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Life Insurance Love Stories

February is the month of love, and although Valentine’s Day is over, your love for those close to you never stop.  The act of insuring your love with Life Insurance is no better way to protect your loved ones and show them you how you feel. It can provide security when those left behind need financial help the most. “There are no guarantees. You have to prepare for those ‘what ifs.’” Lifehappens.org presents Real Life Stories. These are True Love Stories that illustrates why it’s so important for people to include life insurance in their financial plans. These families highlighted in these stories could have anticipated the challenges they’d face.


Think!! How would you and your family manage financially if faced with similar challenges!


Stephen Miller: Protecting the Future

A mutual friend with a new dog brought Stephen and Katie together. Stephen had headed to his friend’s house to meet the new furry member of the family, and when he got there, he saw Katie playing with dog in the backyard. “Katie was so outgoing,” says Stephen. “She was the nicest person you’ll ever meet.”

 That first meeting led to beach outings and concerts, and over time to getting married and thinking about starting a family.

It was Katie who suggested they get life insurance. Stephen admits he wasn’t too happy about the idea. They were young and healthy, so he didn’t see the point. Katie, however, convinced him to sit down with insurance professional Rose Goheen, who walked them through the process and presented them with affordable options. They both decided to get life insurance coverage.

When the couple welcomed Chase, they decided to reevaluate their life insurance. Given their expanding family and responsibilities, they both bought additional life insurance. It was during her recovery from giving birth to Reid that Katie realized something was wrong. Her doctor confirmed her suspicion that the abdominal lump she felt was something much more serious. In fact, it was an aggressive form of cancer.

Katie, with the love and support of her family, valiantly fought the disease, but just over a year later it claimed this young mom’s life. She was just 30.

 

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Kovacic Family: Everything Will Be OK

Michael, 32, was a fit and healthy family man. As he left to run a 10K race, he kissed his wife, Traci, good-bye along with newborn Calvin and “big” sister Josie. He never made it home. As he crossed the finish line, Michael collapsed and died. The Kovacic family would never be the same.

Thankfully, they had life insurance. Even though the young couple had been living paycheck to paycheck, their insurance professional had convinced them to buy an affordable policy.

Traci says the hardest part for her was knowing that the love of her life was never coming home. “But the reality is that everything else stayed the same,” she says. “The paychecks stopped immediately, but I still had to keep the lights on, buy food, pay the mortgage and take care of the kids. Having life insurance meant I didn’t have to make any immediate decisions or sell the house.”

“The life insurance saved us—and it still does today,” she says.

 

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Chich Family: It’s About Family

Jenny was single and in her 20s, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking about the future. In fact, she knew she wanted to have a family one day and that saving for retirement—even this early on—was a priority.

That’s why after meeting with insurance professional Jim Silbernagel, she decided to buy a permanent life insurance policy. She knew it would help her with both goals: provide the life insurance coverage she sought and the ability to accumulate cash value to help with saving for retirement.

Jenny’s dream of having a family did come true. She met Jim on a blind date, and once married, they welcomed a son, Michael, and then several years later twins, Samuel and Nathaniel. As often happens with growing families, finances got stretched tight, and Jim suggested they cancel Jenny’s policy to save money. Jenny was adamant that they keep it. Instead, they used some of the accumulated cash value to pay the premium and keep the policy in force.* That decision would be life changing for her family.

The Chich family was looking forward to welcoming their fourth child—a girl, but tragically Jenny died while giving birth. The shock to her family was overwhelming. While life insurance could never replace their vibrant wife and mother, Jim says that Jenny’s policy helped the family in the aftermath of her death. He was able to take a yearlong leave of absence from his job to care for newborn Emma and the boys, who were all younger than 6. “I was able to focus on my kids and not worry about how I was going to buy a gallon of milk,” says Jim.

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You may not always be there for your loved ones but you can always take care of them.  These Life Insurance Love Stories are examples of the benefits a policy will serve if an unexpected or tragedy occurs, and you know your loved ones will not bear a financial burden in addition to the loss they feel.

If you’d like more information on life insurance or would like to purchase a new life insurance policy, I can help. Kelly Burke Insurance represents the brand-name insurance companies you know and trust. Contact us at (708) 444-0050 or kelly@kellyburkeinsurance.com

Protect the Ones You Love with Life Insurance

Looking for a new way to say “I love you” this Valentine’s Day?  It’s called “love insurance.” We buy it to protect the ones we love.  Sometimes the best gift can’t be seen. Show your love by giving something that is Meaningful, Memorable and Enduring

You may ask what does Life Insurance have to do with love. They are closely linked to each other.  You buy life insurance when you truly love the person you bought it for?  You may not be around to see or experience the benefits your life insurance purchase has provided to your loved ones. It is the ultimate act of enduring love, lets loved ones know that you care so much that you’ve made plans to provide for their well-being even after you’re gone.

Don’t wait until it is too late!  Life Insurance does not cost a lot and it is easy and fast to set up a policy. Aren’t your loved ones worth it?

#InsureYourLove now. 

Contact Kelly at 708-444-0050 or fill out sign up form to get a free consultation to see how you can protect the ones you love with Life Insurance.

3 Myths That May Leave Your Loved Ones Unprotected without Life Insurance


When you’re just starting out, it often seems that a dollar never stretches far enough. And with new commitments, such as buying your first home or having children, comes the responsibility to make sure your loved ones will be provided for financially, no matter what life may bring.

 

If you were to die unexpectedly, life insurance is there to make sure your loved ones can maintain their standard of living, stay in your home, send your kids to the same schools and keep their plans for the future on track. It also gives the grieving spouse or partner time to make decisions, or in some cases find work outside the home, without worrying about finances.

 

But common misconceptions often prevent young families from purchasing the life insurance they need.

 

Myth 1: I only need life insurance if I’m the primary breadwinner in my family. Whether you bring home the largest paycheck in your household or a smaller one, your family relies on your income to maintain its quality of life, and it would be missed if something were to happen to you. Even if you don’t work outside of the home, having life insurance is a smart choice. Stay-at-home parents perform valuable services such as childcare, cooking, housecleaning and household management, which can be costly to replace for a surviving spouse or partner.

Stay-at-home parents perform valuable services such as childcare, cooking, housecleaning and household management, which can be costly to replace for a surviving spouse or partner.

 

Myth 2: If I buy a term life insurance policy and find that I still need protection when the term ends, I can always renew the policy. Term policies are quite popular with many young families, and for good reason: They typically offer the greatest coverage for the lowest cost. Term insurance provides protection for a specific period of time (the “term”), and can be ideal for people who feel they have financial needs to cover that will disappear over time, such as a mortgage or a child’s education.

 

However, many families realize that even after the kids are grown and the mortgage is paid off, their need for insurance continues—to provide income for a surviving spouse, eliminate debts, pay taxes, etc. Because life insurance premiums increase with age, renewing your policy when the term expires can be very expensive. Moreover, poor health may make renewal impossible.

 

Myth 3: I only need term life insurance. Term life insurance makes sense for many young families because their need for coverage is great and their budgets are often limited. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only type of insurance you should consider.

 

Permanent life insurance policies provide a death benefit as well as other unique features such as lifelong protection and the ability to accumulate cash values on a tax-deferred basis, similar to assets in most retirement-savings plans. You can access the cash values for important uses like a child’s education or a business opportunity. (Keep in mind, however, that withdrawing or borrowing funds from your policy will reduce its cash value and death benefit if not repaid.)

 

If any of this sounds daunting, just know that it does’t have to be. You can start by doing a quick calculation on your own to see if you need life insurance with this Life Insurance Needs Calculator (or just click on “What’s Next” below). And just know that you can also talk things through with Kelly Burk Insurance at no cost. We will help you figure out how much you may need, and also find a policy that fits into your budget.

Source: www.lifehappens.org

 

Who needs life insurance and how much life insurance do I need?

Those are probably the two questions I get asked the most on this topic. Many people don’t want to plan for that unfortunate loss of a family member, but avoiding the hard realities of life may leave your family with negative financial consequences in the future.

Life insurance is there as a “safety net” for your family so that they would not suffer financially if you were to die. Anyone that relies on someone financially should have a life insurance policy. Life insurance is the one policy that is guaranteed to pay out one day. According to MSN, “40% of households with children under 18 say that they would have trouble paying their living expenses immediately if the primary breadwinner passed away.” Yet 30% of Americans don’t have life insurance, according to MSN!

In order to know how much you need there are a few ways that you can go about finding that out.
*CNN Money says that one rule of thumb is to purchase enough coverage to replace 5-7 years of your salary or 10 years if you have children. That’s not always the case with everyone.
*Evaluate all of your family’s needs while taking into consideration all of your debts (i.e. house, auto loans, credit cards, etc.). Add up your total debts and take out an insurance policy for that amount at a minimum. That way your family at least has peace of mind knowing that the bills will be covered. Either way is a great idea, but it all depends on what each family can afford financially.

If you have more questions about life insurance or would like a no obligation review, please feel free to contact me so we can discuss how to protect your family’s future.

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Email: kelly@kellyburkeinsurance.com

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