If you are a single mom, well you are a superhero. Not only do you have to raise your kids but you must also provide for them. That is no easy task and due to the lack of time, its quite often that single mothers don’t give enough thought of what would happen to their children if they were gone tomorrow. Your children depend on you for everything and if you were no longer to be around your children’s life wouldn’t be same. However there is a way to make sure that at least financially you can continue providing for your kids even if you were gone tomorrow. This can be achieved with a financial product we all know of “Life Insurance”. There is no better way to pay a small sum in exchange for a large sum than life insurance.
Getting life insurance if you are a single mom is quite different because unlike two parent households you are the only foundation. Everything must be thoroughly calculated and planned before even purchasing a policy for a single parent. Here are some steps to follow to make sure you have all the bases covered.
Amount of Coverage
For all single mothers out there, one of the most important things to do when getting life insurance is to get the right amount of life insurance. Often times single mothers are underinsured which is always the fault of an agent or the insurance company for skipping a vital step. The way to make sure you have adequate coverage is to do a complete needs analysis. The needs analysis will calculate the amount of income that needs to be replaced, to pay off a mortgage, calculate everyday expenses, day care costs and even future college funding. An experienced agent will do this for you but you should still sit down to think of how much money it would take to care for your kids. Don’t be surprised after a needs analysis that the right amount of coverage for you could be in the millions.
Length of the coverage
After figuring out how much coverage you should have, the second thing would be to decide for how long. This can be quite simple because for single mothers the deciding factors are usually the age of the children. If you buying a term life insurance coverage make sure the length of the term is long enough for your youngest child to be at an age, where they are out of college and ready to take on the world. If one of your children is a special needs child you may want to buy a separate permanent life insurance because they are dependent on you indefinitely.
Planning
It is as equally important to plan ahead of how the life insurance proceeds will get disbursed. Last thing you want to do is leave the money to your children if they are under the legal age because you’ll leave it in the courts hands to decide who will take care of the children and who gets the funds. If you have close family that you can trust you can leave them as the beneficiaries on your policy. Otherwise you can set up a trust with the help of a lawyer which will provide specific instructions on how, when and to whom the money will go to. The objective is to make sure that even though you are not there the money is still used as if you are. Which in most cases is for the absolute benefit of your children.
How to Buy
There are a couple ways of getting life insurance such as through a local agent, a bank or directly through the life insurance company. However the best way for single mothers to acquire coverage is by working with an independent broker who represents all the top carriers. Being a single parent every dollar counts, so by scanning the marketplace you are making sure you are getting the best deal. Life insurance rates are fixed by the law, so let a broker do the shopping for you. Once you find a plan that meets your needs and budget. It’s time to complete an application along with a medical exam that will be scheduled. The medical exam involves a nurse coming out to your home to check you blood pressure, height, weight, take blood and urine sample. Once this is done it typically takes 3-6 weeks for the company to come back with a decision.
Now if you are extremely busy or need life insurance fast, you can also try to opt for a no medical exam life insurance policy. With no exam life insurance plans you can skip a medical examination, apply online and get approved within 72 hours. The best part is that it will usually take about 10-15 minutes to complete the application from anywhere as long as you have internet access.
At the end of the day if you are a single mother you just can’t not go on without life insurance. What stops most single mothers is an assumption that life insurance is expensive. The truth is that life insurance is very affordable and you can get a policy with a big face amount for $20 to $50 per month. So don’t wait and get the weight off your shoulders knowing that your children are protected.
