My Own Life Insurance Story Part 1

My father died this past Sunday after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. He was the kind of person who would never answer questions when it came to his personal finances, especially when his son was an insurance agent. When I would mention life insurance he would grunt something like "There's plenty for you, don't worry about it." Unfortunately, there wasn't plenty for anyone.

After spending hours going through his personal effects, my sister and I found a few inklings of policies here and there. The face amounts looked extremely low, like $1000 kind of low. Some of the policies were paid up in the 1970's (not a good sign) and in it all, there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. But that's the way he did things.

I cobbled together any and all evidence of policies that could be in effect and took them to the funeral home where my father had "pre-planned" his wishes. And that's all they were. Wishes. No contracts had be signed, not a deposit or anything else. He had chosen his casket (a very expensive one) and a few other items, and had been given a price. The funeral director did his best to honor those prices, but inflation had taken it's toll. He told us he would give the insurance information to a lady in his office who would do some investigating. The moral of this was that pre-planning was not the same as pre-paying.

When my mother-in-law, who resided outside of Charleston, SC, passed away several years ago, she had a policy for $75k. We signed a few forms to assign the policy to the funeral home. The funeral home got their share and the remainder of the policy went to the beneficiaries. It was a seamless process and worked marvelously. If only everyone would think this through.

The irony was that after my mother-in-law passed away, I had related the story to my father, letting him know how easy the process was for my wife and her siblings. The talk must have fallen on deaf ears because he failed to take any action that could have improved the situation that was yet to come.

So here we were. My sister and I, along with our spouses, were confused about my father's burial plans.The lady at the funeral home was thorough and did lots of research by reaching out to the insurance companies and explaining our dilemma. We found out that two of the polices, one of which was paid up and the other in good standing, both hadn't had a beneficiary update in years. My mother as well as my paternal grandmother, were both listed as beneficiaries and were both long dead. Again, if he had just let me take a look at things I would have spotted the problems, not that I'm super smart. As an agent who has been in the business for many years I know what to look for.

Yet another policy, which was in force and up to date, had by father's business as a beneficiary. The business had been shut down three years earlier. This whole affair was beginning to look more like a bad train wreck than a way to cover the expenses for burial and other related costs. 

In Part 2, I'll give you more of this story.

 Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, helping people find affordable life and disability insurance coverage. He's also is a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient and has spoken to professional and civic organizations throughout the Southeast. And please subscribe to this blog!