Grief is hard enough. Don't leave them doing math too.

There's no single right number, but a common starting point is to add up what your income currently covers and what would still need to be paid if you weren't there. A simple framework is DIME: Debt, Income, Mortgage, and Education.

Estimate the debts someone would inherit or be affected by, the years of income your household would need to replace, your remaining mortgage, and any future education or childcare costs. Then subtract savings and any coverage you already have. The Coverage Calculator on this site walks through exactly that.

Buying far more than you need wastes money on premiums; buying too little leaves a gap. The goal is enough to keep the people who depend on you financially stable.

Term insurance covers you for a set number of years and is usually the most affordable way to get a large death benefit. It's well suited to temporary needs — raising children, paying off a mortgage, or replacing income during your working years.

Permanent insurance (whole or universal life) is designed to last your entire life and builds cash value over time, but costs considerably more for the same death benefit. It tends to fit lifelong needs like estate planning or providing for a dependent with lifelong needs.

Many people start with term because of the cost, and some choose a convertible term policy so they can switch to permanent later without a new medical exam.

Underwriting is how an insurer decides whether to offer you a policy and at what price. It usually involves an application with health and lifestyle questions, and sometimes a brief medical exam or a review of medical records.

Factors like age, health history, tobacco use, and occupation affect your rate. Being honest matters: misstatements discovered during the contestability period (often the first two years) can lead to a claim being denied.

If traditional underwriting is a concern, some policies use simplified or guaranteed-issue underwriting with fewer questions, though usually at a higher relative cost or with smaller benefits.

Waiting too long. Premiums generally rise with age and can increase after a health change, so coverage is often cheapest when you're younger and healthy.

Relying only on work coverage. Employer group life is a nice benefit but is usually modest and typically ends when you leave the job.

Never updating beneficiaries. Life events like marriage, divorce, or a new child are good prompts to review who's named on your policies and accounts.

Guessing at the amount. A quick needs analysis beats a round-number guess in either direction.

Employer group life insurance is a real benefit, but it comes with two limits worth knowing before you rely on it. First, the amount is usually modest — often one or two times your salary, which is well short of what most households would actually need. Second, and more surprising to people: it generally belongs to the job, not to you. Leave, get laid off, or retire, and the coverage typically ends within weeks.

You usually have two options at that point, and both are time-limited. Portability lets you keep the group term coverage by paying the premium yourself. Conversion lets you turn it into an individual permanent policy, generally without a new medical exam — valuable if your health has changed, though the premium is normally much higher than the group rate. Either way the window to apply is short, often 30 or 31 days, so it's easy to miss during a job change.

Many employers also offer supplemental (voluntary) life you can buy on top of the basic amount through payroll deduction, and often AD&D coverage. Keep in mind AD&D pays only if death or a serious physical loss comes from a covered accident — it pays nothing for death from illness, so it's an add-on rather than a substitute for life insurance.

The practical takeaway: treat work coverage as a supplement, not your foundation. An individual policy you own goes with you between jobs, and locking it in while you're younger and healthy is generally when it costs the least. You can look up any of these terms — portability, conversion privilege, certificate of coverage — in the Insurance Glossary.

A good habit is to revisit your coverage every few years and after any major life change: marriage or divorce, a new child, buying a home, a significant income change, or paying off large debts.

These moments change how much protection your household needs — sometimes more, sometimes less. Reviewing also lets you confirm your beneficiaries are still current.

Want to go deeper or get personalized guidance? A licensed insurance professional or your state's department of insurance can help with questions specific to your situation. Head to the Contact tab to reach out.

The most common type. You create it while you're alive and can change or cancel it anytime. You move assets into it and usually manage them yourself as the trustee, so day-to-day nothing really changes for you.

How it works: when you pass away (or become incapacitated), a successor trustee you named steps in and distributes or manages the assets according to your instructions — without probate, and privately. It's flexible, but because you keep control, it does not by itself reduce estate taxes or shield assets from creditors while you're living.

Once it's set up, you generally can't change or undo it, and you give up control of whatever you place inside it.

How it works: because you no longer own those assets, they typically leave your taxable estate and can gain protection from creditors and lawsuits. That trade-off — giving up control in exchange for tax and protection benefits — is the whole point. Used mainly for estate-tax planning and asset protection.

A trust created by your will, which only comes into existence after you die.

How it works: it's most often used to hold assets for minor children until they reach an age you choose, with a trustee managing the money in the meantime. Because it's created through your will, the assets do pass through probate first — unlike a living trust.

An irrevocable trust whose main job is to own your life insurance policy.

How it works: because the trust — not you — owns the policy, the death benefit can pass outside your taxable estate and be managed for your beneficiaries under rules you set in advance. This is a common way to control how and when life insurance proceeds are used for young children, rather than handing a large sum to an 18-year-old all at once.

Holds assets for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from means-tested government benefits like Medicaid or SSI.

How it works: a trustee uses the funds for extra needs those benefits don't cover — therapies, equipment, quality-of-life expenses — while the beneficiary's eligibility is preserved because they never directly own the money. This one is specialized and should always be set up with an experienced attorney.

A trust with built-in limits on how much a beneficiary can access at once, and protection from that beneficiary's creditors.

How it works: instead of a lump sum, the trustee releases money gradually or for specific purposes. It's useful when a beneficiary may struggle to manage a large inheritance, or when you want to shield the funds from their potential debts or divorce.

A pair of trusts married couples use together, often in blended families or larger estates.

How it works: when the first spouse dies, assets are split so the surviving spouse is provided for during their lifetime (the "marital" or "A" trust), while another portion is set aside (the "bypass" or "B" trust) to pass to chosen heirs — frequently children from a prior relationship — and, historically, to help minimize estate taxes.

A trust that benefits a charity, sometimes while still providing income to you or your family for a period.

How it works: depending on the structure, you might place assets in the trust, receive income (or give income to charity) for a set number of years, and direct the remainder to the other party at the end — often with tax advantages along the way.