Life Insurance: You Probably Need More Than You Think!

Here’s the funny thing about life insurance: While it’s your own life that you’ve insured, you’re not enrolling in this policy for yourself. We all consider, and ultimately select, a life insurance policy based on how well it benefits our loved ones after our passing.

So what is the real purpose of life insurance? These days you actually can use a policy to address a variety of needs, and we’ve covered some of those options in past blogs. But this blog is specifically aimed at the original, primary purpose of a life insurance policy: To replace your lost income, and cover final expenses, after your death. It’s not a fun thing to imagine, but at least knowing your family is financially protected in all circumstances might help you sleep well at night.

Here’s the thing: Many, many people are under-insuring themselves! And that’s often because they haven’t correctly calculated the true cost of their passing, in the event that it does occur.

We tend to focus on the “big things”: Funeral expenses, the mortgage, and medical bills (which can be unpredictable and enormous, depending on what actually happens to cause your untimely death). Then, of course, we think about our monthly income which we provide to our families. Or, a stay-at-home parent might even be insured to replace the cost their caregiving responsibilities.

But what about other things, that you would be unable to provide after your passing? If you have children, you probably hope for them to attend college someday. You might have planned to help purchase their first cars, or help them get established in their own homes. You also wouldn’t be around to help with the grandchildren. Or, if you’re the primary wage earner, how would your spouse provide for their own retirement? What about their future medical expenses?

These issues, and so many more, are things that many of us don’t consider when we enroll in a life insurance policy. Commonly we see people who simply chose a figure that they guessed was “large enough”. But then we perform a needs analysis and find that they are woefully under-insured!

So, don’t guess at your needs, or risk leaving anything out of the equation. Come see us for a needs analysis, and we’ll help you decide whether your current figures are accurate. Together we can make a plan to ensure that your family is always financially protected under any circumstances.