About half of all marriages result in divorce, yet most couples of course may not expect it. Going through a divorce can be quite messy. The couple is separating and each person is busy figuring out how to go his or her own way. Couples with children, however, may have much deeper ties because children may require support for many years.
When a person is stressed out about paying a mortgage, child support, alimony, and a million other things, it is possible that he or she is not thinking about life insurance during a divorce and life insurance is not something that the person always has. Some young couples think they do not need this kind of coverage and associate it with old age and death.
However, when a couple goes through a divorce, the benefits of having life insurance are sizable. For many couples, this is the first time they are considering some aspects of their lives when they go through a divorce and life insurance is not obvious on their radar. Some principal concerns involve knowing if they can provide for their children when one partner leaves and another is maintaining their current lifestyles without two breadwinners in the family. A divorce is hard enough on you and your spouse emotionally, let alone the deleterious effects on children – throw in financial burdens and you have a recipe for disaster. Go here for more information on questions on life insurance.
What are some expenses to consider for children? Well, first of all there is either the expenses of raising a child if you have custody, or paying for child support if you don’t have custody until at least lage 18. Then you have to consider college funds, sports and summer camps, and other expenses. Before you know it, it will really add up. And are you prepared as a single breadwinner in the family to cover all of that on your own?
So many people going through a divorce suffer through sleepless nights and so much pain and worry that could be avoided, or at least reduced significantly, by having a sound financial plan in place before a divorce and life insurance can be part of that strategy. Then you can rest more easily, knowing that at least you have made a big step in providing for your children and yourself.
In addition, when you are going through a divorce and life insurance is something you have already invested in, it is easy for you to change your beneficiary when your child reaches the age of 21. You can continue to invest in the financial security of you and your loved ones without any interruption. The emotional turmoil is hard enough during a divorce and life insurance is usually not something that you will want to add to your list of things to do at that point in time. So having a strategy ahead of time can help you be prepared so that regardless of what happens, at the very least, you have a way of putting the future of your children first before everything else. To read more information on life insurance if you are unmarried, visit our article “Do single people need life insurance?”
