My fatehr retired as a 15/ 10 IG and had the same decison. First thing is to point out that your missed the mark by not looking into this 10 or 15 years ago when you could have run the numbers to purchase a life insurance contract which would have allowed you to take the higher payout and would have covered you in the event of her death. I say this becaue if you ahve children and they elect to follow in mom’s footsteps they may wnat this information.

The next thing is to look at the age disparity. If you are equal in ages the likelihood of you outliving her is statistically small unless you have family histories that would suggest otherwise.

The safe play is to simply accept the death benefit. The opportunist in me says that if you know that financially you can weather a storm in the event of her unforseen death then go for the higher payout. The difference is only going to effect how much wealth you leave to your children.

If you want a hedge find out what the difference would be between the full payout and the reduced payout and see how much whole life insurance that would buy you. If you die before her than she can reassign the policy to your children. In this scenario you wouldn’t have wasted the reduced payout. Value of the poicy might also offset the higher cost of medical insurance for you.