Life Insurance in the Nick of Time

Author:  Sonja Leary

Licensed Life Insurance Agent at Matrix Direct

About 12 months ago, I had to make one of the saddest calls of my career.

A man I helped secure term life insurance coverage for had died—a farming accident—and I called his wife to offer my condolences. What made it really sad was that he had seven children, four that still lived at home. One of the kids is a special needs child, and the youngest is only six.

This story started about 18 months ago, when the man had called. We got off to a kind of rocky start. He didn’t really want to share income information, and in this day and age, I can kind of see why.

But I have been in the term life insurance business for about 3 years. I take dozens of calls every day, and it really helps me in my job knowing that while each person seeking life insurance coverage may have different circumstances—such as income, married or single, kids or no kids, and so on—each person has pretty much the same need: security.

So I just started asking him other questions about his life and situation and eventually he kind of opened up a bit. He told me that he used to have insurance, but didn’t have any coverage currently.

And when I learned about the size of his family I knew that we should probably move quickly, because life can take unexpected turns every day and waiting another day could mean waiting until it was too late.

I gave him a few life insurance quotes, and he seemed ok with them, but then said he was still shopping around and wanted to know if he could call me back. Like I said, I have been in the term life business for about 3 years and I know that when a customer says they’ll call you back, it’s really a polite way of saying they don’t want the coverage.

Before he got off the phone, I asked him if maybe he didn’t want to at least move forward with conditional coverage and set up a life insurance medical exam. He said he’d have to check with his wife.

Now I can’t speak for all women, but I know that the only thing I would say if my husband told me he was thinking about getting life insurance to protect me and our seven kids would be “Thank you!” And I shared that with him.

So I knew it was the right time to ask him to complete the application and set up the exam. After a little more back-and-forth, he agreed and we set up the exam for about a week later.

A month after the exam, the policy was in force. And then only six months after that, he was gone.

When I connected with his wife, she surprised me. I didn’t really expect to be remembered—I mean, who remembers their life insurance agent?—but she not only remembered me, she appreciated me and what I had done.

She told me, “I appreciate you encouraged him to do that because we would be in financial stress.” And with seven kids, financial troubles would be the last thing she would need.

I guess for me the lesson is to listen to the customer’s story and help them make the right decision, even if it’s a decision they may not even see or feel like they have the time to make.

Sometimes—like the day the man and I first spoke—a person may want to just get off the phone and be thinking, “I don’t have time to get a life insurance quote right now,” but the fact is the right time will usually be now.