FamiliaLeads Blog

Being bilingual and having the ability to sell to Spanish and English-speaking clients opens the door to many sales opportunities! You have the opportunity to sell and reach a different sector of the market that usually goes untouched by most agents. But have you thought about how much less the Spanish-speaking market is untouched?

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Around 84% of Hispanic seniors in the United States, don’t have formal or adequate life insurance and as time goes by that number keeps going up. As a licensed agent, you know the importance of having life insurance, but 84% is concerning! Just look at what Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, RFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation said "Far too many Hispanics lack adequate life insurance coverage and are leaving their loved ones financially vulnerable by not insuring themselves," And a study from LIMRA shows that ”Hispanics have the lowest rates of life insurance ownership when compared to Whites and African Americans.” 

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So you may ask yourself, how did it become a problem? What are the consequences for Spanish-speaking seniors that don’t have life insurance? And what can I do as a licensed agent to protect the Hispanic community and make money from it?

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Part of your job as insurance agent is to educate your prospect on the consequences of not having life insurance and to get the point across that they are not doing it for themselves, but for their loved ones. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, death is universal and the consequences are suffered the most by their families, and based on those statistics very few members of the Spanish speaking community have the protection or the right protection for their families. So what does this mean exactly for the Hispanic market? 

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Here are the main downsides of not having life insurance:

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• Families are not able to afford a funeral: To say the least a funeral is exhausting. Families are already dealing with the emotional pain of losing their loved ones but they also have to worry about planning the funeral, which is complicated. Families have to choose a funeral home, arrange transportation of the body, arrange embalming, decide the type of disposition(e.g., cremation, traditional burial, green burial, or interment in a mausoleum), select a casket or cremation container, chose a grave marker and inscriptions, identify the location for interment, decide what type of service they want(eg., military service, wake, memorial, Jewish ceremony or celebration of life), choose florist, purchase memorial card, arrange transportation of family members, obtain burial permit, select food and/ or beverages to be served throughout the service,... And the list goes on and on. A funeral is expensive! Some estimates appraise the cost of a regular burial as between 7,000 and 10,000 dollars! And for cremations around 5,000 dollars. Most families don’t have 5,000-10,000 dollars available in the event of a loved one. So families end up having to do fundraisers, car washes, asking for money, etc. 

• Salaries disappear debts don’t: A substantial amount of people don’t know that when you die, your debts don’t go away. When someone dies their assets pass to their estate, which is then reduced by the amount of money owed. What ends up happening is that a spouse or family member has to pay the money owed.

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• Family dependents lose their provider: If the deceased has a dependent, the dependent is left in a very hard position. Usually, they don’t have the full capability to work and they end up losing their assets, also they are left economically behind for years! 

• No financial legacy: Leaving a financial legacy behind is important to all of us. We want to make sure that our families are taken care of when we are no longer here. But without life insurance, families have to withdraw money from their savings(in the case they have savings), take on second jobs to sustain the family, or leave school. Which sets the family back financially for years. 

• No peace of mind: Not having life insurance makes the insurer and the beneficiaries worry about leaving money behind after their death to cover the costs of funerals, provide income replacement, and the future of their loved ones.

Knowing all the consequences families face if prospects don’t have life insurance, why is it that the number of Spanish-speaking Hispanics that don’t have life insurance or proper life insurance is so high? 

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The reality of this concerning problem is that most Spanish speakers in the US don’t understand life insurance, according to LIMRA “A third of Hispanic consumers (31%) do not feel knowledgeable about life insurance. More than a quarter of Hispanic consumers (26%) say they haven’t purchased coverage because they don’t know what to buy or how much they need.” Additionally, Spanish speakers don’t know what and how much to buy. According to LIRMA, 74% of Hispanics are not sure how much life insurance they need and they don’t know what type of life insurance policy to get.

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Another big reason Spanish speakers in the US are not protecting their families is that no one has reached out to them about life insurance. A new study by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation and LIMRA found that 58% of Hispanics have not been approached by anyone. 

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To make things worse, Spanish speakers show low trust in agents that don’t share their language and culture. 

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This is a huge problem, Spanish speakers in the US have not been approached by agents to educate them on the importance of protecting their families and how to do it. 

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But since you are reading this, more than likely you want to protect the Hispanic market and make money! Although this is a big problem, it’s also a huge opportunity for you and your agency. 

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To start, Spanish speakers haven’t been approached by an insurance agent so they don’t know what type of life insurance to get, or how much coverage to get for their specific needs. You will have the opportunity to educate them about the importance of life insurance, the consequences of not having one, the type of life insurance they need, and how much coverage they need to protect their families. 

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This is great for you as an agent because you can tap on a market that has been ignored by other companies and make a lot of money but most importantly you will be able to protect seniors that need the coverage for their families.