Affordable Financial Security

As Hispanic Heritage Month unfolds, we feel it’s important to ensure that the Hispanic community understands and takes full advantage of the financial tools that can help safeguard their families’ financial well-being.

A key piece in that financial toolkit is life insurance. And here’s why: It’s often overlooked. Most people don’t think—or want to think—about death or not being there for their loved ones.

But it does happen: 12-year-old Miranda Rivera saw how her family fell apart, including financially, after her father, who was the breadwinner, passed away. (You can watch her story here). She was one of our Life Lessons Scholarship recipients, and she sums up why getting life insurance is so important.

“Life insurance can’t bring a parent back, but it can make the road afterward easier for those left behind.”

And here’s why it matters that we talk about it openly: Hispanics have the lowest life insurance ownership rates of any race or ethnicity. Six in 10 have no coverage at all, according to a new report, “Hispanic Americans: Life Insurance Ownership and Attitudes,” a supplement to the 2022 Insurance Barometer Study by Life Happens and LIMRA. But a silver lining is that 51% know they need life insurance, including 40% with no coverage at all and 11% who have some but know they need more.

Additional good news is that one of the top barriers to ownership is that many people, including Hispanics, think life insurance is too expensive. So why is that good news? Because 75% of people overestimate the true cost of life insurance. As a general guide, a healthy 30-year-old can get a 20-year term life insurance policy with $250,000 of coverage for around just $13 a month.

Back to financial security: Life insurance seems to be a key element, according to the full Barometer Study. Two-thirds of people who own life insurance say they feel financially secure, while that’s the case for less than half of those who have none. Those who feel most secure have life insurance through both work and an individual policy they own (78%). This is important for the Hispanic community to consider, as only 40% say they feel financially secure—that’s 18 points lower than any other demographic.

Of course, financial security is a complex set of factors, but life insurance addresses an important one: income replacement. What happens if the breadwinner were to die? For Hispanics, more than a quarter (28%) said they would feel the financial pain in a month or less, and about half said it would be within six months (48%). This is exactly what life insurance is designed for—replacing that lost income and ensuring the family will be OK financially.

Securing the Future—and the American Dream

Parents want a future that is brighter and better for their kids. Take Roberto Loera, for example. He moved to the U.S. from Mexico to pursue the American Dream and ensure his kids would thrive and be able to go to college.

He made the commitment to get life insurance before his family joined him in Colorado for less than $20 a month. He tragically died of a brain tumor at just 47, but his wife and two sons were OK financially, with plans for college still intact. Roberto had laid the path for his family to not just survive, but thrive. (You can watch his story in English or Spanish.)