Most people today feel safe only have the life insurance benefit provided by their employer or none at all. Some people do not think life insurance is necessary or do not get to getting a policy in place for their family. This is a large mistake for your family if something happens unexpectedly. They will have wished they had the life policy on their loved one.

Employer life insurance is usually inexpensive and does not have a required physical to become covered by the insurance. You can easily buy up your insurance to some number of times of your salary. These plans can provide coverage while you are employed, but what happens when you transition jobs or loose your job as it is very common in today’s economy. You would leave your family exposed, no one every can predict what the future will be. I would highly recommend in having personal life insurance to protect your family with or without employer sponsored life insurance.

I have become more aware of this situation as I had only employer sponsored life insurance, and I went for a long time between jobs and I did leave my family exposed on my providing for their future. I have since been able to secure life policies to protect my wife and daughter. I will never again leave my family exposed to the financial risk of not having life insurance for them. I wish my Dad would have suggested that advice to me to get an individual policy in place to guarantee my insurability and protect my family. In a future blog post I will share some ideas to help your children protect them for their life, but I want to focus on you and your spouse and children.

I do hear stories from time to time on people who did not properly protect their family with having life insurance in force. The remaining family members have the stress of loosing their loved one, but the beginning of the financial stress as to how they will afford the lifestyle that they have gotten accustomed to. I have seen people go through drastic life changes to lifestyle without the help of life insurance. The stories are of unexpected deaths through accident or illness and sometimes when they have been between jobs or in jobs that do not offer life insurance benefits. I have even heard stories of people retiring from a job, and when they retired they did not have any life insurance in place, so the spouse was left with a life changing financial crisis. I hope never to let anyone not understand the exposure to their family and the importance of life insurance.

The great thing about an individual policy for life insurance will let you keep your policy in force no matter what your work and health situation once it is in place and keep paying the premiums. I would advise you get with your insurance broker to help you with your needs analysis to help you determine what your family needs are for either spouse. This will help you determine how much insurance you should have to maintain you lifestyle. It takes into account the debt, earnings, college, day care, and other factors that you should take into account for the face value of your life insurance policy.

I would not wait to begin the process to get the life insurance in place as you never know what the future will bring for your health or if something unexpected can happen. The process is easy and the insurance broker can help you determine the type of policies that may be best for your particular situation. Life insurance is a necessary insurance for your family’s future as we do not know what future is for any of us. The one thing to know is the remaining family members will have probably wished they had the life insurance protection in place if you never thought it was a priority. Let us know how we may be able to help you start your process.