Frank

Arlington, TX.

Frank,

You may have term life insurance with your employer, with coverage equal to one or two times your annual salary. This is usually not enough life insurance to protect your family. Instead, you may need five to ten times your annual salary, depending on how many teen and how much debt you have.

Let’s assume that you contribute $50,000.00 per year in income or services to your household. If you were to die, let us further assume it would take approximately $50,000.00 per year to compensate for the financial hardship your loss creates. Deciding on the correct amount of coverage for that situation would require you deciding how many years after your death your lost contribution would need to continue.If we assume that the financial hardship created by your loss would only last 10 years after your death, then you would multiply $50,000.00 by 10 to arrive $500,000.00 as an adequate death benefit. In a situation where the financial hardship would last for the life of the beneficiary, a death benefit amount should be selected that if invested at a conservative rate of interest would yield a yearly return of $50,000.00. For example, a $500,000.00 death benefit invested at 10% would yield $50,000.00 per year.

Thanks for asking a great question.