Financial Advisors Skipping Life Conversations

By Warren S. Hersch

August 25, 2011 at 08:00 PM

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Only 49% of the U.S. adults who have financial advisors and financial plans have talked to their advisors about adding life insurance to the plans.

Saybrus Partners Inc., Hartford, has reported on the lack of attention to life protection planning in a summary of results from a July survey of 2,410 U.S. adults ages 18 and older; 786 of the participants told pollsters they have a financial advisor.

Saybrus released the results just days before Sept. 1, when the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), Arlington, Va., will kick off the 2011 Life Insurance Awareness Month campaign.

Although about half of the participants have talked to their advisors about life insurance, 15% said the life insurance conversation took place more than 10 years ago. Only 40% said they have talked to their financial advisor about life insurance within the past year.

Moreover, 47% of the participants said their advisors have never reviewed their existing life insurance coverage.

Only 24% of the participants said their advisors have recommended adding life insurance to their financial plans, and only 10% said their advisors have recommended adding long term care insurance.

"The survey affirmed statistically what we have heard anecdotally for years: Financial advisors often do not discuss life insurance during the financial planning process," says Kevin Kimbrough, a national sales manager at Saybrus. "They are missing an opportunity to fill a critical gap in some existing financial plans while at the same time differentiating themselves and expanding their practices."