When my client Sarah came to me with a stack of life insurance quotes, she was completely overwhelmed. Term life, whole life, universal life, indexed universal life — each one promising something different, and none of them explaining clearly what she actually needed or why.
She’s a high-earning professional, married with two kids, and she genuinely didn’t know whether she needed $500,000 in coverage or $3 million. Her husband had a policy through work, but she wasn’t sure if that was enough. She’d been putting off the decision for three years because she didn’t know where to start.
That’s the life insurance trap: the stakes feel high, the options are overwhelming, and the people selling it to you have a financial interest in your decision. It’s hard to know who to trust.
Why Life Insurance Is a Women’s Issue
Here’s something the insurance industry rarely talks about: women are chronically underinsured compared to men, even when they’re the primary breadwinners, even when they’re managing the household full-time.
If you’re earning income your family depends on, you need life insurance that covers what your family would lose. That’s obvious. But if you’re not earning income — if you’re home with kids, managing the household, running the logistics of family life — your family would still face real financial loss if you died. Childcare alone can run $30,000 to $60,000 a year. Add household management, and the number climbs fast.
Your economic contribution doesn’t disappear because it wasn’t on a W-2.
Term vs. Permanent: The Question Everyone Gets Wrong
Most people have heard that term life is “pure insurance” and permanent life is “insurance plus investment.” That framing makes term sound cheaper and permanent sound smarter. Neither framing is quite right.
Term life insurance covers you for a defined period — typically 10, 20, or 30 years. It’s the right tool for covering finite needs: mortgage payoff, college funding, income replacement during your working years. It’s affordable and straightforward.
Permanent life insurance (whole life, universal life, and their variations) covers you for your entire life and builds cash value over time. It has legitimate uses — estate planning, tax-advantaged wealth transfer, liquidity in retirement — but it’s often sold to people who don’t actually need those features.
The right choice depends on your goals, not on which one sounds more sophisticated.
How to Calculate Your Coverage Number
The “10x your income” rule you’ve probably heard is a starting point, but it’s too blunt for families with complex finances. A better approach considers:
- How much income your family would need to replace, and for how many years
- Outstanding debts (mortgage, business loans, other liabilities)
- Future expenses (college funding, care for aging parents)
- Existing coverage through employers or existing policies
- Your family’s timeline and when financial obligations decrease
For high-net-worth families, there are additional considerations around estate taxes, wealth transfer, and liquidity that can significantly change the calculation.
What the Life Insurance Decision Guide Covers
I put together the Life Insurance Decision Guide specifically for women who want to understand this topic clearly — not sell it to you, just help you think through it.
It walks through the different types of policies, how to calculate your real coverage number, what to look for in a policy, and the questions you should be asking your insurance agent before you sign anything. It also covers common mistakes — the ones I see over and over — so you don’t have to learn them the hard way.
Whether you already have coverage and want to make sure it’s the right amount, or you’re starting from scratch, this guide gives you a framework that cuts through the noise.
Because life insurance is too important to get wrong — and too confusing to figure out alone.
Get the Life Insurance Decision Guide — $19 →
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The information in this post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Please consult a qualified estate planning attorney for guidance specific to your situation.