[quote=UCGal]Also – look at what your insurance needs really are. Insurance agents will try to convince you that you need X million. In reality look at what expenses your wife would have (burial and income replacement) and work from there.
For us – we figured the surviving spouse would be fine supporting themselves and the kids if the mortgage was gone… And we want to cover the kids college. So that’s the number we used for insurance…[/quote]
Their estimates for the amount of coverage needed are ridiculous. They assume that as soon as one spouse gets the money, they’re going to stuff it in a mattress until it’s time to pay things off (college, etc.), and never work again, completely ignoring what decades of investing (not to mention working) can do. When we were interviewed by the nice NYL man, he came up with a number well over $1m+ each. $500k fit our situation much better.
