Graduation is a meaningful milestone. It’s the culmination of years of hard work, personal growth and educational investments. From a financial planning perspective, graduation also offers a valuable life insurance inflection point with significant cost savings benefits to consider — both for parents of new graduates and for graduates themselves. For parents, if you secured a term life insurance policy when your child was younger, graduation season is a great time to re-evaluate what you are spending on coverage. If you no longer have to pay tuition, and your child is going out into the working world and will have his or her own income, the coverage you had in place to ensure financial support can most likely be reduced, if not terminated. If you still want to maintain a certain level of coverage, it’s good practice to take stock of how your financial situation has changed over time. For instance, you may have paid off your mortgage, or your personal investments may have grown over time — such that you no longer need as much coverage. At Ladder, we give our customers the ability to easy reduce or “ladder down” their term insurance policy with just a few simple taps or clicks. And if the time has come to cancel your policy, you can do that instantly on your account page with no cancellation fees. Your costs tend to reduce in proportion with your level of coverage, which makes it easy to save money. For recent graduates, starting out on your own is a great opportunity to start thinking about managing your own financial future. Today’s education costs are not inexpensive, and many of today’s graduates carry a reasonable amount of student loan debt – last year, the average student loan debt for graduates was almost $40,000, up six percent from the year prior. If you don’t want to pass on student loan debt to your parents or other family members, getting a basic life insurance policy in place is great financial planning. An added bonus is that life insurance rates tend to be extremely low (like $10-20 a month low) when you are young and healthy. For example, a 24 year old non-smoker in great health could pay less than $10/month for a $100,000 10 year term life insurance and $11/month for a 20 year policy. (If you want to see what your rate might be, you can get a quote here). So if you get a term life insurance policy in place when you are young, you could have financial peace of mind for the next several decades, and save thousands of dollars in the process. Additionally, your policy could provide you with a valuable financial safety net as you achieve new milestones in life (marriage, kids, home ownership). Over the years, you would still pay the same low monthly rate you secured in your 20s, if you purchase your policy while you are young. At Ladder we’re always happy to help and we want the very best for our customers. If you have any questions please do email us and we would be happy to answer your questions and help you think through your coverage options – no strings attached! About us: Ladder wants to help people live their best lives, so we built life insurance that is instant, simple and smart. We offer direct-to-consumer, fully underwritten, term life insurance online. We do not charge policy fees and we do not employ commissioned sales agents. You can apply for life insurance coverage in minutes and get an instant decision. You can also decrease your coverage online over time, with no fees or penalties, so you can adjust your coverage as your family’s life needs change.