Bad news for you if you are a parent with little pre-school kids or a couple living on 120% of your joint income. Chances are strong that your spouse or significant other plans to throw you under the bus if said spouse suddenly assumes room temperature one day next week.

You know, the death rate never changes. It is and always has been, one per person. Accidents and unexpected illness continue to claim unexpecting members of our families every day. Question number one is usually, “How did it happen?”. Number two is, “When is the funeral?” Number three is, “Did he/she own any life insurance?”

Obligaion, character and personal responsibility are ever waning concepts in our 21st century lives, and I am sure that plays into the falling off of life insurance ownership in our American culture. Maybe we are just too focused on ourselves these days. Informed self interest certainly has its place in one’s success in life, but what happens to your life’s partner your kids or your creditors after you get terminally t-boned at that bad intersection six blocks from home at 7:38 AM tomorrow morning on your way to work?

You are gone. You ain’t never coming back. As the Romans said: Life is short. Death is long. What does go on is bills, bills, bills. Whip out your check book. Look back at the past several months. Which of your family’s bills will go away now that you have departed the building?…not many…Do you suppose it would be in order for you to set aside some cash to cover those bills for at least a couple years while what’s left of your family recovers from your loss? You can do that with life insurance at pennies on the dollar.

Listen, many years ago when I was a newbie life insurance agent I met with Tom, a husband and father of two pre-K kids, Kirk and Holly…still remember their names. He was a construction foreman working with cranes and other heavy equipment and his employer did not provide any group health or life insurance. I had presented a life insurance idea to him which would have paid off his mortgage and provided enough cash which, when added to Kirk and Holly’s Social Security survivors’ benefits, would have allowed his wife to stay at home to raise their kids until they were well along in grammar school. Monthly premiums for that life insurance amounted to 1.00% of his take home pay. It was a Friday and Tom decided to put off his decision to apply until after the weekend.

The following Monday an early November northeaster blew in. (Remember, I am located in northeast Florida only a few miles from the Atlantic.) On the evening news that day was a story about a crane working close to some high voltage electric lines paralleling the CSX Railroad tracks on Jacksonville’s west side. The crane’s boom was erect and with its cable extended, weight and hook laying on the ground. A gust of wind blew the boom into the power lines and their high voltage surged through the extended cable to the damp ground below only feet from a construction foreman, killing him instantly. Yes, it was Tom.

As that bad news was sinking in, my phone rang. It was Tom’s wife wanting to know if Tom had completed his life insurance application during our previous Friday meeting. (If you apply for life insurance, pay its first assumed premium and meet the insurer’s underwriting requirements, underwriting will continue even if you should die before the policy would have been issued.)I had to tell her no…no application…no life insurance. That night was a sleepless one for me.

Several years later I called on a local beverage distributor to present a group health insurance plan for its consideration. As I presented my card to the receptionist in the rather dark and dingy outer office, she looked up and said,”You don’t remember me do you?” She was right, I didn’t. It was obvious she had once been a very attractive woman, but now was drawn, had a sallow complexion with a hint of bruising around her left eye. Then it hit me…Before me was Tom’s widow!

I then confessed to not recognizing her at first, and asked how Kirk and Holly were doing. She said they were “okay”…then suddenly tears began to well up up in her eyes and years of repressed frustration flowed from within her…she had struggled to pay her’s and Tom’s mortgage, but could not keep up, sold the house at a loss, moved into a rented doublewide in a run down part of town, took Kirk and Holly out of their familiar school and away from their friends to put them into another lower rated school near her place…in desperation married a guy who punches her when he drinks…and he drinks a lot…but he pays part of the rent. Now he is in jail and she is unsure of her’s, Kirk’s and Holly’s future, as her job doesn’t pay much…and, “God! How much different things could have been if only Tom had left her even a few life insurance dollars!”

At that point, my appointment guy appeared and ushered me back to his office.

It was after 6:00 PM and Tom’s wife was not at her desk as I left. Since that day, I have not seen her again…but every time a prospective life insurance buyer attempts to put me off, I make sure that he or she knows the peril that accompanies procrastination.

Don’t be Tom.