Do you have a life insurance policy for anyone in your family?

[nebe]

If you do, who do you have one for other than yourself?

 

[lyra]

Mostly for my husband only. I have health risks now (diabetes), so it's expensive for me, but we have some minimal amount ($100K) on me. We have insurance through multiple sources, his work, his occupation offers some, and we have a standard type policy that is just "there". I believe we also have mortgage life insurance, but it's not cost effective and we're looking to replace it. That being DH's responsibility, we haven't actually changed it yet.

 

[neatfreak]

Life insurance only makes sense if someone else relies on your income/contributions for their own survival. I.e., a spouse who doesn''t work or doesn''t make enough to live on, kids, etc.

Otherwise it doesn''t make sense to purchase it according to all the financial experts...

So that didn''t answer your question, but as of right now we don''t have any because both my husband and I could survive on our own salaries with no problems. In the future when we have kids we will revisit the issue.

 

[isaku5]

When I retired last year my life insurance with the School Board was terminated as well. I could have renewed, but the rates were exhorbitant.

We carry a small policy on DH, but it''s only nominal. Our two kids, grown and married with children have huge policies as in both cases our kids are the major breadwinners in the family and they have young children to consider as well.

If anything happened to DH or me, our pensions ( all indexed to inflation) would be sufficient for either of us to live well.

More important than life insurance, as far as I''m concerned, is an excellent disability insurance plan. Stats indicate that you''re 4 times more llikely to be injured or become so ill that you can''t work than die. There are many options available and I recommend them. If you work for a large company, it may be included in your benefit package, but usually the coverage is minimal.

 

[robbie3982]

DH and I both have life insurance through work that we get for free. I don''t think we''ll be adding anything additional until we start having kids. What we have right now would be enough to help the other get by for at least a year.

I did know a family who not only had it on themselves, but also on their kids as well. The thought of it creeped me out, but I guess with funeral costs being so high, it does make sense, especially if the kids can continue the plan for a low cost once they get into adulthood.

 

[isaku5]

Date: 3/13/2008 4:00:07 PM
Author: robbie3982
DH and I both have life insurance through work that we get for free. I don''t think we''ll be adding anything additional until we start having kids. What we have right now would be enough to help the other get by for at least a year.

I did know a family who not only had it on themselves, but also on their kids as well. The thought of it creeped me out, but I guess with funeral costs being so high, it does make sense, especially if the kids can continue the plan for a low cost once they get into adulthood.

I don''t think it''s a wise decision to put life insurance on your kids (aside from the creepy part). They''d be much better off investing it in their children''s names as a special fund to be used for university, first house, etc.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Date: 3/13/2008 4:46:04 PM
Author: isaku5

Date: 3/13/2008 4:00:07 PM
Author: robbie3982
DH and I both have life insurance through work that we get for free. I don't think we'll be adding anything additional until we start having kids. What we have right now would be enough to help the other get by for at least a year.

I did know a family who not only had it on themselves, but also on their kids as well. The thought of it creeped me out, but I guess with funeral costs being so high, it does make sense, especially if the kids can continue the plan for a low cost once they get into adulthood.

I don't think it's a wise decision to put life insurance on your kids (aside from the creepy part). They'd be much better off investing it in their children's names as a special fund to be used for university, first house, etc.

I agree. The only exception is that my husband can get $10,000 coverage for me and the kids through work for about $3.00 a month which is about enough to cover a funeral. But we'd never get a regular policy on children.

I have a little through work, but my husband would not need my income if I were no longer around (just think of all the jewelry that he wouldn't have to buy!). So we have the significant life insurance on him, because we depend on his income.

Oh, and get term life. You do not want to "invest" through a life insurance company.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 3/13/2008 3:17:07 PM
Author: neatfreak
Life insurance only makes sense if someone else relies on your income/contributions for their own survival. I.e., a spouse who doesn't work or doesn't make enough to live on, kids, etc.


Otherwise it doesn't make sense to purchase it according to all the financial experts...


So that didn't answer your question, but as of right now we don't have any because both my husband and I could survive on our own salaries with no problems. In the future when we have kids we will revisit the issue.

DH and I each got a policy since our daughter was born. I am *mostly* a SAHM and daycare is expensive. It is one of those things we hope we never have to cash in but it is there just in case.

ETA: We have 30 Term and mine is *very* inexpensive since we locked it in at 27. I think DH is very reasonable too though higher since he is a few years older, male, and it is for twice the amount as mine.

 

[pennquaker09]

Nate and I both have insurance policies on each other because we''re having kids. Otherwise, we probably would not.

 

[divergrrl]

I have 800k on DH (I don''t work) and we have 250k on me (to cover nannies/housekeepers for the next18 years should I croak--but I better not, I love this life of mine!)

 

[robbie3982]

Date: 3/13/2008 5:11:57 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006

Date: 3/13/2008 4:46:04 PM
Author: isaku5

Date: 3/13/2008 4:00:07 PM
Author: robbie3982
DH and I both have life insurance through work that we get for free. I don''t think we''ll be adding anything additional until we start having kids. What we have right now would be enough to help the other get by for at least a year.

I did know a family who not only had it on themselves, but also on their kids as well. The thought of it creeped me out, but I guess with funeral costs being so high, it does make sense, especially if the kids can continue the plan for a low cost once they get into adulthood.

I don''t think it''s a wise decision to put life insurance on your kids (aside from the creepy part). They''d be much better off investing it in their children''s names as a special fund to be used for university, first house, etc.

I agree. The only exception is that my husband can get $10,000 coverage for me and the kids through work for about $3.00 a month which is about enough to cover a funeral. But we''d never get a regular policy on children.

I have a little through work, but my husband would not need my income if I were no longer around (just think of all the jewelry that he wouldn''t have to buy!). So we have the significant life insurance on him, because we depend on his income.

Oh, and get term life. You do not want to ''invest'' through a life insurance company.

Isaku, I''d be willing to bet that it was along the lines of what diamondseeker has.

 

[sumbride]

We''ve been meaning to get it. If something was to happen to one of us, the other one wouldn''t be able to afford to keep the house and such. It''s on DH''s to do list, so I suspect it will be another 5 years or so before he gets to it.

We do both have nominal coverage at work, but $10k won''t cover much.

 

[isaku5]

Date: 3/14/2008 12:47:34 PM
Author: sumbride
We''ve been meaning to get it. If something was to happen to one of us, the other one wouldn''t be able to afford to keep the house and such. It''s on DH''s to do list, so I suspect it will be another 5 years or so before he gets to it.

We do both have nominal coverage at work, but $10k won''t cover much.

You''re absolutely right, $10k is barely enough for a decent funeral.

My DH is very much like yours in that he never gets around to things he finds "uncomfortable". I learned early on in our marriage that anything having to do with wills, guardianship of our children, powers of attorney for health and property and life insurance were going to be my responsibilty. I made the appointments for us, and we went together (in spite of his many excuses). While his wishes in many areas were not always forthcoming, the lawyer/broker urged him into decisions which had to be made. The fact that both of us attended those appointments was great because no explanation later was necessary.

As far as life insurance is concerned, term life is the best and most affordable especially when you''re young. Insurance salesmen, we found, would try to talk us into all the *benefits* of other types of products, but we found out that most of the benefit for these sales went to the salesman.

I posted earlier in this thread about the wisdom of disability policies. I had never really thought much about that (just one of the benefits we had), until I needed it. Without that coverage, we would have faced a drastic lifestyle change. It''s a great idea to read exactly what''s included by your employer (if anything) and then decide whether you need to purchase extra coverage. If you have questions about your coverage, ask your HR personnel.

: getting down off my soapbox right now:

 

[MichelleCarmen]

My husband and I both have life insurance policies for substantial amounts. I felt odd having one on my husband and not one on me, even though all our family said we shouldn''t put one on me or at least not one on me for the amount my husband and I agreed upon. I would want my husband/kids taken care of if something were to happen. We had to take physicals and blood work to get covered and luckily we qualified for the lowest rates.

We DO NOT have policies on our kids and I would never get one. When I was young, my parents had $10K on me and when I was in my early twenties, I cashed it in and got $1,000!

 

[pennquaker09]

I feel really bad saying this, but I had a cousin that died in a car accident and his mom had a policy out on him. She''s not one of my favorite people because money is WAY too important to her. From my understanding, she had policies (yes plural) of her own taken out on him, she received money from the insurance company of the car driver, AND she received money from the truck company that hit them. Like, she doesn''t even work to this day. And the irony of all of this is that the day before he was in the car accident, she made him move out.

 

[shimmer]

Date: 3/15/2008 12:18:55 AM
Author: pennquaker09
I feel really bad saying this, but I had a cousin that died in a car accident and his mom had a policy out on him. She''s not one of my favorite people because money is WAY too important to her. From my understanding, she had policies (yes plural) of her own taken out on him, she received money from the insurance company of the car driver, AND she received money from the truck company that hit them. Like, she doesn''t even work to this day. And the irony of all of this is that the day before he was in the car accident, she made him move out.

Woah, that''s harsh! A slightly better reason to get life insurance on your child is b/c they don''t have to qualify plus it''s really cheap as far as insurance goes. If your child was ever diagnosed with a disease, they would not be able to qualify (most likely) for insurance later in life, and their future family may have to suffer b/c of this.

 

[Girlrocks]

We have a $1M policy on both DH and I. We also have a $10,000 policy that covers all of our kids, which at first I was creeped out about, but our broker suggested it purely for the fact that they will not have to qualify for insurance later on. It is a 20 year policy, so it will cover them until they are adults and can increase the policy into one for each of them without having to re-qualify, go through medical testing, etc. Type 1 diabetes runs in DH family, and god forbid one of the kids was diagnosed with a condition like that, they would not be able to qualify for insurance without this policy in effect now. They didn''t have to do any testing or anything, or else I wouldn''t have done it. I had toxic shock syndrome a few years ago, and a softball size tumor in my chest 3 years ago, and when we increased our policies a year ago from $200,000 each to $1M each, it took 6 months to get mine approved, and I had to provide all of my medical records, CAT scans, surgery reports etc. for medical review. I was approved, but at the highest premium possible. After I had so many problems, and my tumor was benign, I''m at no more risk for having a recurrance than anyone else walking around, we did not want our kids to potentially not be able to get insurance when they were adults. DH is 5 years older, and our premiums are the same amount. $1M is a lot, but with 4 kids, we wanted to make sure that if anything happened to either of us, we would be able to pay off the house, cover child care cost which we don''t have now (I work from home) and not have to move from our home or disrupt the kids lives anymore than they already would be. With one of us gone, things would be difficult enough as a single parent to 4 kids without having to worry about losing our home, or any money worries. I own my own business, and have 4 employees, so we need to be able to cover business expenses until DH could sell the business if something happened to me. At first I thought $1M was a lot, but after paying off our house, living expenses for 1 adult and 4 kids for however many years, there probably would be enough left to contribute to each college education but not cover the entire cost. $1M does not go as far today as it used to.

 

[phoenixgirl]

DH and I just got some. I can''t remember our coverage, but I think it''s $500k for him and maybe $200k for me. We don''t have kids yet but will in the nearish future, but DH (who is a financial advisor) said it would be good for me to have insurance on him so that if he died, I could pay off the house and not worry about that. I definitely couldn''t afford the mortgage on my teacher''s salary. As for why he has some on me, I always make jokes that he must be plotting something . . . Again, I guess, it''s not a matter of survival but of not wanting to worry about money issues too if you''ve just sustained a terrible, life-altering loss.

 

[ljmorgan]

My husband and I both have term life insurance policies for 5x each of our salaries. When we have children we''ll probably purchase term life insurance for them as well, so they''ll always have access to insurance even if they develop an illness.

 

[crown1]

i feel this is a personal decision just as it is to insure jewelry. i think the general advice given here is to get insurance if you can not afford to replace it if lost or damaged. many young couples would have a struggle to come up with the money for burial if the need arose. i saw a tv commerial just in the past week that stated that the average cost of funeral expenses in the us is 6000. i don''t understand why some are saying it is creepy to take insurance on children.

my parents took small 20 year pay policies on their children as their parents had before them. we also took a small policy on our child. in most cases these policies are not needed, the policies then make a sort of investment that continues to grow for the insured long after they have matured. my parents gave their children the policies once they matured as we did our child. my mother continues to build dollars in a dime policy her parents took when she was a child. insurance is a part of life and many people insure their children''s lives with no ill will or bad thoughts. anyone think it creepy to have health insurance for children? i doubt that many would want to do without health insurance if they didn''t have to. to me, it is the same principal. jmho.

 

[UCLABelle]

My parents each have 1-million. I have $250,000 and so does my husband-to-be....We are just starting out in our careers, and as our careers move up, we will increase the amount....