The right amount of life insurance is different for a 30-year-old with a young family, a 45-year-old with a mortgage and college on the horizon, and a 60-year-old thinking about estate protection. We start with the question โ what would your family actually need if you weren’t here โ and work back to the policy from there.
Types of policies we quote
- Term life โ 10, 20, or 30 year level term. Almost always the right first policy for a young family. Cheapest per dollar of coverage.
- Whole life โ permanent coverage with a cash-value component. Useful for estate planning, business succession, and locking in insurability for kids/grandkids.
- Universal life & indexed universal life (IUL) โ flexible-premium permanent coverage. We’re careful about IUL โ they’re powerful but often oversold. We’ll show you the illustration honestly.
- Final expense / burial โ simplified-issue small policies (typically $10Kโ$25K) for seniors who want to cover final costs without touching family savings.
How much coverage do you actually need?
Common shorthand is 10โ12ร your income, but that’s a starting point, not an answer. A more useful frame is called DIME:
- Debt โ mortgage + student loans + credit lines you’d want paid off
- Income โ years of income replacement your family would need (usually to youngest child leaving home)
- Mortgage โ separately, if you’d want the house free-and-clear
- Education โ remaining tuition costs
We walk through this with every client. Most Michigan families we work with land on $500Kโ$1M of term coverage, and a smaller whole-life policy layered underneath.
What we ask before quoting
- Age, height/weight, tobacco use, and honest health history (medications matter more than diagnosis)
- Family history of heart disease and cancer (some carriers weight this heavily)
- Any risky avocations (private aviation, scuba below 100′, motorsports)
- Coverage amount and term length target
From there we shop the carriers whose underwriting is friendliest to your specific profile โ that’s the whole point of using an independent agent instead of one captive brand.
Get your Michigan quote today
Talk to a local Livonia agent about your specific situation โ no auto-quote engine, no upselling. We shop your policy across 15+ carriers and bring back the option that fits.
