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When do you actually need life insurance?

I’m 37 and pregnant with twins. Is it time?

When do you actually need life insurance?

I’m 37 and pregnant with twins. Is it time?

Let me be frank: I do not have a life insurance policy. I am 37 years old, married, and pregnant with twins. My State Farm agent calls me on a near-monthly basis, encouraging me to secure a life insurance policy because “that is something I really need to do,” but I keep sending her to voicemail.

In my 20s, having a life insurance policy felt like a ridiculous way to spend the barely livable wage I made, especially since I felt invincible and had no dependents (unless you count my perfect rescue mutt). In my early 30s, I entered a serious relationship, but we were establishing our careers — neither of which was all that lucrative — and handled our finances completely separately. My partner’s financial security after my make-believe premature death was not top of mind.

Maybe it’s the pregnancy, or perhaps the impending collapse of society, but I’m finally starting to consider setting up a policy. Still, life insurance remains a total mystery to me. To understand if and when it actually makes sense to have life insurance, I called up a financial therapist and a wealth manager and asked them: When are these things really, truly necessary? Here’s what they said.

What does a life insurance policy even do?

Let’s start with the basics. A life insurance policy is a contract designed to pay out money to people you love — known as beneficiaries — in the event that you die. That money, which typically gets paid out within 14 to 60 days, can help your surviving crew pay bills, student loans, childcare, mortgage, property taxes, rent, and so on. “The money that can come through the payout of a life insurance policy can help them weather what is in store for them for life,” Dina Megretskaia, a principal and wealth manager at Modera Wealth Management, tells Vox.

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There are two main types of life insurance: term life insurance, which offers protection for a set period of time (like the next 20 years), and permanent life insurance, which is essentially an account you dump savings into throughout your........

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