Pros and Cons of Child Life Insurance

The death of a child is a subject few people want to think or even talk about. It is always thought of as something that happens ‘to others,’ but the truth of the matter is that this is not so. Deaths do happen and children do die and its up to the parents to sit themselves down and talk about how they will handle this situation and what measures are being taken to ease the process. This could include reserving a family plot for burial or planning on how to pay for a funeral. An unpleasant task but, one which every parent should force himself or herself to deal with. One way of dealing with burial costs and funeral expenses is to take out a life insurance policy for your child. Most families only insure the adult members but it may be time to revisit your financial plan and include the younger members of your family as well.

Child life insurance is a huge business in the United States. There are several companies that deal exclusively with these types of policies. It is therefore important to understand why you need insurance and how the different types of policies work lest, you get carried away by some aggressive sales pitch or insistent insurance agent and, end up with a policy that you regret later on.

The two different types of insurance policies available for children are term life and whole life. A term life policy implies insurance with only death benefits. If your child dies within the term chosen (anywhere from one to thirty years), the death benefits will be paid out immediately but if your child outlives the term, the entire amount is forfeited. Term life insurance is a relatively inexpensive choice and most parents could easily factor in the monthly payments into their financial plan. Whole life insurance on the other hand includes the death benefits as well as a cash value component. This cash component can be withdrawn (after a period of time and with certain restrictions and applicable fees) or stand as collateral for other loans, thus making whole life insurance into an investment vehicle as well. Whole life also provides coverage for the entire life of the policyholder and is therefore also much more expensive in terms of premium rates. Purchasing a whole life policy for your children can be considered a forced investment (the cash value can be later used to pay for their education for example) but would require a serious commitment from the parents with regards to budgeting their monthly expenses.

There are many people who insist that buying insurance for your children is money down the drain. Insurance is a way to provide for the family in the absence of an income or care of the wage earner or homemaker in a household. Since children do not earn an income, they feel that there no need to spend on the eventuality of their death? Well, there are many reasons to do so. When you purchase a policy for a child at a young age, and if they fall ill later, they are already insured. They won’t have to undergo another medical exam that might lead to higher premium rates or even non-eligibility for insurance. Experts also suggest treating insurance as way to save for your children. Yes, there may be other more lucrative ways to invest the same amount of money – stocks and mutual funds for instance but these are subject to market risks and may lead to future losses. With an insurance policy, you have a fixed savings amount that your child can use when he or she really needs it (for college or other such expenses). Finally, an insurance policy takes care of the burial costs and funeral expenses of a child. This will come as a blessing to parents who would otherwise be ill-equipped to handle the extra strain of sourcing out funds, if no protection has been planned for. In this stress can be avoided for the grieving family members.

The matter of child life insurance policy is a difficult decision to make but in doing so practically and logically, you will save yourself a lot of financial grief later on. Before you finalize on any plan though, meet with a qualified financial planner and review all your investments, assets and long term financial needs to come up with the best solution and policy for all members of your family.