All right guys, you can take a break. Although you could certainly buy life insurance on Sunday the last thing you want is your friends knowing you were doing something more important than football. I already know how most of you feel about life insurance. If it’s free you’ll take some but if it gets into your beer or bass boat money, well, a guy has to have his priorities, right?

Wives, in general men have two ways of handling life insurance. Not at all or insufficiently. Men really believe that it won’t happen to them even though the facts don’t back that up. The truth is that 1 in 6 of them that reach age 25 won’t make it to 64 and I suspect I’m not going too far out on a limb to say that there’s probably very few, if any, of you who can’t plug a friend or family member into that statistic.

I would just like to share a testimonial from the wife of a client who died a few years ago. He was a private pilot and, well, her words…..

“My husband John loved to fly. His entire childhood he dreamed of the day when he could learn to fly, and own his own plane. In December of 2005 he was closer to that dream, when he purchased a Bonanza Beechcraft single engine airplane. He was a year ahead of his scheduled deadline of flying before he reached 50! His dream was real, and it was like Christmas to him.

His excitement hit an all time high when he finally took ownership of the plane in February and planned his first cross country flight with his flight instructor. He had to reschedule that flight 6 times, due to rain and schedule conflicts, and finally was able to go on my son’s birthday, almost 4 months later.

It was his first and last cross country flight. Coming home from Reno, on takeoff the plane lost its engine and plunged tragically into a house in Reno and in a blaze of fire destroyed the house. The flight instructor and John were instantly killed.

Life Insurance? Thank God John had done that. He and Ed had established a policy to cover in the event he had an accident, even tho it was NEVER going to happen! I will forever be grateful for that.

Ed made the process move along and championed my cause from the first phone call after the accident. He was diligent, focused and made things happen – all at a time when I wasn’t any of those things.

No, the money doesn’t bring my husband back, but the boys and I have been able to be free from the tremendous financial pressures we would otherwise, no doubt have faced, and at a time we were least equipped to face those challenges.

John was only 49. I have had five friends lose their husbands before they reached 52. Strange things happen. To me, Life insurance is not optional, it is a real necessity.”

“John was only 49.” John was an exceptional man. He cared deeply about Karen and his boys and even though he figured he would outlive his term insurance, he just wanted to be sure. He bought it. He didn’t fuss about it. And he bought a very adequate amount.

And then there was Bill, a client of mine who was partners in a business. He and his partner both bought business life insurance to fund a buy/sell agreement. In his words, “I would gladly recommend Ed Hinerman to businessmen anywhere. When my New York Life agent told me that my 80 year old business partner couldn’t get life insurance, Ed not only got it for us, but at preferred rates. It was key to our buy/sell agreement and when he passed away last year I was able to buy his share of the company from his family with the life insurance proceeds.”

This isn’t rocket science guys and it’s not expensive. Just think for a minute, or an hour or however long it takes to sink in. What kind of a mess would you leave behind if you died today? How hard would it be financially? Would your family be one of those who you see accounts opened up at the local bank for?

Bottom line. Whether it is diabetes, cancer, or an accident while pursuing a dream, unexpected things happen. Life insurance is a very affordable way to make sure that those left behind don’t have to struggle with finances as well as grief.