Life Insurance Through Work: What It Covers, What It Does Not.

Most families fall into the same three shaped hole.

Picture a specific person. A thirty eight year old parent, two kids at home, a mortgage with twenty years left, a spouse who works part time. Her employer offers group life at two times salary, so she took it. She thinks that handles the life insurance question. Here is the math on what she is missing.

This is the shape of it. The gap is not her fault. The HR packet that explained the benefit did its job in one page. It cannot cover ten times salary of life planning in one page. That is what the rest of this page is for.

None of this is your employer's fault, and it is not HR's fault. It is the information environment. Ask two people, get three opinions. One size fits all rules that do not know your situation. Advice that freezes you before you can make a move. The rest of this page names the numbers, the terms, and the decision so you can stop guessing.