A CPA Talks About Buying Life Insurance
Thursday, March 11th, 2004Not everyone needs life insurance. The first thing to do is make sure you need it.
Life insurance is really meant for your family members or other dependents who rely
on your earnings.
Why You Buy Life Insurance
You buy life insurance so that, if you die, your dependents can live the same kind of
life they live now. Strictly speaking, then, life insurance is only a means of replacing
your earnings in your absence. If you don t have dependents (say, because you re
single) or you don t have earnings (say, because you re retired), you don t need life
insurance. Note that children rarely need life insurance because they almost never
have dependents and other people don t rely on their earnings.
Life Insurance Comes in Two Flavors
If you do need life insurance, you should know that it comes in two basic flavors:
term insurance and cash-value insurance (also called “whole life” insurance).
Ninety-nine times out of 100, (more...)
