Life Insurance - Protect your family!
This is a topic that most people don't want to address. But now that you have children it is extremely important for you and your spouse to consider increasing the value of your life insurance policies!  Let us tell you why.....

To protect your family in case of premature death and loss of income. Simply having a company sponsored life insurance policy is not enough in our day and age. Ask yourself...if something was to unexpectedly happen to myself or my spouse, would my children be able to live the in same financial lifestyle that they are accustom to now? Will there be enough money to help pay the mortgage and run the household? Will all the bills and taxes be paid? Will they have enough money to go to college if they decide to do so? Will funeral expenses be met? Do my husband and I want to be able to contribute to the financial demands of a wedding? Do I want to continue to provide a stream of income for my loved ones?

Your answers to the above questions will help you to determine how much of a dollar value your life insurance policy or policies should be. There are few types of policies you may want to consider. There are term life insurance policies in which you may invest which can expire in 10, 20 or 30 years. These policies generally have affordable monthly premiums in the beginning and will increase gradually as the years go by until the policy terminates or expires. Once the term policy expires you have the option to renew or terminate it. Another type of policy is a permanent life insurance policy (whole or universal). These policies combine a death benefit with a savings portion. The savings portion can build a cash value. A policy owner can borrow funds against the saving portion or sometimes the owner can withdraw the cash value to help meet future financial obligations (child's college education). Some policies will even have a cash surrender value if you decide to terminate the policy perhaps 10 years down the road.

You may want to consider a combination of the two types of policies described above. Maybe you are considering a permanent policy but may not be able to afford the monthly premium. So split it up! Remember ..you could eventually terminate the term policy 10 or 20 years down the road and still have the permanent policy in place for the rest of your life! Your premium payment on the permanent policy should not change and you typically are in a better financial position later in life!

Take action now before it is unfortunately to late! There are many companies out there that will give you free quotes. Note: As always do your research! Ask a lot of questions and read the fine print!

Another way to protect your family is through estate planning. Click here for an explanation of estate planning.