Most important factor is your age/health today.
$1M term may not be enough with inflation.
A 20 year term isn’t that expensive in your 20’s or 30’s. At least cover the kids through college and pay off a mortgage.(declining balance)
If you have are able to create a part time schedule C business, you may be able to deduct the cost of life insurance as a business expense.
(**Consult your tax advisor)
Also, do not discount the value of your wife’s contribution. If something happened to her and you had to hire help to replace her to take care of kids etc while you were making a living, it wouldn’t be cheap. Consider a $500K policy on her.
If you are young, it is cheap insurance.
Even in mid 40’s and decent health, $1M 20 yr term
is around $1500 a year, level premium. When you are younger it’s much cheaper.
Pay your premiums annually rather than monthly or quarterly and you will usually save a bit on the premium.
Find an agent that you like, the pricing is controlled by the insurance company, but the agent gets a nice commission, I think it may be equal to the annual premium, with possible residuals.
Stick with a major well rated company and hope that they are around longer than you are. 😉
Don’t forget that you pay for most insurance policies hoping that you will never need them.
With a term policy, this one is no exception!
The amount you need boils down to how nice you want to be to her next husband, and if you know the joke, don’t worry about your golf clubs as he wont be using them because he is left handed.
