Basic life insurance?

Question

Is basic life insurance one and a half times your salary?

Answer 1

The industry standard is somewhere between 8 and 20 times annual salary. But it depends on your debts, assets, number of children, ability for your spouse to make a living. For example if the husband is the primary bread winner making $150K and the wife is a stay home mom with 3 kids.  The life insurance may need to be enough to support the family and provide college funds for the three kids. The wife may not have the ability to ever get a job making the kind of money the husband earned. Do you want your surviving spouse to move into a trailer or maintain the lifestyle you gave them?

http://www.iii.org/individuals/life/

Answer 2

If you are talking about the basic insurance as part of a group insurance plan it could be a few different amounts depending on the insurer and what you employer set up.

It could be:

$25,000

$50,000

1 times salary

1.5 times salary

2 times salary

or something different ...

It is almost never a good idea to rely exclusively on your group life insurance.

Answer 3

I think it depends.........You want enough to bury you and let them have a party.

If your married with kids..basic means something different...a couple of hundred if you are the only breadwinner...........