Why I Bought Life Insurance on My Son

For many years, my case for life insurance on children was half-hearted at best. To interested people, I would talk about the virtues of preserving their childrens' insurability while putting away systematic savings for them, a rare foresight they would appreciate decades later. A few people would take me up on my lukewarm offer.

But the fact is, my case was weak; moreover, in my heart, I really believed that parents had a variety of better things they ought to be doing with their money, most notably (of course) saving for college; and life insurance is simply not a good vehicle for this. Compounding my belief was the fact that I had read several of those "know it all" financial columnists who would talk about life insurance on children being nothing but a scam to sell insurance policies.

My opinion on this matter changed 2 years ago, when my wife and I lost our firstborn son, Aren. He passed away on the day he was born; at 23 weeks, we had no hope short of miracles that anything positive could come of these circumstances. To say we were devastated is, as anyone who has been in remotely similar circumstances knows, a woeful understatement.

Looking back almost 2 years later, aided by the birth of our second son, I can honestly say that my wife and I were disabled for about 18 months following Aren's death. It took me months to muster enthusiasm for my work again- my paid for premium that year was $40,000. My wife was even more affected; it took a lot of togetherness for my wife and I to begin to cope with this.