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Help change
lives for the better.
"At
every age level between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-five,
married individuals were more likely to have experienced at least
one year of affluence – that is, a year in which the family’s income
was ten times the official poverty threshold – than unmarried peers,
and this advantage increased as individuals aged. By age 45, 33
percent of married individuals versus 16 percent of their peers who
were not married had experienced at least a year of affluence. That
is, “marriage in early adulthood double[d] the odds of affluence.”
Among individuals between ages 45 and 65, the odds were even higher;
some 42 percent of married individuals will have experienced at
least a year of affluence compared to 18 percent of their peers who
were not married."
The
paragraph above
is an excerpt from
"Does Marriage Increase the Odds of Affluence? Exploring the Life
Course Probabilities" based on data from the Panel Study of Income
Dynamics (PSID), a (US) nationally representative sample, with
twenty-five years of longitudinal data. The analytical sample for
this particular analysis consisted of 2,213 individuals between the
ages of 25 and 65.
Study after study shows us that
married people live longer, healthier, wealthier lives and in
general, are much better off than single or divorced persons.
Children of two parent families do better in school, are more likely
to go to college and are less likely to abuse drugs and/or alcohol,
join gangs or commit criminal acts. Married people are shown to be
better credit and insurance risks and more likely to contribute to
charitable or community service.
And despite all this, no company in
the world has ever stepped up to provide this group of people with
an opportunity to enhance their financial security by investing in
their marriage.
By
stark contrast, people who suffer the consequences of divorce are
often forced to lead very different lives than they had envisioned
when they made the choice to divorce. Although divorce rates in the US haven’t changed much in 40 years,
back then the typical household had only one parent that worked, they weren’t
strapped with more house than they could afford, they had some
savings in the bank and they had little, if any, credit card debt.
If their marriage failed, there was an opportunity for the
non-working spouse to create additional income in addition to any
support they received.
Today
that landscape is drastically different. The typical household today has
$12,000 or more in credit card debt, a much higher percentage of
their overall income goes to their mortgage and both parents are
working full time. If they split now, there’s little opportunity to
find additional income to offset the costs of setting up an entirely
new household. Add the average cost of $15,000 to $30,000 in legal
fees for divorce in the US and that’s a recipe for financial
disaster.
According to a number of studies, divorce is the number one
common contributing factor
for bankruptcy and poverty among single mothers worldwide. Nearly
half of American families experience some period of poverty
following a divorce and more than 20% of women who apply for
welfare benefits for the first time do so because of divorce or
separation. In addition about one in four mothers who were first
propelled onto welfare by divorce are still welfare-dependent five
years later.
Divorced
fathers with child custody often fall into the same category.
Here are
some of the key points from Patrick Fagan and Robert Rector's
research "The Effects of Divorce in America" from the Heritage
Foundation:
-
Divorce creates harmful effects on
children and society. Divorce causes devastating physical,
financial, and emotional harm to children. It also decreases
religious worship. Crime, child abuse, and addiction are all
affected negatively by divorce rates.
-
Because divorced mothers are more
likely to work full-time, their teenaged children are more
likely to have premarital sex and multiple sexual partners, when
they become adults.
-
“The marital instability of one
generation is passed on to the next”. Some studies have found
the risk of divorce among children of divorced families to be
more than twice as high as children of intact families.
-
Almost half (44%) of parents going
through a divorce become poor after the divorce.
-
Divorce not only decreases
household income, it translates into diminished academic
achievement among children which, in turn, leads to lower
earnings as an adult.
-
According to calculations based
on the Survey of Consumer Finance, 32.4 percent of
divorced/separated single-parents live in poverty vs. 7.7
percent of families in their first marriage.
In
fact, in a recent publication of the Australian Journal of
Sociology, Jay Zagorsky’s study titled “Marriage and Divorce’s
Impact on Wealth” makes the point clear. Zagorsky, an Ohio State
University sociologist, followed US baby boomers from youth to their
40s through the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Zagorsky
found that on average, by their mid-40s, married individuals will
have nearly double the wealth per person that singles will, but the
divorced are far worse off, losing an average of 77% of their net
worth.
People in other countries fare even worse. The average cost of
divorce in England is approximately half of the average total annual
household
income and more than one third of couples have to sell their
homes just to finance the divorce proceedings.
SafeGuard will provide a financial
safety net for those people unfortunate enough to be impacted by
divorce, but the biggest reward will go to those that have the good fortune to
stay married in the form of a new-to-the-world investment vehicle.
Our research shows a documented high
demand for this type of coverage and we'll be happy to share those
results with accredited investors interested in this highly
lucrative venture.
Moreover, regardless of the source,
focusing funds on reducing divorce will save significant tax dollars
in the long run and have a positive impact on our economy because it
will reduce the need to subsidize and sustain single-parent families.
Today, according to a recent study jointly presented by the
Institute for American Values, the Institute for Marriage and Public
Policy, the Georgia Family Council and Families Northwest, divorce in the United States costs taxpayers
at least $112 billion
dollars each and every year in direct and
indirect costs.
And inasmuch as divorce and out-of-wedlock births are
known to be major routes into poverty, it should stand to reason
that our governing bodies already understand that encouraging,
preparing for and maintaining marriage is sound public policy.
We'll lobby the federal government
to make our Marriage Benefit a tax exempt financial event;
establish pro-marriage demonstration projects; mandate that
surplus welfare funds be used to strengthen marriage; establish
a national goal to reduce divorce by a reasonable figure over
the next decade; create public service campaigns informing the
public at large of the long-term benefits of marriage and the
risks associated with divorce; and give an ongoing tax credit to
any couple who stays married after their youngest child reaches
18.
And in turn we'll push for the
individual states to establish their own goals to reduce divorce
rates by establishing pro-marriage education and mentoring
programs; require that couples with children under 18 years of
age complete divorce education (i.e., end “quickie” divorces for
couples with young children); promote community-wide marriage
programs; and make covenant marriages that lengthen the divorce
process by two years available to engaged couples.
Our governing fathers around the
world are well aware that marriage, as a cornerstone of
civilized society around the world is eroding, and perhaps, with
your help we can reverse that trend, together.
If you are interested in becoming an
investor in this ground breaking insurance company, or supporting
our cause in some other manner, please contact
us by sending an email to
invest@safeguardguaranty.com. |
