You’re not going to die.
This brief comic video reminded me of one life insurance sales call I made years ago on a junior executive and his wife.
Despite his wife’s protestations, the guy was convinced life insurance was a waste because he wouldn’t “get anything out of it”. This type of response, while being ridiculous on its face, is a fairly common objection to owning life insurance. Not rational, but common. Of course, life insurance is not for the person being insured, but for the survivors. I explained that it was for his wife and 5 minor children, to help take care of them financially when he wasn’t around to do it. Not a particularly difficult concept to grasp, but he wasn’t having it.
I then reminded him that he had just taken a $685,000 mortgage and I was curious as to how he thought it was all going to work out for his family if he should die during the mortgage term. He answered that he never thought about it because “it wasn’t going to happen“.
It then hit me. He felt the coverage was worthless because he rationalized in his own mind that he wasn’t going to die anytime soon. Not really worrying about the sale at this point, I forced him to verbalize this more and called him on it. I told him I understood his perspective. I said, “Ray, I get it. You’re not going to die” and smiled wide. He leaned back in his chair and smiled back at me as if he won something. He responded, “That’s right“.
Since there’s no use arguing with the wind (or a cat), I could only tell him that he’d “be the first“.