LIFE INSURANCE
are your loved ones protected?
Life Insurance is one of those topics that most people try to avoid thinking about, talking about or even acting upon. After all, who wants to think about the time when we are gone, about leaving our loved ones behind?
But precisely for this reason, looking into purchasing Life Insurance is extremely important.
Each and every one of us wants to take care of our kids, our spouses, our parents. Life Insurance is a way to ensure that our family can maintain its standard of living amidst the chaos they will inevitably be dealing with.
types of life insurance
While life insurance has a number of different types of policies, there are two distinct types of life insurance: Term Life and Permanent Life.
Both of these types of life insurance product have their advantages and disadvantages.
- Term Life: As the name implies, this life insurance product is purchased for a specific term. The term (or the length of the policy) is typically 5, 10 or 30 years, although other period of time may be negotiated with the carrier. Your monthly premium is calculated at the underwriting stage and can be affected by multiple factors such as your age, your habits (smoker?), your weight etc. Your monthly premium stays the same for the duration of your policy. However, when the policy term comes to an end, your premium paid is lost – much like an auto or a home insurance policy.
- Permanent Life: This type of life insurance is basically a term life insurance with an added savings component. This policy can’t be canceled as long as the premium is paid as required by the policy contract. As premiums are paid, a portion of these premiums is being invested at insurance carrier’s discretion and the gains are accumulated as “cash value”. The premiums for whole life insurance products are often much higher that term life premium for a comparable death benefit.
DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH COVERAGE?
Now that you are familiar with different types of life insurance, ask yourself this very important question - Do I have enough coverage?
The amount of coverage that is optimal for you will depend on many things. Let’s take a look at a few of them:
- Your family’s needs- the goal of a life insurance is to protect your family’s standard of living and to allow them to maintain same or similar lifestyle when your income is not there to support them. Do you have outstanding debt like mortgage or car payment? Any unpaid medical bills? Tallying up all your household’s expenses will give you an idea how much your family needs on a monthly basis to live on.
- Future financial obligations – future financial obligations should also be taken into consideration. Do you have a young child that you are planning to put through college? The tuition cost should be factored into your calculations.
- Current accumulated savings / other sources of income - these will partly offset the loss of your income
do you have enough coverage?
Brandon Insurance is an independent insurance agency that has been providing Florida residents with insurance solutions for over 60 years.
Here at Brandon Insurance, we believe in sitting down with each of our customers and helping them assess their current situation.
We are not biased towards any product – we see our role in being your partner and advisor. We will present you with different options and make our recommendations based on our vast knowledge and experience with your unique needs in mind.