The Benefits Of Group Life Insurance—And Why It May Not Be Enough

Many employers offer basic life insurance coverage up to one year’s salary for no cost to their employees and allow employees to purchase additional coverage. This type of company-sponsored life insurance is called “group life insurance”. This is a great benefit and at the minimum, workers should accept the basic coverage provided by their employer.

There are several benefits of group life insurance including:

GUARANTEED COVERAGE: For most employees, the basic coverage provided by the employer is an automatic enrollment for all employees. This means all eligible employees receive the no-cost insurance the moment they are hired and/or successfully pass their probationary period of employment. In addition, no medical exam is required to receive the basic coverage, and in some cases, a medical exam is not needed for additional coverage that is purchased by the employee through the group life insurance.

AFFORDABLE RATES: Group life insurance is either paid for or subsidized by the employer. This is one of the biggest perks for group life insurance. These low rates allow employees to purchase additional coverage when they may not be able to afford it outside of the workplace.

Although these are great perks of group life insurance, the most important thing you should ask yourself when enrolling is “Will this be enough?”. This is where the downside of group life insurance comes to light and you should consider purchasing an independent life insurance policy outside work.

• They can be completely customized to suit your personal needs. You can select your desired coverage level based on what you believe your family will need to continue their lifestyle and not struggle financially without you, or you can select the coverage level based on your budget.
• Contrary to what many may believe, individual life insurance plans are highly affordable and many people are able to purchase a plan in addition to their company sponsored coverage.
• You can select a permanent life insurance plan; one that will not terminate or reduce in coverage level when you reach retirement age.
• There are also options that accrue cash value—there are far more options for individual life insurance than group life insurance.

To review independent life insurance coverage options for you, your spose, or other members of your family, contact an independent life insurance agent to go over all of your needs and budget.

READ MORE: Questions You Should Be Asking Your Life Insurance Agent