Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company’s LifeBridge program is a philanthropic program intended to help provide education to children of working parents. Since 2002, MassMutual has been offering free ten-year, $50,000 term life insurance policies to eligible families. In order to qualify, says MassMutual, a family must be in a good health and earn between $10,000 to $40,000 a year.

Any benefits paid through LifeBridge are distributed into a trust, which pays for the educational expenses of your child. Should your income go above the income limit after you qualify for LifeBridge, the life policy will still remain in effect and the only exclusion is in the event of suicide within the first two years of the policy.

Whether you’re a full-time or part-timer working parent, you may be eligible, but you should first check with MassMutual. Since the program started about 9,500 free policies have been issued totaling about $450 million in coverage. Since its inception, the LifeBridge program has paid on six claims through the program.

photo credit: atennies94

Most of us know enough to have auto insurance when we do any amount of driving in our car. And having homeowner insurance when you own your own home just makes perfect sense. Then why do many of us put such a low priority on getting any sort of life insurance – especially when we’re younger? The answer usually lies in what’s called ‘the probability factor’ and it keeps a lot of people away from getting the life insurance they should have. What it means is that most people – and especially when you’re talking about younger people – tend to believe that any sort of accident, even one causing death, will only happen to the other guy.

Because people are generally optimistic about their lives, the idea that any sort of accident could happen to them is usually the furthest thing from their mind. Death is what happens to old people, they think but of course, that’s not the case and in fact, many automobile accidents causing death happen to younger people every day.

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Image by Joe Cheng from Boston, MA

The last thing you want to have to think about when you’re deciding on your life insurance planning and who will benefit after you’re gone, is whether or not your children with special needs will be taken care of properly. Because of their special needs they will have specific financial needs, including medical treatments for possibly their entire adult lives. Children with special needs are still entitled to a good quality of life and the life insurance plan you choose to take care of them should reflect this as well.

You want to have a plan in place that will ensure that not only the financial aspects of their lives will be maintained, but also their physical and social ones as well. It’s very important that the life insurance plan – and benefits – you have in place, outlives your children. In this way, they will not be wanting for financial help throughout their entire adult lives.

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photo credit: Kah Zanon.

It may seem like just a harmless habit that anyone can stop at any time, but smoking tobacco is one of the hardest addictions to break. In young people, the damage from tobacco smoke can also cause lung development to be reduced, which will have an impact on maximum lung functions later in life. Teenagers also are at a much higher risk of addiction because teens become addicted to substances at a much faster rate.

Life Insurance for Sons and Daughters Who Smoke

In addition to your young one being at risk for all of these negative effects, you may find another shocker – and that’s in the pocket-book. Life insurance for your teenager or college-age son or daughter may cost you as much as $350 / month more. That’s because life insurance policies are able to set higher rates for smokers. The way each company sets their premium varies, but it’s often determined by how much tobacco your son or daughter consumes.

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