Life Insurance And Your Baby

By Scott Lunt

Life insurance may not be on top of your mind if you have just had, or are planning to have a child.

However, besides diapers, car seats and babysitters, you should be looking into ways to provide for your child if you are gone.

With life insurance premiums decreasing, now's a good time to shop -- even if you already have life insurance. Here are some things to think about.

When you have a child, you now have another person depending on your income. Life insurance is designed to replace that income if something should happen to you. Getting life insurance can be an important act of love from a parent to a child -- as hard as it is to think about.

So how much life insurance should you get? It depends on your assets, your debts and more. One way to help you figure out a good starting figure for coverage is to:

1. Estimate what your family’s monthly expenses would be.

2. Add in your mortgage balance and other debts.

3. Add in estimated future expenses such as funeral expenses and college tuition.

Then, subtract out Social Security benefits, other life policies, your spouse’s income, and retirement plan benefits. The result should give you a ballpark starting amount, or minimum coverage to provide income for your family if you're gone.

The next thing you want to do is shop around. Life insurance rates vary between life insurance companies and comparison shopping is one of the best ways to make sure you're getting a good value. You want to get at least three different quotes.

If you already have a life insurance policy, say from your employer, you still may want to add to that once your child is born by increasing the coverage or taking out an additional policy. You can take out a policy from another company and, again, shopping around can save you money.

Scott Lunt is a freelance writer with over 15 years experience writing insurance-related articles. You can compare life insurance quotes and find more tips on saving on car, home, life, health and long-term care insurance at LowerYourInsurance.com.

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