Now that the wedding is over and the beautiful vows have been recited, it’s time to put another milestone marital matter on the table: life insurance.
It may sound a bit morbid, but ensuring a proper policy in place can be one of the most romantic gestures you can make for your life mate. After all, there’s no better way to help ensure your assets are protected from things like lawsuits and accidents even if something happens to either of you.
Data finds that roughly 40% of Americans will leave behind a financial burden to a loved one in the event of their death. As important as this step is, it may be tough to figure out which is the right kind of policy for you and your partner. Fortunately we took a deep dive into a few options.
Term Life Insurance
Guardian Life describes this type of policy as the most straight forward form of life insurance in that you pay a premium for a set 10-year, 20-year, or sometimes 30-year time frame. If you pass away during this window, a payout is available to your beneficiary.
Supplemental Life Insurance
Supplemental life insurance is an additional policy that aims to make up for any areas your primary life insurance coverage doesn’t fulfill. Typically employers make it available to workers when they’re choosing life insurance options within a benefits package, but is completely employee-paid.
According to Aflac, this option allows you to add coverage in the event of accidental death. This type of add-on rider can provide extra benefits if you were to pass suddenly due to an unintentional death or dismemberment according to the company.
Joint Life Insurance Policies
Joint life insurance protects two people instead of one, but it only pays a single death benefit when one of the two individuals passes away as explained by Forbes. There are typically two types in this case, first-to-die joint life insurance and second-to-die life insurance.
Which is best?
According to experts, universal life insurance policies can be a healthy choice for spouses that aim to make their policy work harder for them, in that there is an investment and savings option.
Looking into companies like Lincoln Financial, which offer universal policies including indexed universal life (it offers a cash value component in addition to a death benefit) and variable universal life (active only as long as you’re alive and allows for a savings component).
Overall, to make the best decision for your family it may be wise to sit with a trusted insurance provider rep to weigh your options, or even taking the preliminary step and using tools like a life policy calculator can be a great way to land in a good spot.