A Timely Change of Heart
As a certified public accountant, Bryan Hoskins had a healthy respect for financial planning. He believed in investing wisely, particularly in stocks, but he didn't think life insurance was a very good investment. "Bryan's argument was he didn't want to pay for something he wasn't going to use," recalls his wife Dean. She knew better. She had majored in insurance risk management in college and worked for an insurance company. She understood that each of them needed life insurance protection, especially since their plan was to have children soon. Bryan's best friend, Cullen Douglas, also knew better. He had become an insurance agent just before Bryan and Dean were married. Between the two of them, they managed to convince Bryan to buy a policy for himself.
A few years later while visiting family, Bryan, by then the father of two-year-old twin daughters, complained of a tingling in his right arm and cheek. A local doctor diagnosed it as an anxiety attack. But when he returned home, doctors there found a more sinister cause. Bryan had an aggressive brain tumor. He died six months later at age 32.
Dean had left her job in the insurance industry shortly after the twins were born. With young daughters to raise alone, she was not anxious to resume the long hours and heavy travel schedule of her old career. Fortunately, she was able to use proceeds from Bryan's insurance policy to invest in a children's retail store and a fabric importing business. As the owner of her own business, Dean is able to schedule her work hours around her children's needs. "Life insurance has truly given me peace of mind and even the courage to continue living the kind of life Bryan wanted for us," she says. Bryan's investment paid off after all.
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