If your paycheck stopped tomorrow, the mortgage would not. Andrea adds up what your family would still owe and still spend, then sizes the coverage to that.
Andrea will go through it with you and come back with the real number. If you would rather not wait, call (323) 393-5839.
Sample rate for a healthy non-tobacco applicant. Term costs less because it ends. Whole life costs more because it never does. Your age, health and state move the number, and a carrier sets it only after underwriting.
None of them is a multiple of your salary pulled off a chart.
Life insurance pays a lump sum to the people you name when you die. Term covers a set number of years and costs the least. Whole life costs more but never expires and builds cash value. Which one fits depends on how long the money is needed, not on which product is better.
The mortgage balance, the car loan, any credit card or medical debt. This is the piece that would otherwise land on whoever is left holding the deed.
How many years until the youngest is out of the house or your spouse reaches retirement, multiplied by what your household spends. That window is what term is built for.
Group coverage through work, an old policy, savings. Andrea subtracts it. Group coverage usually ends the day the job does, which is why it rarely covers the whole gap on its own.
College, a business buyout, a gift to a church or a grandchild. Anything you want funded regardless of when you die belongs in permanent coverage, not term.
Plenty of people end up with both: term for the mortgage years and a smaller permanent policy underneath it.
Covers 10, 15, 20 or 30 years at a premium that does not move during the term. It is the cheapest way to buy a large death benefit, and it expires at the end of the term.
Premium and death benefit are both guaranteed for life, and the policy builds cash value you can borrow against. It costs several times what the same face amount costs in term.
Most term policies include a conversion privilege that lets you swap into a permanent policy with no new health questions, up to a deadline written in the contract. Andrea checks that deadline before you buy, because once it passes the conversion is gone.
Nothing gets submitted until you say so, and the help costs you nothing either way.
Debts, income years and what is already in place. Fifteen minutes on the phone gets you a real figure.
Andrea shows both against the same need so you can see what the extra premium is actually buying.
Some policies issue on health questions alone. Others take an exam. Andrea tells you which route you are on before you start.
The same person handles all four, so you are never starting over with a stranger.
Advantage, Supplement and Part D plans compared against your own doctors and your own prescription list.
See Medicare helpA smaller whole life policy sized to a funeral and the bills that come with it, usually with no medical exam.
See final expenseTurning part of your savings into income that keeps arriving, with the surrender rules explained up front.
See annuitiesFamily Solutions Center is Andrea Cannon. She walks you through the options and she files the application. Two years later, when a claim comes up or your plan changes underneath you, she is still the one on the line.
She covers Medicare, final expense, life insurance and annuities. Ask about a drug plan in the fall and about life insurance in the spring, and you explain your situation once.
Add up what would still have to be paid: the mortgage, other debts, and the years of income your household would lose. Then subtract your group coverage and savings. What is left is the gap. Andrea walks the numbers with you rather than quoting a rule of thumb.
Term if the need has an end date, like a mortgage or the years until your kids are grown. Whole life if the need never ends, like final expenses or money you want to leave behind no matter when you die. Neither one is better in the abstract.
Not always. A lot of carriers now issue smaller policies on health questions and database checks alone. Larger face amounts and older applicants are more likely to need an exam, which the carrier pays for and sends someone to your home to do.
The coverage ends. If you still need it, you can apply again at your current age and health. Or you use the conversion privilege in the policy, which moves you into a permanent policy with no new health questions. That option has a deadline, so it is worth knowing yours.
Life insurance death benefits are generally received income-tax-free by the beneficiary. Estate tax is a separate question that depends on the size of the estate and how the policy is owned, and that one belongs with a tax advisor.
There is a contestability period, two years in nearly every state, during which the insurer can review the application if a claim comes in. After that window the policy generally cannot be contested except for outright fraud. The practical lesson is to answer every health question accurately.
Andrea starts with what you are protecting, then shows you what covering it costs in term and in permanent.
Andrea has your request and will reach out at the time you picked. If you would rather not wait, call (323) 393-5839.
