Roselyn Sánchez On Life Insurance - “Family Is Everything”

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, and this year Life Happens, a national nonprofit educating consumers about the importance of life insurance, has partnered with Roselyn Sánchez as the spokesperson to communicate the importance of protecting your family. You may know Sánchez as an actress, producer and singer-songwriter, but she describes her most important role is a mother and wife. “Family is everything’, she explains. “I never thought about life insurance before kids. I thought it was something older people do. But once you have kids, everything changes. You don’t live for yourself anymore; you live for your kids”. It was this priority shift that made the decision to purchase life insurance such an easy one. Sánchez always considered herself an educated person, but she had no idea how accessible, affordable and necessary life insurance was until she started learning about it.

As a Puerto Rican woman, she believes this message is especially important to communicate to the Hispanic community. “In the Hispanic community, we are so family oriented but don’t necessarily focus on the financial aspect of it.” Although 55% of Hispanic millennials say their families would face financial hardship within six months should the primary wage earner die unexpectedly, only 41% actually own life insurance. She says one of the major barriers to purchasing life insurance specific to the Hispanic community is around communication. “Latinos can be superstitious. We don’t want to talk about death.” She continues to say a lack of education is a major barrier to all adults, but especially for Hispanic adults. Often people have the misconception that life insurance is too expensive, or a huge commitment. What most don’t know is a healthy 30-year-old can get a $250,000 20-year level term policy for just $13 a month. That means that if you purchase that policy and pay the $13 a month without fail, your loved ones would get $250,000 if you were to die at any point during those 20 years.

Finally, language barriers can often contribute to a lack of education around life insurance. This year's LIAM will offer a selection of resources in Spanish - including digital flyers, social-media graphics, videos, animations and more. Life Happens will also be releasing Spanish versions of some of its most popular tools and resources as well, including the Life Insurance 101 video and brochure, Myths vs Facts about life insurance and Life Insurance Needs Calculator.

For Sánchez, the decision gives her peace of mind. “Life insurance is about investing in your future and family. If anything happens to me, I know my family will be taken care of.”