When you get to be in your senior years—over the age of 60 or 70— why should you have life insurance? Almost everyone agrees that the stereotypical use of life insurance is to have insurance coverage while you are married and have a mortgage and children. In those years, you definitely should have life insurance. But once the mortgage is paid or the children have grown, so why do you need life insurance at that point?
You should start to think of life insurance as a cash asset for your beneficiary. Also, you need to understand how that life insurance relates to the cost of long-term healthcare.
Life Insurance and the Healthcare Expenses of Aging
The greatest financial risk we’re going to face as we age is how we’re going to pay for healthcare. Look at your options if your health should deteriorate. You could buy a long-term care insurance policy, which means a high premium. That coverage is also difficult to get.
The other way those long-term healthcare costs could get paid is out of your cash assets. But then what happens to your spouse after they have spent all that cash for your care? Once you pass away, your spouse has now spent $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000 out of your assets. How do they get that money back?
Protecting Your Spouse with Your Life Insurance
Restoring those funds spent on long-term healthcare in your senior years is an important point of having life insurance in your senior years. Your life insurance does not directly help you with those costs, but it does protect your spouse and replenish your assets. When you have life insurance at the time of your passing, your spouse gets those funds back. That way, they have funds for the remainder of their life for their needs, whatever they may be. That is the primary reason to have life insurance in the later years.
Other Purposes for Life Insurance in Senior Years
For you, there may be other reasons for life insurance in your senior years. These reasons could include inheritances, charitable bequests, or funding new activities. In your later years, you may become an entrepreneur and start a new business. You may want to borrow money to start your business. Life insurance is an asset that can help you do this.
Get the Advice You Need for the Coverage Most Important to You
Therefore, the priority of life insurance in your senior years could be funds for long-term care or healthcare expenses, inheritance, charitable requests, or funds for other business pursuits. MBhealth Insurance Agency is here to help you make the right choices for your life and future. Our phone number (314) 544-5400. Give us a call.
