Survivor benefits are 75% of the regular benefit calculated using the regular formula with bend points with one exception. The “average earnings” formula is complicated. For most people it would just be the highest of the last 3 years after indexing but there are other methods that could hypothetically be more advantageous. (They pick the most advantageous to the beneficiary.)
So for someone earning, say, $12,000 a year, the survivor would get roughly $8,100. (12000 * 90% * 75%). They probably weren’t spending 67.5% of their income on the kid.
Can’t one be uninsurable but still work full time and earn a good living? I would think that, for instance, you might have controlled HIV, or hemophilia, and find it extremely hard to get life insurance but still be completely functional TODAY and hold a full-time job.
This is exactly my daughter’s case. Brush with skin cancer, now resolved. Perfectly healthy (underwriters lol at that), married, working, etc. But can’t get life insurance. Needs life insurance, but can’t get it.
Because this ain’t gramma we’re burying here. When a child passes, marriages get shattered, lives get wrecked, and people are off work for 6 months to a year or longer. If you want loss, it’s parent’s loss of income over 6 months to a year.
I’ve seen this situation numerous times. Nobody I’ve seen is able to go back to work within 6 months, and then they only did so because financially they had to. Others are wiped out for a year. My SO has a friend that never went back to work - on permanent disability.
The burial costs are the least of the financial loss.
I had enough on my kids when they were young that we could’ve turned our back on the world for a couple of years. Money in the bank to pay the bills, and we walk away from life. Not wake up and have to go to a grind when…well, you get the idea.
If you have a job with employer-sponsored life insurance then there’s no medical underwriting for the employer-paid part, and usually no medical underwriting for additional life insurance that the employee pays for out of pocket if they sign up within so many days of starting work there… although the latter part varies.
Hubby’s employer switched providers about 3 years back and gave everyone the option to add $100,000 of additional life (employee and spouse) with no evidence of insurability required.
Getting dependent life through your spouse’s employer is another option that often doesn’t involve medical underwriting, although there might be significant limits to how much you can get.
Well it’s certainly true that divorce statistics are grim when looking at couples who have lost a child. Especially if one of the parents had anything to do with the child’s death. (Child drowned when Mom took to the pool, died in a car accident where Dad was at fault for the accident, that sort of thing.)
Fortunately I don’t know very many people who have lost minor children, but the ones I do know were back to work within a month or two. I don’t think solely due to financial need either.
One was a teenager and her parents had saved a 6 figure sum of college money that they no longer needed. They donated most of it to charity. I would think if they needed that money to fund an extended break from work they would have used it that way.
But everyone is different, I suppose, and it’s hard to know how you’ll be affected by such a tragedy.
Another thought about grieving parents taking extended leaves of absence from work. I would think that would qualify for disability. Clinical depression is a legit disability in the US. Most disability policies have a two year limitation, but that would certainly cover a 6-12 month absence.
Worked with SpaceLobster’s guy Gordon. He was great and responsive.
Positives - my blood/health screens all came back really favorably. Pricing was solid, and Gordon looked out for the policy details that might matter and get overlooked in an online-only search. Living benefits (getting cash if ahead of schedule if you are sick enough) and Conversion to extend policy at end were the main ones I was after.
Weird feeling to me - I will soon purchase what should be my last such purchase, as I will have a 30yr term at my longest horizon. I will not be a young man at the end of that. My younger kid will be mid 40’s when that one ends. Now I feel the dread of my impending mortality.
How about cheapest place for a 56yo overweight person with hypertension to buy term. In case I spend all my retirement $ on assisted living and my disabled kid needs some income to pay house taxes & insurance?
I also went w Gordon. He was great. He has programs for people with less than ideal health too (I didn’t follow up w him on it, but he has programs or expertise in that area).
Other than Big Lou (just like you!), depending on amount needed. You could at least in the interim get one of the non-exam policies. AAA is the best of the few I’ve seen (AARP, credit union, AAA) and offers up to $300K.
When you call and ask for Gordon, the receptionist will ask which one ( there’s two Gordon’s there). I always tell them I want to speak to the good looking one.