Life insurance is a contract between you and the insurance company. You pay a premium to the insurance company. In return, the insurance company agrees to pay a tax-free lump sum benefit to your beneficiaries when you pass away.

You need life insurance if your loved ones will suffer financially upon your premature death. This could be for people who are just starting their families, empty nesters who have a few years to go until retirement, seniors who want to cover their final expenses, and much more.

You need enough to cover at least a few years of income replacement, pay off some debt, build your children’s education fund, and pay for final expenses like the cost of a funeral.

Many people choose to have enough coverage to pay off their mortgage and replace their income until their children are adults.

Ideally, your coverage will last until your retirement or your debt is paid off, whichever occurs later. If you want to cover final expenses, you need the coverage to last a lifetime.

The two main types of life insurance are term and permanent life insurance. Term insurance covers you for a set number of years like 10 or 20 years. The premium is guaranteed not to change during the entire term. Term insurance is the most affordable type of life insurance.

Permanent insurance lasts a lifetime and costs a lot more than term insurance for the same amount of coverage. The benefit is that premiums are guaranteed level throughout your life.

The type of life insurance you should get depends on your needs. If you want to replace your income and cover your debts, you want to get term life insurance. But if you’re older and thinking about estate planning, then you want to get permanent life insurance.

In reality, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Some younger people get permanent as part of a wealth accumulation strategy while some older people buy term to cover debt in retirement. If you still need help deciding, check out this post comparing term and permanent life insurance.

Term insurance starts out very affordable. For example, a $500,000 term-10 policy for a female 40-year-old non-smoker only costs $21/month. The same amount for a male is $28/month.

Permanent insurance costs a lot more. Using the above example, a term to age 100 policy costs $316/month for a female and $368/month for a male.

The premium depends on many factors, such as your age, gender, smoking status, health, medical history, lifestyle, and more.

Most likely, yes. That’s because work usually covers a small amount like $25,000 or $50,000, or one or two times your salary. In most cases, this is not enough and you will have to top it up with your own policy.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you may lose the coverage either due to changing companies or a reduction in benefits. Either way, a personally owned life insurance policy is always more reliable than coverage from your employer.

By shopping online, you can find the best quote from dozens of insurance company from the comfort of your own home. When you’re ready, just reach out and we can start the application process.

If you need advice on the type and amount of insurance, feel free to reach out and we can help you do a needs analysis.

While some insurance companies offer products directly to the consumer, the amount is limited and the premium is much higher than buying through a broker. That’s because the underwriting process is simplified, preventing the insurance company from knowing much about you. So even if you’re very healthy, the insurance company won’t know that and has to charge you a higher amount to average out the risk from the less healthy people.