When to apply for life insurance

Life milestones, such as having a baby or buying your first home, can often be a good reminder time to check in with personal finances to ensure that everything is running according to plan.

That could mean looking at your budget, your investment portfolio, and yes, even your life insurance coverage. Here are six pivotal points in life to reexamine your life insurance coverage to make sure it’s still matching your needs and goals. 

You’re getting married 

It’s not romantic to think about, but getting married is also a marriage of finances, and that includes life insurance as protection in case something should happen to you, whether you’re the breadwinner or not. Life is expensive, and when you do it with someone else, it’s important not to leave them with a lifestyle they can’t afford if something happens to you. This is a good time to consider getting a life insurance policy with proper coverage to cover your lifestyle or increasing your policy to cover your combined debts, such as student loans.  

You’re having a baby 

Add getting life insurance or changing your coverage to your pre-baby to-do list. The average cost of raising a child to age 17 in the United States is close to $250,000—and that’s before you factor in college tuition.  If you were to pass unexpectedly, life insurance can cover the costs of education or daycare, provide for everyday living expenses, and even create a lump sum that helps fund the college education of your children.

Each time you have a child, it’s a good opportunity to look at your overall coverage amount and level it up accordingly. And yes, stay-at-home parents need coverage, too! 

You’re getting a mortgage 

Getting a mortgage for a new home is a big step in securing a home for your family. It’s a debt—often the largest one someone will incur in their lifetime—and one that will need covering should something happen. When you start looking at homes and mortgages, also examine your life insurance coverage to make sure that it will cover the amount of your mortgage.

You have aging parents 

It’s no fun to think about your parents getting older, but the truth is, we all age. If you have aging parents who could potentially rely on you for financial support, such as in an assisted living facility or for other healthcare needs, you should check your life insurance coverage. You may need to go up in coverage to help accommodate these potential costs. 

You’ve saved enough for retirement 

If you reach a point where you’ve saved enough money for retirement, and your children are grown and independent, congratulations! That’s a huge milestone.  When this happens, you may not need as much life insurance coverage to provide a financial cushion for your family in the event you pass away. 

You’ve paid off major debts 

If you have paid off much of your existing debt such as your mortgage or student loans, you could potentially decrease your coverage.  If you are debt-free, you will no longer need to worry about family members paying off your loans and obligations if something happens to you.  

How Ladder makes it easy 

Ladder makes it easy to apply for term coverage—you could even do it in line at the grocery store, it’s that fast. We also make it easy to adjust it—in life insurance terms, we call it “laddering up” or “laddering down” coverage, so when you pay off that mortgage or student loans, you have more than one thing to celebrate.  You’re fully in control of your policy, and you can access it anytime, anywhere. 

Ready to reexamine your life insurance? Start by figuring out how much coverage you need with our easy online calculator.