Maryland Life Insurance
Maryland life insurance is not just for people who have children to support. Even if you are a single MD resident, having life insurance should be part of your overall financial plan. The truth is that most adults in Maryland should have an adequate amount of life insurance to pay for funeral and burial/cremation expenses, debts, and other financial obligations.
Maryland Life Insurance: Do You Need Coverage?
Many people don't think that they need life insurance coverage if they don't have a young family to support. This is not the case. Single people need life insurance coverage as well. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:
- Do you provide support for younger siblings or your parents?
- Have you accumulated debt that you don't want your family to be responsible for paying off if you passed away?
- Do you want to prevent grieved or financially strapped family members from covering the costs associated with your passing?
In either of these situations, having life insurance in place means that you can provide for loved ones or meet your financial obligations in the event of your death.
If you are married (whether you are in a two-income family or not), you need to have life insurance in place. Ask your self this: If you died, could your spouse pay all of the household expenses on his or her own? Life insurance can replace your income on a tax-free basis for several years so that your spouse doesn't have to deal with the possibility of needing to sell assets and/or move due to financial hardship.
People who have children want to make sure that they have funds to support them and possibly pay for post-secondary education. Life insurance can be used for this purpose if one (or both) parent passes away.
Full-time stay at home parents contribute to the household. Trying to replace all that a stay-at-home mom or dad does is very expensive. You need to consider new childcare, cooking, cleaning and travel duties. These add up fast! Having life insurance coverage in place means that the surviving parent can afford to get the help he or she needs to care for the children's needs.
In a situation where the sole wage earner dies, the proceeds from a life insurance policy can be used to finance job training and household expenses until the surviving spouse can find paid employment.
Maryland Life Insurance: How Much Coverage Do You Need?
Now that you understand that having life insurance in place is something you should consider, how do you know how much to buy? Most people don't need to worry about having too much insurance; it's much more likely that you are under-insured.
You can try to determine your needs on your own, but if the task seems too daunting, your Maryland life insurance agent has the training to do a “needs analysis” for you. He or she will then be able to recommend the right level of coverage and the type of policy that will suit your needs.
Maryland Life Insurance: Conducting A Needs Analysis
Your life insurance needs analysis will include the following items:
- A Review of Your Current Financial Situation (including income from all sources and expenses)
- A Projection of Your How Much Income You Will Need to Retirement
Once you (or your agent) have these figures, then the amount of income you currently contribute to the household will be deducted. This figure becomes part of the calculation to determine how much life insurance you need. For example, if you currently bring $25,000 per year into the household, you may want to make sure that your family has at least that much coverage until you would have reached retirement age. If you have 10 years to go, then you would be looking at a minimum policy of $250,000.
This figure doesn't take into account inflation or other life changes that may occur. For some people, having at least $1 million in life insurance coverage is not unreasonable.
Whatever level of coverage you are comfortable with, buy it now. Your premiums are not going to go down as you get older and you can always adjust the level of life insurance coverage you have in place as circumstances change.
Compare Maryland Life Insurance Quotes Online
You can find out more about Maryland life insurance right now. The handy Maryland life insurance quote tool at the top of this page can help you to get started finding the best MD life insurance policy for your needs. All you need to do is click on it and you can view quotes from top insurance companies. Get started finding Maryland life insurance now!