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Updated August 22, 2024 Reviewed by Reviewed by Samantha SilbersteinSamantha (Sam) Silberstein, CFP®, CSLP®, EA, is an experienced financial consultant. She has a demonstrated history of working in both institutional and retail environments, from broker-dealers to RIAs. She is a current CFA level 3 candidate and also has her FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses. Throughout her career, Samantha has used her expertise and various licenses and certifications to provide in-depth advice about household and business-specific financial planning, investing, credit cards, debt, student loans, taxes, retirement, and income strategies.
Fact checked by Fact checked by Bobby L. Hickman, FLMI CLUBobby L. Hickman is a longtime business and financial journalist who brings decades of experience in insurance and financial services to his editor role at Investopedia. He has worked with insurance and financial services companies, such as AFLAC, Allstate, Confederation Life, Farm Bureau, SunLife, and others. His editorial clients include the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Advisors magazine.
Part of the Series Life Insurance Through WorkEmployer Provided Insurance Definitions
Types of Employer Provided Insurance
Employer Provided Insurance Considerations
Making sure you have the right financial resources in place, including life insurance, is important if you have loved ones who depend on your income. Life insurance can help cover funeral and burial expenses, pay off remaining debts, and make managing day-to-day living expenses less burdensome for those you leave behind.
Here's how to find out if you need life insurance at all or, if you already have it, how to evaluate your coverage needs and determine whether your policy is sufficient.
Life insurance is a contract under which an insurance company agrees to pay a specified amount after the death of an insured party, as long as the premiums are paid current. The payout amount is called a death benefit. Policies give insured people the assurance that their loved ones will have financial protection and peace of mind after their death.
There are two main types of life insurance: permanent and term. Permanent life insurance policies do not have an expiration date, meaning you’re covered for life as long as your premiums are paid. Many permanent life insurance policies offer an investment component that allows you to build cash value by investing a portion of the premiums you pay in the stock market or earning interest on your account. Term life insurance, on the other hand, only covers you for a set number of years and does not accumulate cash value. Some policies allow you to easily renew your coverage after a certain expiration date, while others require a medical exam to do so.
A medical exam is a standard underwriting requirement for most life insurance policies. However, you may be able to purchase no-exam life insurance at a higher premium cost.
Life insurance can be a helpful financial tool to possess, but buying a policy doesn’t make sense for everyone. You may not need life insurance if you're single and have no dependents, have beneficiaries for your major assets, and possess enough money to cover your debts as well as your final expenses—your funeral, estate settlement, attorney fees, and other expenses. The same applies if you have dependents but enough assets to provide for them after your death.
However, if you’re the primary provider for your dependents or have a significant amount of debt that outweighs your assets, then insurance can help ensure your loved ones are well provided for if something happens to you. Having a life insurance policy may also make sense if you own a business or owe co-signed debts (such as private student loans) for which someone else could be held responsible if you pass away.
Keep in mind that life insurance by itself doesn’t cover every situation. For example, a standard life insurance policy won’t pay out if you develop a chronic illness nor will it cover long-term nursing care costs. Still, you can purchase chronic illness riders or long-term care insurance riders for an additional premium cost that can provide living benefits to cover those types of scenarios.
A large part of choosing a life insurance policy is determining how much money your dependents will need. Choosing the face value—the amount that your policy pays if you die—depends on a few different factors. The minimum amount of coverage you need may be very different from what someone else requires. Financial experts often recommend purchasing at least 10 times your annual income in coverage, although your personal number may be higher or lower.
Don't forget about "hidden income" when deciding how much insurance you need to carry. The Insurance Information Institute (III) defines hidden income as any amounts you receive through employment beyond your base pay, such as 401(k) contributions or the employer's share of your health insurance premium. According to III, the cost of replacing just retirement and health insurance contributions can total $2,000 per month or more.
If you’re married, then both you and your spouse may need life insurance coverage, even if only one of you is primarily responsible for your household income.
Here are some of the most important considerations for choosing a minimum amount of life insurance.
Life insurance proceeds can be used to pay off outstanding debts, including student loans, car loans, mortgages, credit cards, and personal loans. If you have any of these debts, then your policy should include enough coverage to pay them off in full. For instance, if you have a $200,000 mortgage and a $4,000 car loan, you need at least $204,000 in your policy to cover your debts. You should take out a little more to settle any extra interest or additional charges.
One of the main purposes of life insurance is to replace income. If you are the sole provider for your dependents and bring in $40,000 a year, for example, you will need a policy payout that is large enough to replace your annual income, plus a little extra to guard against inflation.
Life insurance experts suggest having enough coverage to replace at least 10 years of your salary. In this case that would be $400,000. You could also add some extra as a buffer for inflation and other unexpected costs. For this example, then, a $500,000 policy might be reasonable. This would replace your income for your family for at least a decade and hedge against inflation.
Once you determine the needed face value for your insurance policy, you can start shopping around by talking to an agent or using an online insurance estimator to determine how much insurance you will need.
There may be other people in your life who are important to you, and you may wonder if you should insure them. As a rule, you should only insure people whose death would mean a financial loss to you. The death of a child, while emotionally devastating, does not constitute a financial loss because children cost money to raise. The death of an income-earning spouse, however, does create a situation with both emotional and financial losses.
In that case, follow the income replacement calculation shown earlier using his or her income. This also goes for business partners with whom you have a financial relationship. For example, consider someone with whom you have a shared responsibility for mortgage payments on a co-owned property. You may want to consider a policy for that person, as their death will have a big impact on your financial situation.
If you’re purchasing life insurance to cover a business partnership arrangement, then you may want to consider a key-person insurance policy versus traditional coverage.
Most insurance companies say a reasonable amount for life insurance is at least 10 times the amount of annual salary. If you multiply an annual salary of $50,000 by 10, for instance, you'd opt for $500,000 in coverage. Some recommend adding an additional $100,000 in coverage per child above the 10x amount.
Another way to calculate the amount of life insurance needed is to multiply your annual salary by the number of years left until retirement. For example, if a 40-year-old currently makes $20,000 a year, they will need $500,000 (25 years × $20,000) in life insurance to reach age 65.
This method is based on the amount of money survivors would need to maintain their standard of living if the insured party dies. If your age is between 41-50, you take that amount and multiply it by 20. From 51 to 60 should multiply by 15. The thought here is that survivors can take a 5% withdrawal from the death benefit each year—the equivalent of the standard-of-living amount—while investing the death benefit principal and earning 5% or better. This type of calculation is sometimes known as human life value (HLV) approach.
Another methodology is called DIME (debt, income, mortgage, education). This is meant for a minimal amount of coverage that will cover family expenses in the event of an untimely death. With the DIME approach, your coverage should be enough to cover all your outstanding debts (including your mortgage), pay for your kids' education, and replace your income for the years until your children reach 18 years old.
If you’re getting life insurance purely to cover debts and have no dependents, there are other alternatives. One is to self-insure, which occurs when someone sets aside a pool of money to be used to remedy an unexpected loss, rather than spend it on insurance. Self-insuring against certain losses may be more economical than buying insurance from a third party.
Another option is to simply forgo buying life insurance if you're single, have beneficiaries to receive your significant assets, and your estate can cover your debts as well as the expenses related to death that would arise after you're gone.
No one group of people need life insurance more than another group: it really depends on each individual's circumstances. Parents with children, couples where one spouse earns most of the income, older people without significant savings, those heavily in debt, and business owners are the most likely groups to have financial needs that life insurance can address.
There are several rules of thumb you can use for computing the amount of life insurance you'll need. These often involve multiplying your current income by a number such as 10 or your number of years left until retirement. Other rules of thumb involve adding up all expenses and obligations you would need to cover for your family.
If you lose your job and have private life insurance that you purchased on your own, as long as you continue paying your premiums, you will have coverage. If the insurance was provided as a group plan through your employer, however, you typically will lose that coverage around one month after being terminated. Some group plans will give you the option to switch the coverage to your own individual policy, though the cost could be higher than what you were paying at work or might pay for new coverage.
You may no longer need life insurance once you retire. While life insurance is often intended to replace the economic loss of someone with a family to support in the event of their untimely death, it can be also purchased by those whose children are grown. This can be done for several purposes, including leaving an inheritance, establishing a trust upon death, contributing to a charity, or if the older individual is a key employee or partner in a business. In general, depending on the insurer and type of policy, you can get coverage up to age 100. Note, however, that premiums increase the older you are when you purchase the policy.
If you own a permanent life insurance policy that accrues cash value (such as whole life or universal life), you can often borrow against or withdraw some or all of that value. The death benefit will typically also decline proportionally to the amount you take out of the policy. If you surrender the entire amount, you will lose all your coverage.
Your financial and family details will determine whether you need life insurance and, if so, how much you should have. If you choose to buy insurance, use one of the common methods to calculate the coverage you’ll need, such as 10 times your salary. Do this before meeting with an agent or broker to avoid buying inadequate coverage or expensive coverage that you don’t need.
As with investing, educating yourself is essential to making the right choice about whether you need life insurance and, if so, what level of coverage. Make sure to do your research to acquire the best life insurance for you.
