Getting life insurance may not be a top 5 New Year’s resolution in a normal year, but if 2020 taught us anything it’s that life is unpredictable. And fragile. We firmly believe getting life insurance—or reviewing your existing policy—should be a popular New Year’s resolution. It’s an easy way to achieve something really important, quickly and easily.

Why do you need life insurance?

Well, you don’t really need it, but your loved ones who depend on you do. What would happen to your loved ones if you were no longer there to provide income or care to them?  If your family includes a spouse and children, consider whether single parenthood would be compatible with your spouse’s current job and your childcare situation.

You don’t want to put your loved ones in the position of having to navigate financial hardship on top of grieving. The best solution is to get a policy in place that ensures there’s no scenario where you’d inflict avoidable suffering on the ones you love.

Already have a life insurance policy?

Now is the perfect time to review any policy you already have

There are two main reasons to review your life insurance policy every few years, or whenever you experience a major life event (birth of a child, promotion at work, etc.):

1. Your coverage needs may have changed. Have your needs changed? As our lives change, so do our insurance needs. For example, the $1 million 20 year term policy someone put in place when they got married might be quite inadequate 5 years later, when they’re expecting their first child, own a home, and have higher earnings.
2. You could get a better deal on your policy. Oftentimes people get steered to a carrier that’s not the best choice for them, and end up overpaying for life insurance for years. Other times people make healthful adjustments to their lifestyle, or get several years beyond a health event with no further issues. These can be opportunities to realize significant savings on your life insurance coverage.

Think you’re covered because you have life insurance through work? Think again.

Most people think their workplace life insurance is inexpensive. It’s not. 

Individual policies offer better-quality coverage more cheaply for most people. We’re happy to prove it to you or advise in the rare instance a workplace policy is the best choice for your situation.

There are three main reasons that relying on your workplace coverage is usually a bad idea:

1. The odds are excellent that you could save money by getting an individual policy. A lot of money. And saving money is a long-standing top 5 New Year’s resolution!
2. When you have financial dependents, workplace coverage is usually nowhere close to enough—try our life insurance calculator to learn how much life insurance would cover the needs of your loved ones if you were no longer there to support them.
3. Most workplace coverage is not portable to another employer if you change jobs. In rare instances where it is portable, you are often required to convert your coverage to a high-priced, low-quality permanent policy.

Financial New Year’s Resolutions sound good, but is life insurance really a top priority?

We 100% agree that your total financial picture matters. We’re a radically different insurance agency: we will straight up tell you that whole life insurance makes no sense if you’re not yet maxing out your 401k. Our Financial Action Plan  is here to help look at all your financial priorities (retirement savings, college savings, debt, etc.) and put insurance decisions in context. It’s free to use, easy to complete, and gives you personalized recommendations. Check it out.

After you get your personalized AboveBoard Financial Action Plan, we recommend checking out this (not personalized, but still helpful) New Year’s financial resolutions checklist.