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Insuring Your Baby's Future
"We just had a baby."

Congratulations! Creating a human life or adopting a child is perhaps the most rewarding undertaking of our lives. Children give meaning to the word "family." They can be the source of our greatest frustrations, the primary reason we get gray hair. They are also the bearers of our greatest joys, whether it be our heartaching pride in seeing them march bravely off to the first day of school, or the wonderment of that bone-crushing hug when, as if suddenly, they're grown up and have come back for a visit.

Along the way, we nurture them, worry about them, love them.

Most of all, we protect them. We want them to grow up in a stable world, one in which they are both physically safe and financially secure. Meeting those costs can be a challenge, since the expense of raising one child in a middle-income family is estimated to run about $150,000. Then add college. Tuition, fees, room and board for a four-year public university in the 1998-1999 school year averaged $7,773. Multiply that times four years, and then by your number of children, and one thing is obvious: Children are expensive.

Steps you can take to help protect the financial well-being of your children:
  • Upgrade your life insurance. That way, if you die while your children are still young, the proceeds can replace your income and help them, and your spouse, complete their dreams and achieve their goals. Term life insurance is a popular choice for husbands, wives and domestic partners with young families, since the cost can be low. Other, permanent, life insurance options include whole life, universal life and variable life.
  • Purchase disability insurance. If you become disabled and are cannot work, disability insurance can pay benefits so you can continue meeting your financial obligations until you are back on your feet again.
  • Start building a college fund...now. College costs may seem daunting (and they are expected to keep going up), but you have about 18 years before your newborn will be a freshman. You might as well start putting money aside now.
  • Consider purchasing life insurance on your children. Using cash value life insurance (such as whole life, universal life, or variable life) you can guarantee your children's insurability for life, helping to protect their children in the future. Most of all, some policies may accumulate cash values that can someday pay education expenses, provide a down payment on a first home or simply accumulate for any other future need.
To learn more about any of these insurance programs, please click here. You may also contact one of our Financial Services Representatives by calling 407-282-6039 for a free consultation or you may request to have a representative contact you.

Once again, congratulations. Enjoy your children. And remember, just as they are important you, you are important to them. Make sure they're protected financially...no matter what.

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