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EARLIER THIS YEAR, Pacific Life Insurance Company agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought by policyholders. At issue were marketing materials that its customers argued were misleading. While Pacific Life admitted no wrongdoing, it agreed to a settlement of $58 million.
This wasn’t an isolated case. Insurers that sell permanent life insurance policies, including whole life and universal life, are often on the receiving end of lawsuits because of the way that they promote their products. In another recent case, the late race car driver Kyle Busch sued his insurance agent, arguing that he’d sold him coverage costing millions that was billed as a “tax-free retirement plan.”
These cases highlight the fundamental issue with permanent life insurance: Unlike term life policies, whole life and universal life policies combine two somewhat separate features in a way that often leads to confusion. On the one hand, they provide life insurance. That part is straightforward. But they also include an investment account—referred to as “cash value”—that sits alongside the insurance.
These lawsuits and other criticism of permanent life insurance products stem mostly from the way the investment component is advertised. Because no one can predict how any investment will perform in the future, life insurance salespeople provide prospective customers with illustrations of how the investments might perform over time. The problem, though, is that these are merely projections, and disappointment can result if the reality of the cash value’s growth falls short of those illustrations.
It’s for that reason that I don’t recommend permanent life insurance. Instead, my recommendation is to opt for simple term coverage, which provides insurance without the complication of an investment component.
If you’re shopping for term coverage, though, there are still some questions to consider, including the following:
Should everyone have life insurance? If you aren’t married and have no dependents, then I’d argue you do not need life insurance. Some salespeople will make the case that you should purchase coverage when you’re young, before you have a family, because you’ll receive a better rate, but I’d be wary of that argument. If the insurer is offering you a better price on a product you don’t need, that doesn’t somehow make it a better deal.
Another group that typically has no need for life insurance: folks who are financially independent. If you’re retired and living off of your savings, or have assets sufficient that you could retire, then in that case, you likely don’t need life insurance.
One exception to the above might be for business owners, where life insurance can help facilitate buy-sell agreements between partners, but that is a narrow use case.
How much coverage should you purchase? I suggest the following formula.
If you own a home and have a mortgage, I would start with the mortgage balance. While it isn’t necessary to pay off the mortgage when a spouse or parent dies, I’ve found that it can make life much easier for survivors if they aren’t burdened by a mortgage.
If you have children, I would total up the estimated cost of all of their future tuition. Depending on their ages, this can be a difficult exercise because college costs vary so widely and because tuition has historically increased faster than inflation. In addition, some children might earn scholarships, while others might attend pricey schools and go on to graduate school. Recognizing these unknowns, I suggest making your best guess, perhaps going with the midpoint of the highest and lowest potential numbers.
The next step would be to build an endowment of sorts to fund annual living expenses for your family. For this element, you could approach it the same way you’d think about building a portfolio for retirement. Suppose, for example, you’d like your family to have $100,000 per year. Assuming a 4% or 5% portfolio withdrawal rate, that would translate to a portfolio of $2 to $2.5 million.
For the endowment portion, keep in mind that you can subtract your existing savings. If you already have $1 million saved, that would reduce the coverage you’d need by $1 million.
The final element in deciding how much coverage to purchase: Be sure to round up. As we’ve seen in recent years, inflation can stretch budgets. And your family’s needs might simply change over time.
How long a term should you choose? In working through this formula, you’ll likely notice a wrinkle, which is that some needs are temporary while others will be longer term. Tuition, for example, will have a defined timeframe. The endowment for living expenses, on the other hand, would need to provide for your spouse’s needs indefinitely.
Fortunately, term life insurance is flexible, and there are two ways you can cover differing time periods. The first strategy would be to purchase two policies. The first would provide funds for tuition and would be timed to expire when your youngest child is age 22 and likely out of school. The second policy, to meet ongoing expenses, would be timed to expire around the time you expect to reach financial independence—around age 60, for example.
An alternative approach would be to purchase a single larger policy. Because it can be difficult to predict both your family’s needs and the growth of your savings over time, the single policy approach can, counterintuitively, provide greater flexibility than committing to two separate policies. That’s because many term policies allow the coverage level to be dialed down at the owner’s request.
If you’re married, should each spouse carry their own coverage? In this case, the approach I suggest is to insure each spouse in relation to the income he or she brings in. Even if your family could survive on one income, a reality is that when one spouse dies, the other may not be able to work as much. That’s frequently the case when there are children at home. So I recommend that both spouses carry life insurance until it’s clear you’ve reached financial independence.
What if you have group coverage through your employer? On the one hand, this is a nice benefit, but since you might change jobs in the future, I wouldn’t factor in the benefits of any employer-provided coverage.
A final point: While life insurance is important, don’t overlook disability coverage, which can be just as important.
Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam’s Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.
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