Life Insurance after Fire

[Beldar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by exnavynuke What are you insuring for? Life insurance is generally bought to take care of dependents financially in the event of your death. If you're financially independent, then your dependents should be taken care of now and in the case of your death by your existing finances presumably, and no insurance would be necessary so I wouldn't buy any at all.

Yes, I'm in agreement. DW & I dropped it after we FIRE'd. The only "Life" insurance we have today (AD&D) is what is complimentary from such organizations such as AAA, NRA, etc. Small payouts but free nevertheless.


_B

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TNBigfoot Haven't seen this topic come up. What do folks on this forum do for life insurance after you loose company sponsored plans? My first Inclination was to not buy any additional but beginning to think About a 10-15 yr term policy in case anything happens.

Once we were financially set, we cancelled my life insurance policy.

Life insurance is designed to compensate people who depend on your income for the loss of it. That's all.

Since by definition, you are no longer dependent on your income when you are financially independent, you no longer need life insurance. If you need life insurance "in case anything happens" then you aren't really financially independent yet.

(There are a few more subtle cases where life insurance is used to create a legacy and allow you to deplete your assets more fully, but those are not the basic point of life insurance.)

[Walt34]

I have some via a former employer but I don't pay for it. It decreases over time and drops to zero when I turn 70, which isn't that far away. We have enough other assets that DW will be fine with the 30% drop in pension when I assume room temperature and especially if that happens after she is age 66 & a few months.

[Brat]

PenFed pays out $500 in case of my death for no cost. I looked at First Tech's policy, I am too old to benefit.

[euro]

Agree with others, the FI part of FIRE means, by definition, that life insurance is not needed.

[wmc1000]

Not needed true but we kept ours in effect and we put them in paid up status so no payments due. The cash value increases at slightly over 2% per year which isn't great and the death benefit is still over 7 times the cash value which will pass to our kids.

[Blue Collar Guy]

i took my max pension, that means for me when i drop dead my bride gets zero pension, zero health care, they had options &, choices, on how i could take less of a pension and they would pay her for the rest of her life, it was expensive. so i took out 2.5 million ,30 year term, cost 5100 a year i pay once a year. i came up with this magical number as that is what the actuary at the pension office told me what my pension was worth, whether he was right or not i will never know but thats why i got that amount, the bride was a house wife, it was my job to provide and i am 100 % positive im going to go wayyy before her(at least i hope), i dont want her wanting for anything after i leave, all that being said, we have triple what i started with when i retired in 2008, the reason as you might guess is the market was at near low when i left in october 2008, and we spend less than my pension pays out, looks like it was a waste of money to get it, but it was my job to protect the bride, and that was my reasoning. we discussed this when i got the insurance, and we discussed it a few months ago when the 5100 was due, we agreed to keep it in place, she will give it as she sees fit to any grand kids if we ever get any, and she said she will have nice flowers sent to my grave at least once a year hahah

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Collar Guy ...and she said she will have nice flowers sent to my grave at least once a year hahah

Did you extract a promise that she has to wear black for a year before beginning partying with the pool boy?

[Blue Collar Guy]

i was hoping for at least 3 years, but id be happy if she wore it till the burial

[CRLLS]

I think it all depends on how one calculates the death possibilities and expected expenses for just one surviving member. If, starting tomorrow, one can live nicely on one SS check and your investments, then you are golden IMO. No "need" for life insurance. When calculating, don't forget to consider that expenses will go down. 1 health insurance cost. Possible downsizing of domicile, etc. In our case, our Term life policy will expire at the time our SS begins. I know it is different for others. This is just one point of reference.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Collar Guy looks like it was a waste of money to get it, but it was my job to protect the bride, and that was my reasoning. we discussed this when i got the insurance, and we discussed it a few months ago when the 5100 was due, we agreed to keep it in place

So it evolved from "a way to protect the surviving spouse" into "a way to create a better legacy"?

How old were you when you took out the policy?

[traineeinvestor]

I cancelled it as soon as we achieved FI. By definition, if there is enough money to support our current standard of living while I am alive there is more than enough to support DW, DD1 and DD2 after I am gone. FI turns life insurance into an unnecessary expense that serves no useful purpose.

It helps that there is no estate duty + we are not reliant on any income streams that depend on me being alive to receive them.

Put differently, cancelling the life insurance pays for an additional holiday each year.

[Newventurer]

I carry it as a tax efficient way to leave assets to children from a prior marriage.

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TNBigfoot Haven't seen this topic come up. What do folks on this forum do for life insurance after you loose company sponsored plans? My first Inclination was to not buy any additional but beginning to think About a 10-15 yr term policy in case anything happens.

I terminated my employer sponsored term insurance after I retired. We are 100% debt free and have sufficient income streams to cover us both. The question to ask is what are you insuring when you retire? For us the expense was not worth it given our cash and investment reserves.

[imoldernu]

Looked at a policy for my age. $2500/yr. for $25,000 policy.
Then I looked up the word "actuary".

[Blue Collar Guy]

i was 46 years old when i took it, and i guess if the stock market tanks she will still be protected and if the stock market continues to boom it will be a legacy

[Blue Collar Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 I terminated my employer sponsored term insurance after I retired. We are 100% debt free and have sufficient income streams to cover us both. The question to ask is what are you insuring when you retire? For us the expense was not worth it given our cash and investment reserves.

my pension dies with me, so im insuring she continues to be able to do what she wants to do after i croak

[Out of Steam]

I have both term insurance through work, and a level term policy with the period ending in 2018.

Thinking I may need to keep a smaller term policy for about five years after that to supplement my wife's income until she can take Social Security.

[street]

We will keep ours but ours are paid up policy's. I had LIP when I was working but also had a policy on me and my wife we paid for.

I intend to keep them and it will tax free money for someone when we die.

[Souschef]

I had term insurance when my late wife was alive, but saw no purpose in that afterwards.
I have remarried, and there are enough assets to protect her without insurance.