Let’s face it, life insurance is the opposite of a good time. It’s boring, it’s dreary and it’s no fun thinking about your inevitable death.
Still, you should really do something to protect your family in case something unexpected happens to you. It’s important to make sure they’ll be taken care of. What if there was a way to make life insurance less of a downer and more of a positive experience that reflects your life and your priorities?
That’s where Wyshbox comes in. This company enables you to craft a totally personalized life insurance plan in the form of customized wishes — or “wyshes” — that can take care of the things that matter most to you after you die.
You can choose fun wishes, like “Have my ashes shot into space,” or “Throw a joyful funeral for me, with a brass band and a funeral parade.” There are also serious wishes like “Pay off our house,” “Take care of my children,” or “Send my kid to college.”
In order to ease the burden on your family, Wyshbox will work so your survivors can get paid ASAP — in days, instead of weeks.
So ask yourself: What do you really want to happen after you die?
Here’s how to make it happen — starting at $9 per month.
Choose Your Wishes
Wyshbox is a new arrival in the life insurance business, founded by tech entrepreneurs in 2021 to digitally disrupt the musty old life insurance industry. The company is legit, though. It has a strategic partnership with Northwestern Mutual, which is 165 years old, financially sound and one of the largest life insurance companies in the world.
Wyshbox’s approach to life insurance is unique. There’s nothing else like it out there.
Instead of trying to sell you a traditional life insurance policy — the same old thing — Wyshbox asks you questions about what you really want, and it helps you figure out how much coverage you really need.
When you go to the website, you’ll be asked to choose “wyshes” in four different categories:
1. Debt
Pay off your mortgage, your credit cards, your student loans or your car payments.
2. Loved Ones
Leave money to care for your partner, your children, your aging parents — or even a pet. Or you could pay for your children’s college education.
3. Loose Ends
Set money aside for funeral expenses, medical bills, rent payments or some custom purpose you choose.
4. Legacy
This is a way to carry out your wishes after you’re gone. You could pay for a child’s dream wedding, leave a cash gift or pay to keep a family tradition going.
Fine-Tune Your Wishes
Each time you choose a wish, you’ll be asked more specific questions:
- Do you want to pay for a small, intimate wedding? An extravagant one? Or something in the middle?
- How much tuition do you want to cover? A two-year in-state college, a four-year public university, or a pricier private college?
Once you add up all your “wyshes,” the site will figure out how much coverage you need, and it’ll give you a quote.
Wyshbox is unique, but its rates are competitive with other insurance companies.
You can get $50,000 to $2.5 million worth of coverage. You must be 18 to 45 years old to apply, and you can stay insured until you’re 65.
You Can Change Things Later
Here’s another important thing to keep in mind:
As your life and circumstances change, you can adjust your wyshes as you go. Maybe you’ll end up paying off that car or those student loans. Maybe your daughter will get married next year. You get the idea. Wyshbox lets you adjust, so you could change your wysh of a wedding fund into a retirement fund for your spouse.
You can also raise or lower your amount of coverage as needed. Unlike most insurance companies, Wyshbox is all about flexibility.
Finally, there’s this: The last thing you want your family to deal with when you die is the headache that goes along with it.
In the event of your passing, the company’s “Wysh Granters” can work with your beneficiaries and your bank to help make your departing wishes come true. They’ll work so your family can get paid in days rather than in weeks.
Wyshbox’s signup process is streamlined and is designed to be as easy as possible. It’s all done digitally — although if you have questions, you can get them answered via chat, phone or email.
You can sign up in less than 10 minutes. You won’t need a doctor’s visit, and you might not have to wait to get approved.
Wyshbox is operating in 33 states and D.C., and it’s expanding into more. It aims to be in all 50 states soon. There’s no other place we know of where you can get such highly personalized, customized life insurance, tailored to your wishes.
What do you want to happen after you’re gone?
Get started here to make it happen.
Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
