Life Insurance for Young Families

At the start of your new life, the last thing you want to think about is life insurance. You’re starting a new family, possibly in a new home, and it’s the most exciting and terrifying time of your life. It seems like nothing can go wrong. Unfortunately, there are times where life doesn’t go as planned and it’s important to make sure your family is taken care of in those cases.

Say you and your spouse are young and healthy. You don’t smoke, you drive relatively well, and you have a clean record. But one day, a drunk driver slams into your car on the way home from work. Suddenly, your spouse and children are left without you. Not only are they emotionally torn, but they’ve lost a major source of income.

How Does Life Insurance Work?
Life insurance is paid in monthly premiums to the insurance company so that the beneficiaries—your family members—receive monetary assistance in case the policyholder (you or your spouse) passes away. There are different types of life insurance policies each tailored to a specific need. This includes whole life insurance and term life insurance.

Although people think life insurance is for seniors, this isn’t the case. Life insurance is cheaper at younger ages. If you purchase a term life insurance policy when you’re young, you can avoid the 8-10% increase in premiums each year.

What Does Life Insurance Include?
The death benefits that life insurance beneficiaries are entitled to upon the policyholder’s death include:

Compensation for lost income. This is especially used for families with young children or spouses who would struggle immensely without the other spouse’s income.
Final expenses. Final expenses include funeral and burial costs.
Inheritance. Beneficiaries may be entitled to inheritance through your life insurance policy.
Savings. Some life insurance policies allow the policyholder to withdraw money from the gathered cash value. Whole life insurance policies generally offer cash value.

Which Life Insurance is Best?
It’s impossible to say which life insurance policy is best because they’re meant for different purposes. Whole life insurance, as you can imagine, is a policy that lasts as long as you live. Term life insurance lasts only as long as you want it to. For example, you may only want life insurance until your children are grown up and out of college. That way, they’re more independent in case you pass away suddenly. If you do decide to use a term policy, you generally want to make sure you have enough savings and debts paid by the time the term policy ends.

What is the Average Life Insurance Cost Per Month?
Life insurance cost varies. On average, a 30-year-old who doesn’t smoke may pay around $26.20 a month for a term life insurance policy.

What Affects Life Insurance Cost?
Many factors affect life insurance costs. Insurance companies consider the amount of risk a policyholder poses and how likely it is that they’ll file a claim. The major influences on the cost of life insurance are:

Age. As you grow older, your life insurance premiums generally go up.
Gender. Men typically pay more for life insurance than women, as they statistically live shorter and are more of a risk to insure.
Lifestyle. Smokers, motorcycle bikers and people who participate in a lot of risky activity will most likely pay higher insurance premiums than those who don’t.
Type and length of coverage. Term life insurance costs vary depending on how long the term is. Whole life insurance policies usually cost more than term life policies.
Health. People with a background of illnesses may be subject to higher life insurance premiums.

Posted 10:00 AM

Tags: life insurance

No Comments