William Penn Life, 1969 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1969-04-01 / 4. szám
Why Every Husband Should Carry “Wife Insu By Burton S. Olde, C.L.U. A wife dies—and her grief-stricken husband tries to keep his family going. But can he afford it? Don’t bet on it! Bob Vance had planned well for his own death. Like many earnest young family men, he had spent hours with a corps of experts—lawyer, insurance man, investment counselor — to make sure his family would be left in the best possible financial circumstances. He had seen to it Anne knew where important papers were kept, whom to call, what to do if she was suddenly left a widow. But it was Anne, rushing home from the supermarket on a rain-slick afternoon, who had the fatal accident. Bob was financially as well as emotionally unprepared for this catastrophe. Does the death of a young mother alter the family financial picture even though she has been a full-time homemaker and has not contributed a pay check? “Yes!” said Bob emphatically. A dentist in Kansas City agreed. “Suddenly the savings account was gone. My practice suffered during those first awful months after my wife died. I found my self borrowing money for the first time since I equipped my office.” A tired father of three confided: “Since my wife’s death I have consistently gone a hundred and fifty dollars a month in debt. The pay check just doesn’t stretch. I’m an accountant. I used to count on moonlighting during the tax season. But the past two years I’ve been too tired.” The financial problems a widower with young children faces are many. Some are unique, others universal. Most widowers find that the following areas represent the largest financial drains: 1. The high cost of illness and funeral expenses. The average funeral cost is more than $900. Medical expenses for a terminal illness can add hundreds more. If burial is in the family home town — which can be a continent away — travel expenses must be considered. Federal and state inheritance taxes can take their toll. The common denominator of final expenses is cash, and many men have to begin borrowing then. 2. Child care is the most continuing financial problem. Our mobile contemporary society often places a young family far from grandparents, aunts, and lifelong friends. Even when available, relatives offer a temporary solution. Dick Emery, a Denver truck driver, was in a better position than many widowers. His mother and sister both lived within half a mile of his home. Dick reports: “Mom moved in with us, but her heart isn’t too good. I could see four kids were too much for her. My sister would come over and take some of the kids to her home, but she has four of her own. Things got pretty hectic. I could see my own family falling apart. I worried about my mom’s health, the trouble I was putting my sister through. The arrangement just wasn’t working for anyone.” Dick found another temporary solution by appealing to a United Fund agency that supplies temporary homemakers at a nominal fee. “We got straightened out,” Dick says, “and I found a wonderful woman to stay permanently.” What worries Dick now is how he can earn enough to pay the housekeeper’s salary. He is taking some extra long-haul jobs he feels will give him the income. He will be gone for days at a time — days he would like to spend with his kids. The cost of a good housekeeper varies with the locality. Domestic help is in short supply throughout the United States, and the old adage, “Money talks,” applies here. The better the salary, the better the living conditions a widower can offer, the better is his chance of obtaining good, competent help. Nursery schools can be a solution to the child care problem. Many metropolitan areas have subsidized day care centers where the fee is based on the ability to pay. The waiting list is long, and the sheer mechanics of transporting children play havoc with a father’s working hours. 3. Hidden expenses lurk in the dayto-day cost of running a motherless home. The care of the home must go on — without the benefit of a wife’s knowledge and effort. “My kids are good kids,” says a Connecticut widower who is raising three youngsters. “We all do our best, but to live decently I must hire cleaning help. We send laundry out. We eat out a lot.” “It takes time and money to learn about white sales, buying clothes offseason, how long meat keeps,” adds an efficient executive. Income taxes jump when the wife’s deduction is gone. A man earning a taxable income of $10,000 a year will find his tax bite has jumped ten per cent. 4. The father’s future is largely ignored. Yet once the period of shock and grief is dulled, the child and house routine reestablished, it is natural that a man should seek some social life of his own. As one father put it, “I haven’t had the nerve to yell at my son about the money he spends on dates since I began dating myself.” Another man, not dating as yet, reports that entertaining is a big expense. “Our friends and neighbors have been wonderful to the kids and me. I don’t want my social life to be a one-way street, but I can’t reciprocate too well at home. I’ve been taking people out to dinner.” The entertainment tab is high. Perhaps to fill the void, to use painful leisure time, fathers have found they take the children to more ball games and more movies. For the men who remarry, the expense can be great. The obvious expense of new rings and the honeymoon is minor compared to new readjustment costs. A Chicago merchandiser, remarried several years after his wife’s death, says, “Patricia has made us all want to live again. The boys adore her. My only worry now is money.” This man listed his highest remarriage costs as redecorating and remodeling his home. He felt his second wife should be allowed to fix the home to suit her own needs and tastes. The Chicago man expressed the general feeling of remarried widowers when he said, “Patricia is not a replacement for Ellen. No one can replace Ellen. Patricia is an individual. . . she deserves the right to be an individual.” Besides the general areas of expense (final expenses, child care, household costs, and father’s future) some families face individual financial problems. A handicapped child or an aged grandparent will need special care. If the family is at all dependent on the pay check of a working wife, the pinch will be felt when the pay check stops. Family financial counselors are increasingly aware of the need for financial help for the widowed father. Life insurance is often suggested as a practical solution. A recent survey conducted jointly by the Agency Management Association and the Life Underwriter Training Council disclosed that 54 per cent of American women owned life insurance. Although life insurance was designed to protect the economic value of the breadwinner, the industry is rapidly recognizing the fact that homemakers have an economic value, too. Indeed, insurance companies have developed a host of policies for the “wife market.” Each major company will have its own plans, but generally they can be broken down (Continued on page 6) 5
