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Franca spends as much time on financial education as on placing cover. These are the questions that come up first, answered without a pitch attached.
A common starting point is ten to twelve times your annual income, but that rule ignores what you owe and who depends on you. A more honest figure is the total of what would still need paying if your income stopped — the mortgage, other debts, the years of income your household would lose, and anything you intend to leave behind — minus what you already have in cover and savings.
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Term life covers you for a fixed number of years and pays out only if you die within that window; it costs less because most policies never pay a claim. Whole life covers you for life and builds cash value, which is why it costs considerably more for the same death benefit. Term suits a temporary obligation like a mortgage or raising children; whole life suits a permanent one like final expenses or leaving money behind.
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Indexed universal life is permanent cover whose cash value grows based on the movement of a market index, with a floor that protects against index losses and a cap that limits gains. It suits people who have already filled their tax-advantaged retirement accounts and want permanent cover with a growth component. It is a poor fit for anybody whose priority is the largest possible death benefit for the lowest premium.
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Final expense insurance is a small permanent life policy designed to cover funeral costs, medical bills and other expenses left behind, typically with a modest death benefit and simplified underwriting. It suits older applicants and people whose health makes larger policies expensive or unavailable. It is not intended to replace income or clear a mortgage.
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Usually not on its own. Employer life insurance is typically a fixed multiple of salary, often one or two times, which is well short of what a household with a mortgage and children would need. It also belongs to the job rather than to you: it ends when you leave, is rarely portable on the same terms, and cannot be relied on to still exist at the age you are most likely to need it.
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In most cases, yes. A diagnosis changes which products are open to you and what they cost; it rarely closes every door. Well-managed conditions are often insurable at a higher rating, some products ask only a short set of health questions, and final expense cover is written specifically for applicants who have been declined elsewhere. What matters is being accurate on the application, because an undisclosed condition is the one thing that can void a policy after a claim.
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The most recent national study from the National Funeral Directors Association puts the median cost of a funeral with a viewing and burial at a little over eight thousand dollars, and nearly ten thousand once a burial vault is included. A funeral with a viewing followed by cremation has a median of a little over six thousand. Those figures cover the funeral home only; a cemetery plot, a headstone and the smaller costs around a death come on top, and Arizona prices sit close to the national picture.
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