Your life insurance basics


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Life insurance serves a really important purpose when you have a family: it protects the ones you love if something happens to you. Your presence in your family’s life can never be replaced, but the contributions you make, financial and otherwise, can be insured to make sure that your family would be taken care of in the event of your death.

Understanding that, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself to determine the policy that would work best for your family. You can also learn more by looking at Gerber Life as an example. Gerber Life has been protecting families since 1967, and the Gerber Life Term Life Plan offers term life insurance with affordable rates and guaranteed benefits. The type of term life insurance policy you’ll want depends on your answer to these questions.

How much income would you want to replace?

The policy you choose should reflect the income lost if you suddenly weren’t there to provide support. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, it’s important to remember that your household contribution is still valuable financially and is estimated at $40,000 a year. Many things factor into your life insurance policy, but income or household contribution will likely make up the majority.

Do you want to start a college fund?

College is expensive, and many parents start saving for their children’s college when their little ones are still little. If something were to happen to you, it’s possible that your family won’t have the financial flexibility to continue contributing to a college savings account.

Depending on the future you envision for your baby, you might want to consider including money for college when calculating how much coverage you need in a policy.

Do you have any debt?

Your family can use your life insurance policy to pay off some debts, especially those with high interest rates, and continue to comfortably make payments on debt with manageable interest rates. Examples might include a mortgage, credit card debt, car payments, or student loans.

Do you have an emergency fund?

It’s recommended that everyone have three to six months of expenses put away in case of an emergency. If you don’t already have an emergency fund, including this amount into your overall insurance policy will allow your family to either keep that fund on hand in case of emergency or use it for new expenses.

Do you have any existing life insurance coverage?

If you have life insurance coverage through your job, you should find out if you can extend that coverage and keep it if you change jobs. If you can, consider that amount when you’re deciding how much life insurance you want to buy. If you can’t, make sure the life insurance policy you’re buying would cover your family outside of that policy in case you do change jobs.

When it comes to actually buying this policy, the cost will be based on your age and health at the time of purchase. If you start a policy when you’re young and healthy, your rate will probably be lower, and it will be locked in for the length of the policy.

You can’t predict the future, but life insurance can help you be prepared. To learn more about term life insurance and find the right policy for your family, look to the Gerber Life Term Life Plan. Affordable protection starts at as little as $8 a month, and Gerber Life makes it simple to get the life insurance protection you need. Learn more about what term life insurance can do for you by tapping the button below.


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