Life insurance is an essential safety net that often gets overlooked. As significant life events occur, it’s crucial to evaluate and reassess your coverage needs as you may discover your current coverage no longer meets your financial needs. Life insurance isn’t one-size-fits-all, so make sure you have the right coverage for you and your family. Knowing when to increase coverage is important for ensuring you and your family remain protected. Here are a few key life events and circumstances that signal it may be time to reevaluate your coverage.
The Birth of a Child
Welcoming a new baby is a momentous occasion, but it also brings new financial responsibilities. With the welcoming of a new baby, it’s essential to reassess your coverage. You want to ensure that your child is financially supported. With a wide range of expenses from medical expenses, childcare, education, transportation, the list goes on and on. It’s important to ensure your coverage is enough to help safeguard your child’s future and provide the financial stability they may need.
Marriage
When you experience a life-changing event, like marriage, it’s important to think about the financial impact on your loved ones if the unexpected were to happen. Assessing your financial situation and considering future expenses is key to ensuring your spouse will be taken care of if your income is no longer available. By increasing your life insurance coverage, you can help provide peace of mind and financial security for your partner in the event of your passing.
Buying a New Home
When expanding a family, larger homes are often a necessity. Purchasing a home is a major financial responsibility and one of the largest financial commitments you will make. Ensuring your mortgage is covered should an unexpected event take place is crucial to your family’s peace of mind. With increasing coverage to cover the mortgage, make sure you consider the property taxes, maintenance, utilities and other on-going costs.
Career Change
With income changes such as a new position or raise, your financial needs may also change. Revisiting your coverage and making sure it aligns with your new reality is important. Secondly, if you or your spouse decide to become a stay-at-home parent, revisiting coverage to for unexpected events would be crucial for the well-being of your family. Similarly, as retirement age approaches, life insurance can still serve as a financial safety net for your spouse or heirs, as they may lose access to retirement or benefit payments after your passing.
Health and Lifestyle Changes
We can’t predict what the future has in store for us. Increasing your coverage now could save you money later should health issues arise. Major health related issues cause individuals to experience higher premiums and harder time getting coverage. Additionally, improving your health could help lower your premiums. Quitting smoking, losing weight or other significant changes you may qualify for lower premiums or better coverage. Of course, age is one of the most important factors in determining
premiums so securing coverage early is always a wise move. If you find yourself wanting to indulge in high-risk activities, such as extreme sports and even certain professions, you may want to increase coverage to account for the added risks.
Life is constantly changing, as are your financial responsibilities. If you find that any of these major life events apply, it may be the time to reevaluate your coverage and think about increasing it to secure you and your family’s future. Time to reevaluate your coverage? Increasing coverage now ensures your loved ones are financially protected in your absence. The right amount of coverage can offer peace of mind and financial security for the ones you care about most. Speak with an advisor to review your coverage if you are unsure about the coverage you need or are ready to increase your policy.
