Prudential Offers Life Insurance To Help Black Americans Prosper
Life insurance can create pathways to build generational wealth while also being one of the least expensive and easiest ways to successful financial planning.
Insurance can be an invaluable tool for building wealth and preparing individuals for emergencies like unexpected job loss, family crises, or unforeseen legal expenses.
“Life insurance is a tangible and helpful tool no matter what stage of life you’re in, and we need to help expand knowledge of it as a resource to take advantage of in your everyday life,” says Salene Hitchcock-Gear, president of Individual Life Insurance at Prudential.
Some 56% of Black Americans in 2021 owned life insurance, a higher rate than other racial groups, according to a LIMRA and Life Happens 2021 Insurance Barometer study. Still, myths about how life insurance can support the living have stopped many from exploring the options within their policies.
And it’s not just for the wealthy or those who are elderly. Consider that the 2021 Insurance Barometer study showed that around 75% of Black Americans overestimate the cost of life insurance.
Some life insurance policies can provide you with the flexibility to borrow from yourself first before tapping other financial sources. It can be used to pay bills (including mortgages), outstanding debts, and college costs. Outstanding loans and withdrawals will reduce a policy’s cash values and death benefits and may produce tax consequences. Yet having the life insurance policy option can be a game changer when sudden or unexpected hardships surface.
When you have the resource of cash value life insurance, it may help to avoid taking on unnecessary debt or exhausting lines of credit,” says LauRyn Williams, MBA, MS, CFP®, a Troy, Michigan-based Prudential Financial advisor.
She stressed the best type of life insurance is coverage that is in place when you need it most. For instance, when you are young, term life insurance is typically the most affordable at any income level. In general, term life insurance is an economical way to offer death benefit protection to a family for a temporary or set number of years. However, consider that most of those policies cannot provide cash value accumulation.
Further, Prudential has been a big advocate for building personal and generational wealth, including through its latest effort, Blueprints to Black Wealth. Blueprints aims to close the access gap through education and products and services built on a deep understanding of the diversity within the Black community.
“It’s a powerful time for Black Americans,” says Hitchcock-Gear. “Income levels are rising, and there is greater economic mobility than ever before. Black communities are eager to create pathways to wealth no different than anyone else, and it’s critical that they have equal access to tools and information that will help them on their financial journey.”
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