Life insurance is always fun to talk about…if you sell it. Otherwise, it sucks. Well, the life insurance doesn’t suck. The conversation sucks. Nothing quite like admitting your mortality, and placing down money to backup your conclusion. We’ve talked life insurance on this blog ad nauseam, but we’ve never really got into group life insurance through your employer. Today we do.
Paul Ashley from FirstPerson joined me on The Pete the Planner Radio Show this week, and we tackled all aspects of group life insurance. Here are some of the random points from our discussion.
- Group life insurance is almost always term life insurance, which expires when your employment expires. So when you leave your current employer, your life insurance leaves you.
- Sometimes your coverage is portable and/or convertible, which means you can take your coverage with you.
- Group life insurance can have less stringent underwriting standards. Translation: if you aren’t that healthy, you can get better pricing than you would if you went and applied for coverage on your own.
- Group coverage can be MUCH cheaper than individual coverage. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have individual coverage.
- I recommend having ten times your income in life insurance, especially if you have a young family.
- I prefer you have life insurance outside your employer, with the group coverage simply being gravy.
Listen to Paul Ashley and I discuss this more thoroughly.

Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning financial mind and a former comedian. He’s a USA TODAY columnist, author of ten books, and is the host of the popular radio show and podcast, The Pete the Planner Show. Pete is considered one of the foremost experts on financial wellness in the world, but he’s just as likely to talk your ear off about bass fishing.