What Every Millennial Needs to Know About Life Insurance

Would you have guessed? Millennials would rather let a friend use their toothbrush than their cell phone, according to the 2016 O2 Mobile Life Report by the UK-based O2 digital communications company. In the United States, too, Millennials have something surprising to share: recommendations about life insurance.

Turns out that 77 percent of the Millennials surveyed in the U.S. were likely to recommend owning life insurance, according to a 2016 Insurance Barometer Study by LIMRA, a worldwide association of insurance and financial services companies, and Life Happens, an insurance advocacy group.

Read on to find out why America’s largest generation is starting to care about life insurance – and why you should, too.

Offsetting the Possible Burden to Loved Ones of College Debt

If you graduated from college recently, you may have left campus ready to take on the world. You also may have left with snowballing student debt. According to a June 2014 White House report, 71 percent of graduates earning a Bachelor’s degree also acquired an average of $29,400 in college debt.

Sadly, if you have a college loan to pay off and suddenly passed away, the co-signer of your student loan(s) could be left struggling to pay them off.

Buying a life insurance policy, even a small one, can help to safeguard your spouse, parent or loved one from shouldering such a financial burden alone.

A Safety Net for Newlyweds and New Homeowners

You’ve been lucky enough to find the person and the home of your dreams. You’re learning to work as a team, sharing everything from closet space to dishwashing duty.

If you and your spouse also share the role of breadwinner, it can be critical for each of you to have a life insurance policy. That way, should something happen to either of you, the benefit amount would kick-in and help to replace lost income. The money could be used to help cover a mortgage payment, car payment, or other recurring bill.

Age is a key life insurance premium rate factor

Each month, the policy owner makes a payment toward his or her life insurance policy, also know as the “premium.” The premium is based on the person’s age at the time of application. So the sooner you apply, the lower that premium rate is likely to be.

For young adults starting out in life or thinking about having a family, term life insurance is typically an ideal option because it can be more budget-friendly than other types of life insurance. Why?

Term life insurance provides coverage for a fixed period of time that you choose, such as 10 to 20 years (your “term”), rather than lifelong coverage, as provided by whole life insurance. Also, term life insurance doesn’t accumulate cash value, which makes the premium rate lower than whole life insurance.

A Term Life Insurance, for example, can start out for as little as $8.40 a month for a healthy female 18 to 32 years old for a $25,000, 10-year term policy. That’s about $100 per year – and at a rate that’s locked in.

To learn more about the benefits of life insurance for Millennials, call our customer service representatives at 1-800-704-2180, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

Your friends are, of course, welcome to do the same (but please ask them to use their own cell phones).