The total amount of life insurance should reflect the total financial liability and future obligations of the insured for the benefit of his or her beneficiaries. If those liabilities or obligations are temporary, buy term life insurance if permanent buy permanent life insurance. Most people have both needs, so identifying those items on a data collector will help define the coverage you’ll need. The most important item of consideration is protecting you earning power through your working years.
You should buy enough life insurance to cover the need for which the life insurance is intended, plus some extra for inflation. E.g. If you are 60 and would like to have enough life insurance to pay for a $10,000 funeral, you might want to purchase a $15,000 policy to provide for price increases that could occur between now and the time of your death.
Also, you will need an agent to submit your life insurance application, so why not use your agent to assist you in helping determine how much life insurance to get. You could be surprised at how a good agent can help you save money.
So to directly answer the question... Buy as much as you are comfortable paying for and can qualify for. NO ONE has ever said, "Now that my spouse is dead, I sure wish we had LESS life insurance money." Most always need more benefit upon the death of the insured.
However.... Stop buying "Life Insurance"! What I mean is the old "death insurance" plan that everyone knows. You die, someone gets a check. Great.... If you die. More often than ever before, we survive the cancer, heart attack, stroke, or other critical illness. What use to just kill us now only kills us financially.
There is a new generation of life insurance that you can use without DYING. Commonly called Living Benefits Life (LBL) Insurance, these plans may allow you to tap into the "death benefit" upon the diagnosis of a named critical illness (like cancer or a heart attack), or when you're not able to perform 2 of 6 activities of daily living (ADL). SO your "death insurance" can act like a long term care policy!
Talk to an agent that represents several LBL plans. UNDERWRITING is key. Buy the best plan that you can qualify for. You buy life insurance with your health... you only pay for it with dollars. If you have questions... Reach out! -gravy.
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This website has a helpful calculator to help determine your life insurance needs: http://www.lifehappens.org/life-insurance-needs-calculator/.
Also, you will need an agent to submit your life insurance application, so why not use your agent to assist you in helping determine how much life insurance to get. You could be surprised at how a good agent can help you save money.
However.... Stop buying "Life Insurance"! What I mean is the old "death insurance" plan that everyone knows. You die, someone gets a check. Great.... If you die. More often than ever before, we survive the cancer, heart attack, stroke, or other critical illness. What use to just kill us now only kills us financially.
There is a new generation of life insurance that you can use without DYING. Commonly called Living Benefits Life (LBL) Insurance, these plans may allow you to tap into the "death benefit" upon the diagnosis of a named critical illness (like cancer or a heart attack), or when you're not able to perform 2 of 6 activities of daily living (ADL). SO your "death insurance" can act like a long term care policy!
Talk to an agent that represents several LBL plans. UNDERWRITING is key. Buy the best plan that you can qualify for. You buy life insurance with your health... you only pay for it with dollars. If you have questions... Reach out! -gravy.