Life Stages: How Life Insurance Protects Families

Life Stages

Throughout your entire life, there may be a need for life insurance. Whether you’re single, newly retired or any stage in between, life insurance can be an important tool in your financial toolbox. The information below is meant to help you understand the need and is not meant to provide financial advice.

Single

As a single adult at any age, life insurance tends to be overlooked. You are self-sufficient and don’t have a partner or children who financially depend on you. However, there are still options to consider when it comes to life insurance. If you have any loans, mortgage or debt with a co-signer, your death would leave your co-signer responsible to complete the payments. Another risk you may avoid is leaving end of life expenses to your loved ones. Lastly, if you find yourself financially supporting your elderly parents, you may consider cash-value life insurance to help grow assets that you can use in the future to supplement retirement income.

Newly married

Life insurance can be important at this stage in life since you’ve added a partner to your life. The first step is to identify the amount of coverage you need to replace future lost income and cover any large debts that would put a burden on your partner. 

Proud parents

As a parent, you are always looking out for your child’s best interest. Life insurance should be considered when planning for their future. To get started, take into account the future cost of raising your child, including higher education as well as coverage for a stay-at-home parent (if this applies).

College education

In addition to covering yourself, some parents even consider buying life insurance for their children. Based on the type of insurance, it could be supplemental funds to cover any unexpected funeral expenses, or more optimistically, to accumulate cash value to use for your children’s education.

Empty nesters

They say time flies, but you’re now the proud owner of a newly quiet home. In this stage you may not need as much life insurance as before since your children are out of the home, but it is still important to have protection if you are married and still working. At this stage, its best to work with your financial professional on estate planning to be sure you have all your bases covered.

Retired

Ah, you made it to retirement. What a great feeling. But planning for your financial future doesn’t end here. You may not need as much coverage at this stage, based on your long-term planning and priorities in retirement, but you should still talk to your financial representative about your overall financial plan. In this stage you could access your cash value from your life insurance policy to help supplement your retirement income.

Thanks for reading! We hope you learned important points from reading this article.  Have a great day!