Her Dad Wants Her To Pay For His Life Insurance And Calls It An Investment. Dave Ramsey Calls It What It Is—’A Hard Pass’

A 24-year-old woman is facing an unexpected ask from her 65-year-old father: he wants her to pay for his life insurance policy and think of it as an “investment.”

Frankie, who shared her story on “The Ramsey Show,” said her dad told her he didn’t want to pay for it himself, since she would be the one benefiting eventually.

“That’s so weird, isn’t it?” personal finance expert Dave Ramsey responded right away. “When you heard that, you had to go, ‘Say what?’” 

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Frankie explained that her dad wasn’t seriously ill but had some health concerns, and since he wouldn’t receive the death benefit, he believed she should fund the policy. Ramsey wasn’t buying the logic.

“His death is not imminent as far as we know, so you could be doing this for like 30 years,” he said. “I think that’s a hard pass. That’s a big N-O.”

Ramsey encouraged her to respond kindly but directly. “Just go, ‘Dad, I’m 24. I’m going to be doing other kinds of investing instead of investing in your death,” he said. “Thanks for the offer.”

He also pointed out that life insurance isn’t actually an investment. “Mathematically, it’s a bad investment because insurance companies make money on insurance,” Ramsey said, “which by translation means it’s not a good investment.”

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He used a recent example from the show to contrast good and bad uses of life insurance. A young woman had just become debt-free, and her husband, who had recently taken out life insurance, died unexpectedly in a car accident. That, Ramsey said, is when life insurance makes sense, to protect a young family against a tragic loss.

Ramsey, now in his 60s, shared that he personally doesn’t carry life insurance anymore. “I have a huge pile of money and no debt. If I die, [my wife] Sharon’s going to have a party,” he joked. “She doesn’t need life insurance.”

Co-host Ken Coleman added that Frankie shouldn’t overthink the conversation or try to rationalize something that clearly doesn’t make sense. “This is just a wacky idea,” he said. “You can’t reason with wacky, you just gotta move on quickly.”

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The hosts also pointed out the emotional toll such expectations can have on adult children. Asking your kid to fund your life insurance not only puts a financial burden on them, but it creates a dynamic that can easily result in guilt or obligation. Ramsey’s advice: keep your boundaries firm and avoid turning financial support into a moral dilemma.