Any agent who offers life insurance has likely had a client who said he wouldn’t buy it because he would be betting against himself.
Of course, the correct response is to point out that providing for someone’s personal commitments in the event of premature death is not betting against him, but rather conferring a current need by allowing the satisfaction and peace of mind that is achieved by having one’s affairs in order.
However, for some people, a rational discussion doesn’t result in a call to action, and they end up procrastinating. For those people, perhaps a different tact should be taken—one that is more emotive.
Almost everyone who has made it through their teen and early adult years can point to a time and situation where fate—or perhaps a higher power—intervened and they had a near miss.
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, singer Dion DiMucci (“The Wanderer,” “Runaround Sue”) was asked if he ever wondered why he was the only headliner who survived the 1959 tour after a plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. He replied:
“I was 19 years old and touring with those guys was the best thing that ever happened to me. Buddy and Ritchie and I, we all had the new Fender Stratocaster guitars; mine was all white; Buddy's had the sunburst body. We jammed every night on that bus. The heater kept breaking down in subzero weather. It was so cold on the bus Buddy's drummer got frostbite and had to leave the tour. Carlo of the Belmonts filled in for him. Buddy and the Bopper were from Texas; Ritchie was from L.A.—they didn't know cold like that. They wanted off that bus!
“Buddy chartered the plane; we flipped for the two other seats. The Bopper and I won the toss. But the price was $36 each. That was the exact amount of the monthly rent my parents argued over all my life. I couldn't justify spending a month's rent on a plane ride. Plus I could handle the cold. I told Ritchie, ‘You go.’
“Then all of a sudden, they're gone. I remember sitting alone on the bus after and there was Buddy's guitar; I was in shock. I thought, what the hell is life about; why am I here and they're not? I was angry. It took me a long time to process that loss.”
The interview led me to reflect on two situations in my life. In one, I drove across the Mianus River Bridge on Route 95 on June 28, 1983, about two hours before it collapsed into the Long Island Sound.
In addition, when I was 21, I was at a bar and my friend wasn’t feeling well and was leaving early. I was offered a ride home with two guys that graduated with my sister. Initially, I said yes but changed my mind because I decided I wasn’t being a good friend. So I caught my friend as he was driving out of the lot. The next morning, I learned both of the other guys had died when their car went off the road on the way home.
The next time a client or prospect hesitates about purchasing the life insurance that they know they should have to fulfill their objectives, ask them to pause and consider if they’ve ever had a near miss and whether they should tempt fate again.
Dave Evans (
dave.evans@iiaba.net)
is a certified financial planner and an IA l-h contributing editor.