5 Scary Things That’ll Make You Want Life Insurance

If you Google the most popular fears, you’ll get a list that looks like this:

Fear of public speaking.
Fear of death.
Fear of spiders.
Fear of darkness.
Fear of heights.

Which means that most people find the idea of public speaking scarier than death.

Jerry Seinfeld has a great quip that sums it up:

To the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

But fears are funny: most people aren’t actually afraid of the fear.

You’re not afraid of the dark – but of what’s in the dark.

You know: the Boogeyman, a creepy clown with a knife, the crushing realisation that you don’t actually like people and that you’re slowly turning into your parents.

Death – well, death’s the kicker.

Which is why if you’re on this blog, you’re probably looking for reasons to get Life Insurance.

You’re gonna find five of them – and I swear they get a bit more insightful after number one.

Contents

1. You’re Gonna Die

Hopefully aged 96 and surrounded by your loved ones (presuming you haven’t done anything to piss ‘em all off).

Death is the one certainty in life because even taxes are avoidable.

So yeah. You’re gonna die. Doesn’t matter if you never smoke or drink and live your life like Ned Flanders.

2. Funerals are Stupidly Expensive

Apart from having a family (leeches, the lot of them), dying is one of the most expensive things that can happen to you – well, to your loved ones.

You can’t really bury them in a shoebox in your garden or flush them down the toilet like you did with your beloved family fish, Tuna Turner.

RIP x 2.

According to Fanagans, a funeral care provider, you could be looking at coffin up thousands to cover:

Coffin selection.
Removal to the preparation room.
Enbalming
Transportation

On top of that are third-party costs like:

Grave purchase; from €1,400 to €9,000 and upwards.
Grave opening; from €450 to €1,200.
Cremation Fees; from €475.
Newspaper Announcements; from €230.
Flowers; from €59.
Organist’s fee; from €125.
Soloist’s fee; from €125.
Offering to Church; from €200.

You could say it’s a grave matter but that would be insensitive and not funny at all.

Tomb much?

3. Heart Disease is Ireland’s Biggest Killer

Cardiovascular disease contributes to over 9000 deaths per year in Ireland.

Which makes for grim reading.

Would you be covered if you were one of the thousands of people who suffer an unexpected heart attack/disease or stroke every year?

Life Insurance or Serious Illness Cover would make all the difference to you or your family if your ticker gave in.

4. Life Insurance Gets Significantly More Expensive With Age

Life Insurance is a bit like a fine wine – it gets more expensive with age.

A fancy Château Lafite-Rothschild 2010 (fruity, woody, notiony, blahblahblah) could cost you over a grand.

If you’re into your wine and you’re rich enough to consider buying a small, local football team that might sound reasonable.

Alternatively, you could get a perfectly serviceable wine (with 75 percent less notions) for €20 in the shop around the corner.

With Life Insurance, you could wait till you’re 50 and pay a fortune or you could save a packet and get insurance when you’re younger.

5. The Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s (Contributory) Pension isn’t a match for Life Insurance

You can’t get the Widow’s Pension at the same time as the State Pension.

It’s whichever is higher.

Your entitlement to the Widow’s pension depends on the following, via Citizens Information:

Either you or your spouse or civil partner must have:

At least 260 paid contributions paid before the relevant date*

And

An average of 39 paid or credited contributions in either the 3 or 5 years before the death of the spouse or civil partner or before he or she reached pension age (66)

A yearly average of at least 24 paid or credited contributions from the year of first entry into insurance until the year of death or reaching pension age. If this average is used then an average of 24 will entitle you to a minimum pension, you will need an average of 48 per year to get the full pension.

The weekly rates are:

In theory, that seems grand – but it’s not exactly a huge amount of money.

Life Insurance would be a secondary ‘income’ for your family if you passed away.

For the average 35-odd year old who doesn’t smoke, a €500,000 Convertible Term Cover policy starts at around €39 with New Ireland and goes up to about €55 with Irish Life.