Financial struggles are causing millions of Americans to skip owning life insurance, despite the increasing risks to families if a primary income earner should die. A study by the insurance industry-funded research firm LIMRA found that only 44% of U.S. households have individual life insurance, marking a 50-year low. Approximately 35 million homes neither own their own life-insurance policies nor are covered under employer-sponsored plans. This total is considerably higher than the one recorded in 2004, when 24 million households were found to have no life insurance whatsoever.