Buying life insurance is a good financial decision especially if you have people that depend on you financially, like a spouse and/or a family. But the idea of life insurance banks on the idea of death, and a lot of people avoid topics like that. If you’re having trouble discussing this with your partner, read on below to have an idea on how to make it easier.
Do your research.
The first thing to do is to prepare what you’re going to discuss with your partner by doing your research on the matter. It wouldn’t make sense if you don’t have at least a good grasp of what is it that you need to talk about and you’re going to waste your chance. Know first the basic information on life insurance, what it is and is not, the common misconceptions around it, its purpose, and hopefully the reasons why your family would need it. Try to look for the answers to the questions that your partner might have beforehand. Talking to a trusted life insurance agent can greatly help you with this. Ask for an actual quote for life insurance from them that you can show to your partner. Your partner is more likely to welcome and even agree with you if they can see that you know what you are talking about and serious about it.
Find a suitable time and place.
If you’re all set up with your homework, find a suitable time and place to discuss it. Life insurance is a sensitive topic so casual and busy settings are not ideal for this. You should not bring it up while driving the car, shopping at a store, attending an event, doing a vigorous activity, etc. While these may seem to have downtimes that can accommodate long talks, the attention might be for something else more important and the situation will not be ideal if the talk turns sour unexpectedly.
The most ideal time and place to discuss matters like this are when both of you are relaxed or in a good mood with little to no distractions and in the confines of your own home for privacy. For some people, this kind of set up is hard to achieve. If this is your case, you can pick similar situations and see if you can make it work. The idea is to maximize the chance of communication and to minimize interruptions.
Start by talking about your situation
You have to carefully set your discussion on the right page, and the way to do that is to open the conversation on the things that both of you know and understand well. Talking about your current situation will instantly set the mood fitting your purpose. Talk about the status of your current assets, your liabilities and other obligations, and how you’re paying for it. Talk about your source of income and how it weighs against your expenses. Let them know that you’re thinking about having kids, or if you already have them, talk about your desire to secure their future. Talk about your ideal future for you and your partner.
Get down to your needs
Once you’ve laid out your present situation, you can now talk about how you can maintain them. For how long are you capable enough to sustain your expenses? Are there any expected changes in your source of income? Do you have contingency funds for emergency purposes? If both of you are earners, would it still be possible to afford current costs if one of you stops working? All of this will probably end up to financial adjustments that might need additional funds. This will get your partner — and you — thinking about ways to address these needs and securing your finances.
Create a plan with your partner
Build a strategic plan with your partner. This is important because people will protect what they helped to create. Discuss things that will help you with solutions. This is probably the best spot to introduce the idea of life insurance. The best way to do this is by presenting it as a financial strategy.
Discuss how funding a life insurance policy can help secure funds that you need in the future and how affordable it is when started early. Talk about the different types of life insurance and riders and how they can benefit your family. Let them assist you in getting the best estimation of the amount of coverage that you’ll need. Show your homework here.
Once you proceed with these steps and start the actual discussion, you must always ask for your partner’s feedback. It would greatly help if you keep your partner in the active loop and not dominate the discussion. You should also be patient, calm, and reasonable. The idea of life insurance is overwhelming enough so you should be patient and understanding if your partner has difficulty in grabbing concepts and implications. It wouldn’t help if you become aggressive and irrational.
Talking about life insurance implies a discussion about what will happen after someone’s death. Most people don’t want it but at the end of the day, its importance will be undeniable. Matters like this will always be a bit difficult and would need extra work. But that makes it more vital to be discussed and taken seriously.
