I had a call today from a wife whose husband has a great high paying job as a translator for the military in Afghanistan. He’s a civilian, but works translating for trainers working with Afghan police forces and also goes on patrol with marines as a translator.

This guy is exposed to all the same dangers as the marines he rides with and he doesn’t even get to carry a gun. Anyway, his wife was explaining that she is a stay at home mom with four young children and the $250,000 of life insurance he has through his company seems a little inadequate. She had read a post about accidental death insurance for civilian contractors and wanted to know if it was possible to get him coverage even if he is already in Afghanistan.

I assured her that it might take a few days longer, but placing the insurance while he is there isn’t a problem. When I mentioned “a few days” she said the her husband was still here. Today is Wednesday and he is leaving on Friday. Given the fact that he is still here and can sign documents in a timely fashion it’s entirely possible to put the coverage in force quickly, certainly by Friday.

I took down all of the relevant information and sent it to my Lloyds underwriters and within an hour we had a quote back. For $500,000 of AD&D the premium is about $2200 for nine months. I don’t know about you, but that seems like an amazing deal for the type of exposure he will have. He will sign the application tonight and Lloyd’s will issue a policy tomorrow along with a bill. The policy can be put in force tomorrow.

So really, as you’re walking out the door, almost. Even if he left today we could get the application to him via email, waiting for him in Afghanistan. He could sign it and drop it in Fedex with payment authorization and have a policy in force in 48 hours or so.

Bottom line. Thinking ahead is always a good idea. I’m thinking this guy with 4 children should have had a million or so in force before he ever started working overseas, but at least there is something, reasonably priced, available.