Life insurance in Long Beach
Term life insurance covers you for a set number of years, usually ten, twenty, or thirty, and pays out if you die during that period It is the least expensive way to cover a mortgage and the years until your children are grown, which is what most families actually need.
Permanent life insurance covers you for life and builds cash value over time. It costs considerably more per dollar of coverage, and it suits a narrower set of situations. We will tell you when it fits and, more often, when it doesn’t.
The two kinds
Assuming work coverage is enough. Group life through an employer is often one or two times your annual salary, which does not clear a mortgage. Coverage usually ends when your employment ends, which can make replacing it difficult.
Guessing at the amount. A useful starting point is your mortgage balance, plus enough income replacement for the years your family would need it, plus anything you intend to cover for your children. In this part of California, the mortgage alone usually makes the figure larger than people expect.
Waiting. Life insurance is priced on age and health. It does not get cheaper.
What people get wrong
What’s specific to Southern California
Housing costs here drive the coverage amount more than anything else. A Long Beach family with a mortgage generally needs a policy with a substantially higher coverage amount than the same family would in most of the country, and a policy written years ago against a smaller balance may no longer do the job. If your mortgage has changed, your coverage should be checked.
