Life Insurance for my dad

[My2BabiesLexis&Dill]

I was talking to my mom last night and she was asking me about the best kind of life insurance to get. I have no clue. Can someone help me? My dad is turning 67 this year. What kind of life insurance should he get? He has a small one thru my mom's job but it isn't enough to cover everything. TIA

 

[abolanwoski]

It really depends on what he's trying to insure. Is he still working and does your Mom rely on his income to survive? Is there still a mortgage that they are paying? Is there a grown child who will need care if he's gone? If the answer to these questions is no, then he really doesn't need insurance at all.

Ideally, if your parents have retirement savings that they are planning on living off of and they have social security from working, then the only extra money they will need is to pay funeral expenses when he dies. This can be handled by taking the money he would use for insurance and instead use it to choose and pre-pay (or save) for burial expenses now.

In most cases, a man his age will be paying through the nose for life insurance of any type, since statistically, it's a bet he's sure to win in the not too distant future. This price will increase dramatically if he smokes, takes any meds and/or is overweight.

In our case, we have 2 small kids and a HUGE term policy because we need both our salaries to survive and we are only halfway through a mortgage and still have 8 years of college tuition to look forward to. BUT, ours is a term policy, we are both healthy and (relatively) young, and it will cease to exist when our littlest graduates college (20 year term). After that, it's every man for himself. I don't see life insurance as a potential windfall for my kids. And by then, our house will be paid off and our living expenses should be less. Plus we have significant savings for retirement.

So long answer short, it really depends on what he needs to "fund" once he dies. My final advice is this - go term only, not whole life or universal. These tend to be very expensive "investments" that don't perform well and don't provide much insurance for the cost. He can go online and get quotes for the size of policy he's looking at from several agencies, just google life insurance and you'll get plenty of hits. There are also calculators online to help you figure out how much you'll need based on the income you wish to generate with it after the fact.

Hope this helps.

 

[dfchelbay]

Your mom needs to add up her bills, to see what amount she may need if your dad is gone. Does she owe on the house, funeral expenses, cars to be paid off, any other debt, etc. Then, make some calls for premiums. We have our life insurance through Liberty Mutual. The kids have always had it through AAA. Just make sure you get enough for your mom to be able live they way she is now, with your dad there. Better to have a little too much, than not enough.

 

[Purseval]

Get a small policy that pays enough to cover his funeral expenses. Any sort of life insurance policy at his age is going to be so expensive it isn't worth it. The time to buy life insurance is when you're young and need something to replace lost income in case something terrible happens. At 67 it's too late.

 

[TaraPA]

Be prepared to have sticker shock when calling for premiums - IF anyone is even willing to issue a policy to a 67-year old. If he has any health issues it will be next to impossible to insure him. Also be advised that he will most definitely have to have a full physical & medical work-ups to even apply for a policy, and that will have to be paid for out of his pocket. DH just had a simple physical with blood work & it was close to $400. I think I'd look into short-term CD's, money market account, something else that you could deposit monthly into, as savings. Put the hundreds of dollars a month in life insurance premiums into a savings account for future use.

Good luck on your search!

 

[jsmith]

Realistically the insurance your parents should be looking for is not Life insurance other than a small policy to pay funeral expenses-and rather than that premium they could look at doing pre paids with a local furnerary service provider-way more band for the buck. What they should be looking at is long term care insurance. The cost of keeping a spouse in long term nursing care can bankrupt the surviving partner forcing them to sign over, sell or expend assets accumlated over a lifetime-at 67 long term care policies are far more important than life insurance.

 

[RitaE]

I'd be interested in hearing what you are able to dig up.

I know that years ago when my MIL was around 62 my Sister In Law wanted to get a small policy to pay for funeral expenses. The premiums were so high that we convinced her it would be best if we each just agreed to pay an amount into a savings account and let it build.