Life Insurance 101

Abstract

Life insurance is an important aspect of financial planning for high-earning professionals such as emergency medicine physicians. Emergency physicians who have other people who depend on them for income such as a spouse, partner, or children need life insurance. Unfortunately, life insurance agents often sell inappropriate policies. Therefore, being well informed as well as having an educated approach to purchasing life insurance is important. The most appropriate policy is likely a long-term level premium life insurance instead of permanent life insurance. The average emergency physician will need approximately three million dollars of coverage. The best strategy for obtaining the correct policy for you starts with understanding how much life insurance you’ll need and for how long. You can use certain strategies such as laddering to decrease the overall cost of insurance and slowly de-escalate the amount of insurance you’ll need over time. Find an independent agent to obtain quotes from a number of life insurance companies. Once the quote is selected and you have gone underwriting, you will have an in-force policy. Afterward, you should periodically assess your life insurance needs (Dahle, The White Coat Investor, 2014) (Steuer 2010).