Life Insurance is something you buy not generally to help yourself (although there are uses for life insurance where you benefit while you are alive) but is there to help those you leave behind. There are many reasons to buy the coverage and each is unique. Each life stage may require different coverage amounts and even kinds of coverage. Some life stages are served well owning more than one policy.
For youngsters, buying a moderate value permanent life policy is often a good idea because there is a long horizon for paying on the policy and the premiums are lower. Youngsters have no real need for term coverage either, thus a permanent policy that is with them for life is a good choice. Often you can get $100K for a young child for a few hundred dollars per year. Depending on the actual policy that initial death benefit will grow significantly as the child gets into their older ages. Ultimately there are many choices and a professional agent will guide you to the policy which best fits the needs for your unique situation.
When folks get married and start families they should be looking at life insurance. Newlyweds need to consider what happens to my spouse if I am no longer around. For many they figure the spouse will just figure it out on their own. For someone who is renting an apartment that may be fine and dandy but if a new house is now owned and there are other debts, perhaps leaving it to the surviving spouse puts their debt at a level that can’t be repaid or some other worse situation.
Newlyweds need to take stock of debts and assets and plan accordingly. Where the biggest debts are likely to decline over the years (new homes, cars, etc…) a term policy is usually sufficient to provide funding to cover the debts. If those assets are no longer needed they can be sold off by the surviving spouse but in a manner that brings in the true value of the assets not a fire sale to pay off the debts.
Of course leaving money behind for the surviving spouse to live on, which is most critical when there is only one working spouse, is best served by a permanent policy. If nothing else it can help cover the cost of a funeral which can get very expensive fairly quickly. Even for those who are single a good permanent policy purchased at any age helps solve the mystery of who will have to pay for the final expenses which can include more than just a funeral. Sadly it does cost money to die.
New families are another situation. When children are born typically both parents expect to be around to raise the child and provide for their needs while they grow up. Sadly many kids do lose their parents and when there is no life insurance to help fund raising the kids often the kids suffer. Proper planning whereby money is left to the surviving parent or other guardian can provide funds that can then be used to help raise the children. Most typically this is handled thru a term policy since over the years the need goes away.
Permanent and temporary (term) life insurance can be used to cover the above and many other needs. Knowing which policy to use and when to use it, is what as agents we know and with the information we help guide you towards the policy that best fits the situation. We are here to guide you by asking the questions that need to be answered by you before we can place you in the right policy or policies. Yes, there are even times where a set of policies is the best answer to solving for your insurance need. For help with life insurance in Houston to pick the most appropriate coverage let us know how we can help you.
As I mentioned at the beginning there are even uses while still alive for life insurance. I will cover those in greater detail later, but saving for college in a tax deferred manner as well as various forms of executive compensation are among the ways you can use life insurance to pay-off while you are still alive. One benefit of going this route is in the event of death the full death benefit is there as well.
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