As Troops Come Home, Life Insurance Remains a High Priority for Military Spouses

Often, military spouses don’t see the need for life insurance, either because they aren’t the primary breadwinner or have chosen to stay home. But consider the high cost to your family, if something were to happen to you.

The military is known for the exceptional benefits it provides to soldiers and their families. If a soldier is killed in action, spouses are well taken care of as dependents. Before every deployment, most husbands or wives are used to checking over the a spouse’s will and ensuring everything is in order before deployment. But how often do family members staying at home, review their own wills, asks Frank N. Darras, America’s top insurance lawyer.

As a military spouse, you play an integral part in supporting your family, and your country. Often, military spouses don’t see the need for life insurance, either because they aren’t the primary breadwinner or have chosen to stay home. But consider the high cost to the family, if something were to happen to you. Deployments, an unpredictable work schedule, and the high risk job of a spouse makes the job at home worth that much more when purchasing life insurance, says Darras.

“As a military spouse, its expected that your other half can get called away at a moment’s notice. What if, as the sole adult in the household, you were no longer there to stay at home with your 1-year-old during a deployment? Who would pay the bills and care for the child,” asks Frank Darras, http://www.darrasnews.com/?p=2557 “these are the costs that should be considered when shopping for a life insurance policy.”

When choosing a policy, take time to think through all of the responsibilities and how those responsibilities would be distributed if the stay at home parent were no longer there . Don’t only think of your responsibilities when your spouse is home, but treat it as if your spouse is on deployment. Price out any services needed to cover those duties, from child care to house cleaning or even taxes. From there, use this pricing to figure out an average “salary” and this will help determine how much life insurance coverage to buy, says Darras.

“Deployment is a fact of life and military families always have to be prepared, especially if the unthinkable were to happen. Sometimes families have months to prepare for deployment and other times families have just hours,” says Darras.

While the military is great about working with families in times such as these, consider months or years down the road. Make sure you take out a policy that would protect your family for any situation the military life sends your way for years to come, says Darras.

Always speak to a trusted advisor and make sure when purchasing life insurance, the fine print is explained in detail, says Darras.