The choice is yours.  Maybe you’ve been diligently saving money for many years and already have enough put away to guarantee a financially secure future for your loved ones. But if you’re like most people, you probably haven’t reached all of your long-term savings goals yet. That’s where life insurance comes in. When you’ve done the proper life insurance planning, you can rest easy knowing that your loved ones will be provided for after you’re gone.

Perhaps you have been putting off buying life insurance, thinking it’s something you can do … later. Watch the short online “Legacy of Love” video to find out how one woman’s decision – or lack of it – changed the course of her family’s life.

To find out more about how life insurance can help you leave a legacy of love and financial security, visit www.lifehappens.org, the website of the nonprofit LIFE Foundation. It explains who needs life insurance and provides tools to help you determine how much and what kind of life insurance might be right for you.

We have had an unusually warm Wisconsin winter, but that particular week of January brought our first bitter cold with temperatures dipping below zero. My husband is currently laid off from his landscaping job, so he agreed to go along with me and do some sightseeing in Green Bay (Lambeau Field, of course, and Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame!) while I was sitting in my classes.

Tuesday night we loaded our bags into the car, set the GPS and grabbed some snacks for the road. My husband did a final check to make sure the doors were locked, while I set the thermostat. We have a wonderful programmable thermostat that adjusts the temperature on a preset schedule and saves money on our heating bill. I lowered the temperature to 55 and hit the button to “Hold Temp,” plenty warm enough to keep our pipes from freezing and returning to a soggy mess.

When we returned Friday morning, I walked into the house and immediately knew something was wrong. It was shockingly cold! I quickly checked the thermostat and saw a flashing “Bat Low” message. Suddenly I realized what had happened: the batteries died, and the thermostat just shut down, taking the furnace with it! The thermostat instructions suggest that you change the batteries twice a year at daylight savings time: change your clocks, change your batteries on the thermostat and other alarms. I guess they mean it!

I never did figure out exactly how cold it got in the house. At one point, the thermostat registered 40 degrees, but I don’t know how accurate that was. I do know that at 7:00 p.m. that night, we were only up to 62 degrees – we used lots of sweaters and blankets that night! The good news is that there was no damage done and no frozen water pipes. Who knows how bad it would have been if we had been gone for a week or more? Yes, our homeowners insurance would have covered the damage, had it occurred, but I’m thinking they wouldn’t have been too happy with me, and I guarantee that the cost of new batteries is MUCH less than our $500 deductible!!

So, the moral of my story is this: Recognize that thermostats and alarms are important and batteries need to be replaced BEFORE they die. Prevention is always the best insurance there is!! 

Tri-Insure is based in Monticello, Wisconsin and serves the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. We offer a wide range of products including auto, home, health, life, annuities, business and agriculture-related insurance.

Our goal is to provide comprehensive coverage at extremely competitive rates. We believe that insurance costs can be reasonable and strive to exceed our customer’s expectations. It has always been our philosophy that anyone can sell an insurance policy, but it’s the service after the sale that makes an agency earn its customer.

Our proactive approach to insurance costs and problems find new solutions to traditional policies. We begin this process by asking the simple question of “What if?” Then each and every “what if” is addressed through cost controlling risk management and insurance. A personalized, proactive approach to reducing losses and reducing insurance costs.

We’re confident you will be telling others about the value and service that you receive from