Financial advisors should talk to clients about the importance of buying life insurance as early as possible — and take a matter-of-fact approach to clients who are applying for coverage late.
Brandon Carter, president of USAA Life Insurance Co., gave that advice in a recent email interview.
"We believe that having your own life insurance and getting it while you are younger is the best approach," but "there's no perfect time to buy life insurance," Carter said.
In many cases, he said, clients decide to buy life insurance after someone close to them dies or their health deteriorates.
"It's like the concept of saving and investing," he said. "If we could have started saving earlier, we probably would have, right?"
What It Means
Your clients are up against the clock. You need to warn them, but show them that you're with them, not the clock.
Life Insurance and Time
Life insurers guard underwriting data carefully, but age clearly affects how likely clients are to qualify to buy life insurance at standard or better prices.
Having newly diagnosed cancer, for example, can make getting life insurance impossible.
About 7.5% of cancers are first diagnosed in people ages 20 through 44, according to the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program.
In the 34 to 44 age group in 2022, the death rate was 256 per 100,000 lives, or 1 death per 390 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
