I read in the news last week that a guy in Los Angeles is offering insurance policies for divorce.
It’s very similar to other types of insurance that you may already have, like for your home or car.
You pay monthly premiums for the divorce insurance, which are determined by the amount of money you want to receive if your marriage ends in a divorce. Payouts range from $1,250 to $1.25 million.
And, your spouse doesn’t even have to know you have it.
Unbelievable.
I’m thinking that if buying divorce insurance catches on there will have to be changes made to the
wedding vows.
I imagine it might sound something like this: “until death do us part, OR, until for some reason
that I deem appropriate, I decide to divorce you and collect on my insurance”.
Okay, so that last part will probably never make it into the vows for obvious reasons.
What concerns me, though, is that by buying divorce insurance it means that people are thinking and planning for the marriage to possibly end in divorce.
Maybe it’s just my twisted mind but, by planning for divorce, I could see things progressing even further.
For example, what if couples were offered time-limited choices for their marriage? Kind of like term life insurance.
Based on the plan of your choice, you can make arrangements and prepare for when your marriage will end. Without all the messiness and pain of an unplanned or unexpected divorce.
My suggested menu options for the time-limited marriages would be:
1-3 years:The Teaser
5 years:The Sampler
10 years:The Diamond Deal
15 years:The Crystal Classic
20 years:The Double Decade Delight
25 years:The Silver Sundown
30 Years:The Midlife Getaway
I know, this sounds totally crazy, especially coming from a marriage counselor. And it is crazy,
because it totally ruins one of the main intentions of marriage – the life-long commitment to a
relationship partner.
Making a life-long promise to another person as part of the marriage vows implies that you are
willing to put in the effort that it takes to keep the promise.
Because at many different points in time your marriage will be challenging and hard, like most
things worth doing.
By definition, marriage is the binding promise of a life-long commitment to another person, and
usually includes the words “until death do us part”.
How does having divorce insurance help a couple, first, make such a promise, and, second, keep that promise to each other?
It doesn’t.
The best insurance for having a successful marriage is to be pro-active in your relationship, make
your marriage a priority, and do the kinds things that keep your relationship a source of love and
strength.
And, if necessary, when you need help getting things back on track get professional help.
It’s more cost effective in the long-run than either a divorce or buying divorce insurance.
And really, divorce insurance?
I realize that this is about making money from people’s fears. Real fears about losing it all
in a divorce and about starting over. But where do you draw the line about making money,
especially when it conflicts with, and undermines, important cultural values of a society?
How about creating incentives that would encourage married people to stay together.
What if we gave couples cash bonuses or, even better, tax credits that increase in amount the
longer that they stay married?
Just a thought.
Tell me what you think?