My inlaws don't have life insurance

amother

Tangerine

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 2:19 pm

amother [ Jetblack ] wrote:

DH and I don’t plan on having life insurance once we get older iy”H and kids are out of the home. We have 20 yr plan.
Do they own a home. Have any savings or funds. That can go toward funerals.

Same here, we are in our thirties and have a twenty year term. Our youngest will be at least 20 when the plan is up. We don't see why there will be a need to be covered past that point. Even if a child is not married, there is no reason why they can't be self supporting at that point.

amother

Lime

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 2:22 pm

Amarante wrote:

Wouldn't premiums for a 60 year old be prohibitively expensive?

OP would not be responsible for the debts of her parents legally although obviously there is going to be pressure to provide support to the family if the no longer had income to support the family.

This. We don't have life insurance, and it is not affordable for us to get it at this point. This is not plan A, and not ideal, but it is what it is....

I don't think OP would be responsible for the debts of her parents. You may have to lay out funeral costs, but generally there is something there that can be used... it's not extraordinarily expensive.

singleagain

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 2:27 pm

amother [ Tangerine ] wrote:

You hope. But extenuating circumstances happen. And some children need to be supported longer.

SacN

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:24 pm

Quote:

Not that everyone owns their homes, but is it only in Israel, where, to buy a home, one needs to have life insurance?

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in Israel this is only the case if there is a mortgage. And the policy needs to cover the mortgage.
This doesn't exist (as a requirement for a mortgage) in the US.

OP, your in laws are not young. Life insurance is expensive. Plus, at that age, after a life of depositing into retirement funds, home equity, investment funds, etc, they may have enough to grow and spend if/when they pass away for their children. Life insurance is not the only way to be sure your children are covered.

amother

Emerald

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:33 pm

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

Does areivim do the payouts if the deceased had life insurance?
FYI, I think 100K per child is a huge amount.

Yes they do if you contributed every time they requested this is the amount they give you! They don’t just give it to you to spend they work with your rav to have someone put away money for the kids wedding and to live off for a bit etc.

ora_43

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:35 pm

It's not ideal, but they have areivim. And if they're both in their 60s I assume their youngest is at least in his/her teens, right? And the older 'kids' are over 18?

We're not talking about a situation where if chv"s something happened to them you'd have 6 little kids to support for the next two decades. You'd need funeral expenses, and enough to support... I'm going to say 2-3 kids finishing high school?

That would still be a big deal, but not life-endingly huge amounts of debt.

Keep in mind that 1. they are unlikely to die! Be'H they will both be well for many decades to come. Statistically speaking, they're likely to make it through until the youngest is out of the house. 2. Areivim isn't insurance, but it would still cover some of those costs. 3. They may have some other money - a house that can be sold? retirement policies? - that could be used to support their youngest kids and/or pay off debts. (It's actually pretty common for people in their 60s to drop their life insurance if they have property and savings, and it's not necessarily financially irresponsible. At that age life insurance is very expensive, and if you know you have, say, a $300,000 retirement policy for your kids to live off of if the worst happens, it might not be worth it.)

And 4. don't assume it would all fall on you just because you're married to the oldest. There might be help available from the extended family, the community, the schools, the other adult kids in the family, etc.

So really, don't worry. This is a small-ish risk of a medium-ish financial setback. And there's not much to be done about it either way.

amother

Saddlebrown

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:43 pm

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

Does areivim do the payouts if the deceased had life insurance?
FYI, I think 100K per child is a huge amount.

I believe they do.

Life insurance is usually invested wisely and the family lives off the interest and spends down the bulk as slowly as possible.

100k is a drop in the bucket if the kid is still little. Tuition, camp, clothing, bar mitzvah, and wedding expenses add up very quickly. It's too small a sum to yield good interest and will get spent down very quickly.

Imagine a 6 year old boy. Tuition and camp each year, tefilin and a bar mitzvah. By the time he's 14-15, the money's all gone and that's not even counting clothing and food. Who's going to pay the rest? Buy his kallah jewelry and pay for the wedding? Forget about support after the wedding.

It's different if the 'kid' is 20 and ready to get married and has job.

It's better than nothing, don't get me wrong. But don't think that it's enough for the younger kids.

ETA: you also have to think about the surviving spouse, especially if they aren't the breadwinner. If they bought the house later in life or took out a home equity line. What's going to pay the mortgage? Her groceries? Not everyone has savings.

Someone living paycheck to paycheck is totally helpless if the breadwinner dies and leaves behind kids without life insurance.

Amarante

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:53 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Not that everyone owns their homes, but is it only in Israel, where, to buy a home, one needs to have life insurance?

I am not sure it is exactly the same but in the US, if you don't have a high enough percentage of equity (e.g. not big enough down payment) you are forced to purchase mortgage insurance. The premiums are fairly high I have been told and are added to the mortgage payment - It's called Private Mortage Insurance and insures against non-payment of the mortgage for any reason - not just death of the insured.

The rationale is that if one has sufficient equity, the lender would be made whole by foreclosing if payments weren't made for any reason but if there isn't enough equity because the down payment is too low, the lender might not be able to recoup the amount of the loan.

amother

Mauve

Thu, Jun 18 2020, 4:42 pm

amother [ Saddlebrown ] wrote:

I thought areivim was started to help marry off kids, and released at the time of marriage. I guess I got my facts wrong. For that purpose it would be very generous.

amother

Aubergine

Fri, Jun 19 2020, 1:53 am

amother [ Saddlebrown ] wrote:

Really?
Tuition, tefillin, food, clothing-those are real necessities.
I understand that camp may even be a necessity for the boy as he is already lacking a parent and life is hard and he just wants to feel normal, even though many with 2 working parents can't afford. But jewelry for his kallah? Jewelry is a luxury that if you are lucky enough to be in the position to have/give, that the person worked and saved for. Jewelry is an extra bonus treat, not an entitlement.

amother

Mauve

Fri, Jun 19 2020, 2:15 am

amother [ Aubergine ] wrote:

Either aveirim, do all participant (your offspring) definitely when a parent dies? If so, I am wondering how it is tzeddala and not a collective-insurance distribution like Refuah healthshare?
Because then you are buying into a system as apposed to just donating to a cause.

You can think of it as a non profit, if that makes it more palatable to you.
FYI, in Refuah, ppl are using the system.
Areivim, many people will never benefit (hopefully)

Rappel

Fri, Jun 19 2020, 2:22 am

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

You can think of it as a non profit, if that makes it more palatable to you.
FYI, in Refuah, ppl are using the system.
Areivim, many people will never benefit (hopefully)

Exactly. No one is making money off of this. There's no great pile of money in a fund that someone is trying to keep big.

causemommysaid

Fri, Jun 19 2020, 2:34 am

This is so odd. Why would u be responsible for their debts? Also, why would you be responsible for all the unmarrieds? I assume if ur in-laws are in their 60s then the kids are teens or older. It's not your problem. It's the communities problem just as much as yours to marry them off. At most you will pay funeral expenses.

So chill out and stop being so nosy.

banana123

Fri, Jun 19 2020, 4:43 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Not that everyone owns their homes, but is it only in Israel, where, to buy a home, one needs to have life insurance?

OP, unfortunately, this is not something that you can do anything about. Unless you want to pay for them, this is their issue. They've made their beds and now they have to sleep in them Sad

And what is areivim?

I think Areivim is kind of like Keren Yachad. Buy maybe I'm wrong.