24 Apr Life Insurance is About Family
Jenny was single and in her 20s, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking about the future. In fact, she knew she wanted to have a family one day and that saving for retirement—even this early on—was a priority.
That’s why after meeting with insurance professional Jim Silbernagel, she decided to buy a permanent life insurance policy. She knew it would help her with both goals: provide the life insurance coverage she sought and the ability to accumulate cash value to help with saving for retirement.
Jenny’s dream of having a family did come true. She met Jim on a blind date, and once married, they welcomed a son, Michael, and then several years later twins, Samuel and Nathaniel. As often happens with growing families, finances got stretched tight and Jim suggested they cancel Jenny’s policy to save money. Jenny was adamant that they keep it. Instead, they used some of the accumulated cash value to pay the premium and keep the policy in force. That decision would be life changing for her family.
The Chich family was looking forward to welcoming their fourth child—a girl, but tragically Jenny died while giving birth. The shock to her family was overwhelming. While life insurance could never replace their vibrant wife and mother, Jim says that Jenny’s policy helped the family in the aftermath of her death. He was able to take a yearlong leave of absence from his job to care for newborn Emma and the boys, who were all younger than 6. “I was able to focus on my kids and not worry about how I was going to buy a gallon of milk,” says Jim.
And his advice to other families is simple: “Be prepared. You may look at the cost of premiums as scary, but if you work it into your budget, you don’t even realize the money is going out. Just make sure your life insurance is taken care of.”
Contact QQIS today and make sure your family is protected for the unpredictable future with our Life Insurance products.
Life Insurance is About Family – Video Transcription
Jim Chich (Husband): Jenny and I moved out here to be out in the country. Just enjoy the outdoors. Jenny was somebody that had a smile on her face all the time.
Jim Silbernagel (Insurance Professional): She was always just a great person to be around. And she always brought life into any room she walked in to.
Jenny was in the medical profession. She wanted to start planning for her future. She was working full-time. She was looking actually to put more away and I thought life insurance might be a good thing to look at. And I said, “well why don’t we get some good basic coverage in place and we can use it as a way to accumulate cash.” We started out with a permanent life insurance policy.
Jim Chich: Soon after we got married our first son as born, Michael. And then we had a set of twins.
Jim Silbernagel: It was really important for Jenny to be home with the kids, so she went to being a full-time to being a mom.
Jim Chich: We started looking at our finances and were thinking about that we could probably get rid of that life insurance policy ‘cus we couldn’t afford it.
Jim Silbernagel: There was debate as to whether or not they wanted to keep insurance at all. We never made the change.
Jim Chich: Jenny ended up getting pregnant with our fourth child. We had decided that we were going to be moving out where Jenny’s folks lived. So we had sold our house and then Jenny went into labor.
The labor and delivery became very complicated and as Emma was born Jenny had been hemorrhaging quite severely. And on her way to the E.R. she went into cardiac arrest. And she passed away. It was a very bittersweet day.
Jim Silbernagel: When I got the call it was shock. I couldn’t believe it.
Jim Chich: After Jenny passed away it was very tough. You know, taking care of a new infant and three little boys. Two still in diapers. I was able to take that time off of work and the life insurance policy that we ended up keeping enforce ended up helping out with a lot of expenses.
Jim Silbernagel: If he didn’t have the insurance I couldn’t imagine what that would’ve been like for him. Jim and the kids today, they’re doing fantastic.
Jim Chich: Since Jenny’s death I have actually purchased a life insurance policy for myself and my children. This has shown me the value of life insurance and that you never know when you might need it.