Rhonda
She has no need of life insurance. She has no dependents. Stop thinking about her death as some kind of windfall profits day for you. She owes you absolutely nothing.
February 28th, 2010 at 4:23 am
Pearl
Ask them again. It’s not a touchy subject. Many people are in denial about many things, but relying on hope alone has never been a good stategy.
Ask her if you’re supposed to put her body on ice until the house sells or exactly how she wants to accomplish getting buried. Saying it like that will put it in perspective of ridiculous it is not to have a plan.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:03 am
Louis
Very delicately.
Seriously, at her age, it’s going to cost more, even if she’s in good health. If she has the money in the bank for a funeral, or she has the equity in the house, there’s no NEED for life insurance to bury her with.
Before you talk about insurance, you define the NEED for the insurance. I doubt she has minor children, so what’s the POINT of the insurance?
Then you balance the POINT of the insurance, with her assets – which she might not want to discuss with you!! To see if there’s really a NEED.
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Jerome
She is not “required” to obtain life insurance. Depending on her current health condition, it may be prohibitively expense or even unobtainable. The purpose of life insurance is to protect one’s dependents by replacing lost income – not to be a cash bonanza for greedy relatives.
March 5th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Martha
Your question is not likely to be answered in one word.find useful tips here though.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Kevin
If nobody is depending on her income then she probably doesn’t need life insurance. Her family can sell her house to pay for her final expenses and divide up what is left. At this point her leaving you a life insurance benefit would just be a luxury if she had the extra income lying around and she wanted to leave everyone a certain amount.