Insurance agents can be funny – sometimes they drop by at the oddest of hours. But of course, if they bring with them some bittersweet news on death, a meeting with insurance agents can be an experience for the wordless.
That’s what happened to me when an insurance agent in a long-sleeved shirt and slacks knocked on the door of my dressing room with a briefcase in hand. It was an hour before performance time, and I was a bit nervous since we were going to be playing before a group of 50,000.
But the insurance agent just had a stoic look on his face when I opened the door. It was neither a pleasant experience nor a melancholic one. The agent just went at it very quickly and very matter-of-factly. My uncle, who was my mother’s brother, had died a month ago and had named me as his only beneficiary. When he handed me the check of the death benefit, I was shocked at the amount: $20 million. What shocked me even more was that I was never particularly close to my uncle. My uncle was a loner and he never got married nor had any kids. But I guess my possession of the check comes from the fact that I was the only family member left before he died.
So you can say I’m lucky, but I do feel guilty about not visiting my uncle at the nursing home when he was still alive. There are certainly more important things in life than money.
The insurance agent told me that I was supposed to receive $60 million, but since my uncle acquired the insurance policy through a premium finance loan, the amount was greatly reduced because the principal plus the interest was paid for by deducting their total from the $60 million death benefit. I guess if he never would have used a premium financing program I would have gotten more, but then again who said he would have had the life insurance policy in the first place.
But really now, I couldn’t care less if I only received a fraction of what I was supposed to receive. It’s still my uncle’s money, and I am grateful.
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