Life insurance is designed to pay off at the death of the insured person.
This is often the person buying the policy.
No one wants to talk about death, especially their own.
Death is a tough word to work into a conversation, but you need to talk about it when explaining how insurance works. Some people consider talking about death unlucky.
How can the agent talk about death without using the word itself?
Here are some of the ways…
1. Bought the farm: This would not be your first choice, but it is a good place to start because of the life insurance connotations.
If you watch movies about World War II, you sometimes hear references to a pilot or soldier having "bought the farm" if they are killed in action.
The insurance payout or the military pension paid to their family would allow them to pay off the mortgage on the farm, owning it outright.
2. No longer in the picture: This is a tactful way insurance agents might describe the scenario explaining how the life insurance policy pays a death benefit.
Of course, the words "death benefit" sounds like an oxymoron, because the named insured person, who is about to make their first premium payment, probably sees little benefit to themselves in their own death.
3. Eternal rest: This is an expression with a religious connection. If the agent is speaking to a family of strong faith, they would understand the meaning immediately. Rest also communicates the messages that they are at peace.
4. Fall off the twig: This is an expression I found in the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series of books by John Mortimer. It was turned into a TV series that ran on PBS back in the 1980s.
Rumpole is a criminal lawyer. He would sometimes refer to dying of old age as "falling off the twig."
