Overcoming barriers to life insurance coverage

Belbase, Anek, Norma B. Coe, and April Yanyuan Wu. “Overcoming barriers to life insurance coverage”. CRR WP 2015-5, Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, June 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104724.
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Abstract

While life insurance purchase decisions have long been studied, we still do not know how people decide if they need insurance or how much they need. Using in-depth interviews, we peer into the black box of employee decision-making to learn what people know about this employee-benefit, and how they decide if it is of value to them. We find that individuals understand the need for life insurance but find many behavioral economic barriers to getting adequate coverage, including mental accounting, money illusion, and the strong role of defaults. We then conduct an online experiment of the hypothetical employee-benefit purchase scenario and find a few, simple interventions could help individuals better decide their life insurance needs.

Title
Overcoming barriers to life insurance coverage: A behavioral approach
Author
Belbase, Anek
Coe, Norma B.
Wu, April Yanyuan
Center
Center for Retirement Research
Genre
working paper
Date Issued
June 2015
Publisher
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
Series Title
CRR WP
Series Number
2015-5
Persistent Link
http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104724
Use Restrictions
These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The publisher or original authors may retain copyright to the materials.
Subject
Health/long-term care

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