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Life Insurance

thewright1

thewright1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 3, 2008
100
0
Who are you guys using for life insurance? A husband of a friend of my wife just recently passed away at a really young age and now I'm all freaked out. I think I need to get life insurance, who are you guys using? It's kind of scary with the economy and everything, you never know which company is gonna fold and leave you high and dry.
 
thewright1 said:
Who are you guys using for life insurance? A husband of a friend of my wife just recently passed away at a really young age and now I'm all freaked out. I think I need to get life insurance, who are you guys using? It's kind of scary with the economy and everything, you never know which company is gonna fold and leave you high and dry.
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I don't know where you live, but here in the UK, most employers cover their employees. My employer doesn't though, however, life insurance is a condition for obtaining a mortgage, which I/we do have.
 
stomer said:
I don't know where you live, but here in the UK, most employers cover their employees. My employer doesn't though, however, life insurance is a condition for obtaining a mortgage, which I/we do have.
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Im in the US, I'm self employed so I have to pay for my own =(
 
It all depends. Do you have a wife/kids that you need to make sure can make ends meet if something should happen to you? Do you have a substantial amount of debt that needs to be paid?

If you're don't need to make sure your family is comfortable (no wife/kids or everyone is grown and taking care of themselves) then you might just want to look at a small policy that could cover any outstanding debt that your inheritors might get stuck with.

If you have a wife/kids you might want to get with a financial representative (not necessarily an insurance agent) and work out how much insurance would be needed to ensure that they don't have to struggle too much to make ends meet should the unthinkable happen.

We're currently in the process of getting all of that stuff hammered out with our financial advisor. It's going to end up being an mess of policies, some of which expire (mortgage, and college for the kids) due to the debt only being incurred should I happen to pass on before the house is paid or college is done for the kids, and some of it is even longer term to make sure my wife would be OK should I pass on later in life. We're currently not set up very well. We have a policy to cover the mortgage should something happen to my wife or I, but not much in the way of helping to take care of our, soon to be, three kids.
 
I agree 100% with atszyman.

Although I think you should consult a financial advisor regardless of your situation (i.e. kids/no kids).

Personally I have my life insurance through New York Life. If they are in your area then I suggest getting in touch with someone there.

I too would avoid going through random insurance company for life insurance. I'm an insurance agent with AAA, and even though I'm licensed (it's a pretty easy test!) to sell life insurance in my state, I prefer not to because I just don't think I would be doing the customer justice. When thinking about life insurance you need to look at the big picture, not just a snapshot.

For the record, I have a $750,000 death benefit and it costs me about $28 a month.

Good luck!

:)
 
I'm wondering the same thing. I'm 23 years old, entering the work-force, and can get $94,000 life insurance for about $11 bucks a month.

Actually, now that I wrote the costs down, it looks pretty silly not to get it.
 
nizz said:
I'm wondering the same thing. I'm 23 years old, entering the work-force, and can get $94,000 life insurance for about $11 bucks a month.

Actually, now that I wrote the costs down, it looks pretty silly not to get it.
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$95k isn't all that much at all. That's enough for a middle America family to live for a year, maybe two at most before they cannot pay a house mortgage/buy food. Less if you've got kids. A million is a decent amount of life insurance, because its going to keep them comfortable while things settle out.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
$95k isn't all that much at all. That's enough for a middle America family to live for a year, maybe two at most before they cannot pay a house mortgage/buy food. Less if you've got kids. A million is a decent amount of life insurance, because its going to keep them comfortable while things settle out.
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Even that doesn't go amazingly far these days. Especially if you're spouse is trying to raise a kid or two, or three. It's very difficult for someone to work full time, take care of kids and actually manage to come out ahead. Child care is not cheap, admittedly once school starts things would be easier, but even then, how many people have a job that only works them from 7 to 3 so they can be home with the kids after school?

And of course if you want to be able to help your kids go to college...

The numbers we've been quoted are well over the million mark, and justifiably so.

As stated earlier, the amount varies greatly depending on your situation. For a single guy with no family the $95k should do well to retire any debt that their heir/beneficiary might incur but it's not anything to support dependents for any length of time.
 
Literally just got some through Matrix Direct. I was approved over the weekend.

A nurse came and took blood and urine, weight and height.

I was "good" for about 3 months prior to my test.

If you're the sole bread winner in your family I would recommend it.
 
We just started £300k life insurance on the two of us, 25 year term, payment is about £45 a month. Enough to pay off the mortgage should one of us pop it.

Like the guy says above, it's compulsory in the UK if you have a mortgage. Not sure if ours is good value or not, but my partner is 43, so that adds a bit, considering it will cover her up to age 68. From Scottish Widows.

Have to say, not too impressed with Scottish Widows, they have utterly failed to send us copies of our medical reports, despite us repeatedly asking for them over the past year.
 
steve2112 said:
Get about 10 times your annual income in term life.
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Ten times your income?!? :eek:

If you have obligations that are gonna require that much life insurance, you may be overextended just a tad bit - unless you're in a business partnership or something.

Most people (who aren't overextended) can get by with 3-5x their income. YMMV.
 
Tomorrow said:
Ten times your income?!? :eek:

If you have obligations that are gonna require that much life insurance, you may be overextended just a tad bit - unless you're in a business partnership or something.

Most people (who aren't overextended) can get by with 3-5x their income. YMMV.
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Well, 8-10 times. This will allow survivors to get by for years without your income. You don't want to just pay off bills when you can make sure they will be taken care of for years. Term is cheap enough that it won't be much more expensive than 5 times.
 
I would recommend to the MacRumors youth to learn from my experience and get life insurance while you can (i.e. while you're still young and healthy). I'm 40 and have several chronic health issues that prevent me from getting life insurance. (I have a small policy through work, but that's it.)
 
Tomorrow said:
Ten times your income?!? :eek:

If you have obligations that are gonna require that much life insurance, you may be overextended just a tad bit - unless you're in a business partnership or something.

Most people (who aren't overextended) can get by with 3-5x their income. YMMV.
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If you buy a house in the UK, you'll be lucky to get away with life insurance worth less than 10x income.

House prices in the UK are insane. Even if they go down by 20%, which they're not likely to do so, they're still insane.
 
RedTomato said:
If you buy a house in the UK, you'll be lucky to get away with life insurance worth less than 10x income.

House prices in the UK are insane. Even if they go down by 20%, which they're not likely to do so, they're still insane.
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That's nuts. I wouldn't even spend 3x my salary on a house. :eek:
 
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