Calculating Coverage Needs

Before you can get accurate Georgia life insurance quotes, you'll need a rough estimate of your coverage needs. Read on for the expenses you should consider when deciding on the death benefit of your Georgia life insurance policy.

Final Expenses

Dying is an expensive proposition these days. A casket alone can cost $10,000 or more, and that doesn't even include the cost of a plot and other burial expenses. Funerals also cost money-flowers, food, and other arrangements can quickly add up. With a Georgia life insurance policy, you won't have to burden your loved ones with these costly final expenses. When you get Georgia life insurance quotes, make sure your policy includes a large enough benefit to pay for your death expenses. Experts typically advise including $15,000 for final expenses.

One-Time Expenses

The large, one-time expenses your loved ones will have should be covered in your Georgia life insurance policy. For most people, a mortgage loan is the largest one-time expense your policy will need to cover. Include the current balance of your mortgage loan when you calculate your life insurance needs. Also include any other debts you have, such as car loans or credit card balances. Your policy should enable your beneficiaries to pay these obligations off in full once you die. Lastly, you will need to include enough coverage to pay for all of your children's college expenses. Factoring in all of these one-time expenses will help you produce the most accurate Georgia life insurance quotes possible.

Living Expenses

Living expenses are usually the hardest figure to predict accurately because of the number of variables involved. To determine your family's living expenses, you'll need to have an idea of their current annual living expenses plus a cushion for inflation. From this figure, you should deduct your spouse's anticipated annual income and any survivor's benefits from Social Security. Multiply this number by the years of need, or the number of years you expect your family to need your financial support. Add this figure to your estimates for final and one-time expenses to get a total coverage figure for your Georgia life insurance quotes.

Special Needs

Although the three aforementioned categories of expenses will provide adequate Georgia life insurance coverage for most families, some families need to add additional coverage for special needs. For instance, if you have a child with disabilities, he/she will require extra care and may not ever become financially independent. In this case, you would need your life insurance death benefit to provide for this child as long as he/she lives. Alternatively, you might have an aging parent with financial needs that you would have to account for in your Georgia life insurance policy.