Do You Need Life Insurance?

Do You Need Life Insurance?

Recent studies have shown that one-third of American adults lack life insurance. And of those insured, 40 percent don’t think they have enough.

While it may seem difficult to determine how much life insurance is right for you, there is a handy way to calculate how much you need. All you have to do is take into account three main types of expenses:

Immediate Expenses: This category includes funeral and burial costs, lawyer fees, mortgage balances and outstanding debt.Ongoing Expenses: What are your family’s day-to-day expenses? Think: groceries, gas and utility bills. An adequate life insurance policy will allow your family to maintain its standard of living in your absence. Future Expenses: Things like school, college tuition and retirement fall under this group of expenses. Without your income, will your children still be able to attend college? Will your spouse be able to retire as planned?

If you add those expenses less your existing resources, like investments and other life insurance policies, you can estimate how much life insurance you’ll need.

Most people believe that life insurance is something that you don’t worry about until you get senior discounts and read AARP, but in actuality, anyone who has dependants should have a life insurance policy.

If you are married, you need life insurance for your spouse.You probably depend, to some extent, on each other’s salary. The life insurance you buy covers immediate expenses for them, such as funeral costs and affords then the time they need to cope with the loss and get back on his or her feet.

If you are a single parent, you are the sole wage earner and guardian. Your need for coverage exceeds most. But nearly four in 10 single parents don’t have any life insurance. Often, single parents have limited incomes and don’t want to spend money on this additional expense. But a $500,000 life insurance policy could cost you as little as a dollar a day. So a small adjustment in your spending could protect your children’s financial futures.

If you are a stay-at-home parent, you provide childcare, cook meals and maintain your home. If you could no longer provide these services, your family would have to pay someone to take over. Approximate what it would cost to hire a person to fulfill these roles, and ensure your policy will maintain your family’s standard of living in your absence.

If you are an empty nester, your kids are through college and your house is paid off, so you think you’re off the hook on buying a life insurance policy. But the increasing life expectancy means your spouse could out-live you by 10 years or more.

If you are retired, your life insurance covers expenses that your family may incur when you die. Depending on the size of your estate, your heirs could be responsible for a tax of up to 48 percent of your estate. A life insurance policy pays for estate taxes, funeral costs and other debts, so your family doesn’t have to dip into its own pockets.

If you are single, you probably don’t need to concern yourself with life insurance just yet. But some singles care for an elderly parent or grandparent or have considerable debt that they don’t want to pass on. If you fall into one of those categories, you might want to purchase enough life insurance to cover those expenses.

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