The emotional loss of someone close is always hard. If they are a primary wage earner the financial loss can be devastating.
This week LIMRA and Life Happens released findings from the 2014 Insurance Barometer at the Life Insurance Conference in Chicago. In it consumers were asked how long it would take to feel the financial impact from the loss of a primary wage earner. More than half said they would feel the impact within a year; 47 percent of them in only six months. (see chart)
Yet, millions of Americans are without life insurance. We know consumers think it is important as 80 percent of respondents said they believe most people need life insurance. Yet only one in five are very likely to recommend it to a friend and only 10 percent are very or extremely likely to purchase a policy within the next year.
Perhaps these inconsistencies are partially explained by the responses of 28 percent of those surveyed who said they don't know how long it would take to feel the financial impact after the loss of the primary wage earner.
