Purpose

This assignment is intended to help you learn to do the following:

• Identify life insurance needs.
• Explain life insurance policy provisions.
• Select appropriate life insurance policies and annuities for own family.
• Apply Capital Needs Analysis approach to determine life insurance needs.

Overview

The objective of this assignment is to perform a personal risk management analysis of you and/or your family's life insurance program. If you currently do not have a life insurance policy(ies), your analysis should explore what your needs are and design a strategy to address, i.e., amount needed, how determined, type of policies, policy features, etc. If you are currently insured through someone else's policy, evaluate these programs based on do they satisfactorily protect your needs.

Action Items

1. Review all policies you own, both through employer programs and purchased through agents. Identify the types of policy you own and features of each policy.
2. Locate a capital needs analysis calculator online and determine how much life insurance is needed to protect you and/or your family.
3. Use the life insurance-needs calculator to determine the appropriate amount of life insurance for you and your family. The online calculator can be accessed at lifehappens.org and click on "How much do I need."
4. While analyzing your current policies, evaluate per your findings if you are adequately protected. In your opinion, do these approaches arrive at an "over insured" amount? Remember, life insurance planning should be based on the question, "if death occurred today, would my family be able to maintain their same standard of living"?
5. Write your analysis in a 3-5 page paper. Discuss which approach you would recommend to your clients and discuss any modification/enhances needed for your current policy based on your analysis.
6. Review this recent article about the widening gap in insurance sales.