Hi Sean, my wife and I recently had a little one and we have started thinking we should probably consider life insurance. We are not sure where to start, any tips? Thanks, Brandon

Hello Brandon, 

Life insurance can be a tricky topic. Nobody buys life insurance and then looks forward to dying. The value in having coverage is to make sure that if anything happened to you, your loved ones would be looked after, estate costs paid and debts are taken care of. I’ve heard clients tell me they don’t need life insurance because their partner would just sell the house and they’d be fine. But what if they don’t want to sell the house? What if they’d like to grieve and not have to go back to work the following week? You give your beneficiaries choice when you have life insurance. 

Term insurance is an affordable form of coverage that increases in cost after a specific period of time. Your coverage should align with your needs, for instance if you just had a child, you should consider a Term 20 policy which would provide a consistent cost while your child is young. 

The other common type of life insurance is loosely defined as permanent coverage. Universal Life and Whole Life  are common examples that come with a host of features and add-ons depending on your needs. These policies typically don’t increase in premium, but are more expensive than term insurance. They work well for estate planning purposes and can be a great long term investment. 

There are online calculators to determine how much coverage you should have, but working with an insurance agent would create comprehensive coverage to target all of your insurance needs.