The Person Who Commits Suicide
This one is easy. The person who commits suicide no longer has to worry about finances at all. Perhaps finances are the very reason a person might consider suicide. The stress of maintaining a career in order to pay bills can be too overwhelming for some. Depending on the situation, a person could see suicide as the easiest way out. This seems extreme to me though, in a country where your slate can be wiped clean simply by filing for bankruptcy. Although, not all debts qualify in the bankruptcy laws, so debt stress certainly could be a big factor in the reason somebody commits suicide. Ultimately, the financial obligation of the person who commits suicide doesn’t matter in the end, not to them anyway. They are dead and they don’t have to worry about it anymore.
The Family
This is the saddest part of a suicide situation, especially if there are children involved who depended on the income of the person who committed suicide. Suicide is one huge exception in almost every single life insurance policy. If the person even had life insurance, the beneficiaries will not receive a payout in the event of a suicidal death. If there was a spouse and they had loans in which they both signed for, the spouse is now responsible to repay those loans. If the spouse depended solely on the income of the deceased (such as a stay-at-home-mom), it just makes life that much more difficult for the bereaved. They now have no income and no life insurance settlement. If the deceased had loans in only his/her name, their estate would have to pay back as much of them as possible. This could be very messy if a spouse is involved, because the estate would have to be split 50/50. Overall, there is no benefit that I can think of to the family of a person who commits suicide. In fact, it just complicates things even more.
The Employer
This is the least important, in my mind, on the list of people who are affected by suicide. Nevertheless, they are affected. If the person is an employee, their employer now has to find somebody to replace them. In the meantime, they need to find a way to cover the work or responsibilities that this person had. The employer might lose a little bit of money in lost time or wages paid to cover for this person, but in the grand scheme of things this is very minor. This person could have had relationships or friendships at work that are now lost. If they made their living through self-employment, customers or clients might be left in the dark.
Conclusion
I can’t think of a single positive affect for the living who have to deal with the suicide of a loved one or acquaintance. The only person who is off the hook is the person who commits suicide. In my mind, not only for financial reasons, suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness.
To read more on this, please see this story via my blog post on RamblingFever.com.