It’s amazing the difference between someones perception of when insurance work works and when it doesn’t.  I should know.  Every holiday party I go to, people either have no follow-ups after the “what do you do?” question or the want to tell me their whole life story about how insurance failed them.  Occasionally I’ll have the success story of someone saying they were so grateful they had insurance or else they’d be bankrupt or the life insurance payout was a godsend when they were settling the estates but that’s rare.

We have been in a race to the bottom for insurance prices and people are more uninsured now than in our post WWII history.  What does that mean?  The gift of you providing the basic needs for your family is at risk.  If you got into an accident and were either under insured or not insured, could you buy a new car? Could you afford legal fees? Could you get to work? Without work could you afford medical bills?  If you were left unable to work, how would you handle disability? Same goes for your home, where would you stay? Could you afford reconstruction and the mortgage? And if you died how would your family afford their current standard of living?

This is why I don’t think people have anything to say about insurance.  Their life thankfully has not gone through such turmoil.  And so for them the complaints strike me as how people with a good family and friend unit complain about their family and friends, they want them to be better in certain ways but they are coming from a place of haves, not have nots.  Those without are probably screaming saying be grateful.  But unfortunately we don’t all end our days saying thank you for all the ways we were supported.  We expect that of our people.  Maybe we should but I also make the assertion that this is where insurance lives.  It’s the bare minimum for making sure you and your loved ones are cared for.  Most of us never saw it at work for the previous generation and it’s something that needs to be discussed not subconsciously learned from your parents.

Maybe this year we can all be different.  We can take a look at our policies and ask the hard questions to make sure the only a bad day doesn’t turn into a bad life.