Protection needs evolve over time. Make sure to revisit your strategy for financial coverage as you move through life.
Planning for the future means focusing on the dreams and goals important to you and your family. In the years to come, you’ll put great effort into saving what you can and investing it wisely in order to make those aspirations a reality.
What many people forget, however, is to make sure they’re also putting time and effort into protecting what they’ve worked so hard to build. You can’t predict what unexpected events might alter the course of your best-laid plans, but what you can do is make sure you and your family are prepared.
From establishing an emergency fund to making sure your investments are suitable for the phase of life you’re in, there are many ways you can and should protect your assets. For most of us, the biggest concern from a protection standpoint is having sufficient financial coverage in place for our families in the event of our premature death—and that’s the box most people forget to check.
The need for financial coverage in case of unexpected death is very real. According to LIMRA’s 2026 Insurance Barometer Study, nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. households would feel adverse financial impacts within six months if a primary wage earner died.
Now may be a good time to consider your own protection strategy. Is your coverage adequate to meet your family’s long-term needs? Will it fulfill not only their current income needs, but also enable them to continue pursuing their own goals and dreams, such as traveling during retirement or funding college education for their children?
Once you have coverage, it’s also important to stay up to date with it. “Your protection needs will evolve over time,” says Troy Randall, senior manager of Insured Solutions at RBC Wealth Management–U.S. “What works in your younger working years may not be sufficient as you grow older.” He suggests regularly reviewing your existing insurance coverage and making adjustments as changes happen in your life.
“It’s important to recognize that life moves through stages, and your protection strategies should reflect that,” he adds.
Here are some of the issues to consider as you move through different phases of your life.
Statistically speaking, young adults generally face a low death rate, but there is still a need to plan for the unexpected.
At younger ages, relatively inexpensive options for life insurance coverage, called term insurance, may be an appropriate option. As a general rule, the younger you are when you purchase life insurance, the lower the premiums will be.
Financial obligations are often limited at this stage, and you may have few or no dependents. Yet, in the case of the unexpected, your financial commitments could become someone else’s responsibility if you don’t have some form of life insurance coverage in place. These may include:
“The real trigger for a life insurance need is when someone else is financially dependent on you,” Randall says. “This could be when you marry, have a domestic partner or become a parent.” If you’re no longer in the picture, Moran says, that creates a real financial gap for those who depend on you.
At this point, your earnings from work are likely to grow significantly, and your life is likely to get more expensive. Financial obligations are growing and long-term financial goals are becoming better defined. “A good rule of thumb,” Randall says, “is to have sufficient protection in place to cover 10 to 15 times your annual income if you are married and/or have children.” Your specific requirements may vary, but think about how much potential future income would be lost if you were no longer around. Key expenses to cover include:
While the primary purpose of life insurance is to provide financial protection for the people who depend on you, a permanent life insurance policy can also serve as a source of retirement income to draw on alongside your workplace savings plan and IRA. For example, you could tap the policy’s cash value through withdrawals or loans to supplement your retirement income stream—though doing so reduces the policy’s death benefit for your beneficiaries.
This is the stage of life where most people enter their peak earning years. You’re likely to be able to set aside larger sums of money to meet your most important life goals. This is also when an unexpected death could be particularly detrimental to the financial security of your family. “Even if there are fewer financial dependents under your roof, you still want to leave sufficient coverage to deal with expenses and continue to fund goals,” Randall says. This is important because you want to be sure survivors, especially your spouse or domestic partner, can avoid having to liquidate assets in an untimely manner to meet their day-to-day living expenses. Consider coverage for:
Beyond life insurance, you may also want to consider options for long-term care coverage. “You need to be concerned not just about premature death, but also protecting against living longer and needing care later in life,” Randall says. Traditional long-term care coverage is an option, but he suggests individuals also explore life insurance policies that may include long-term care income benefits. The advantage, he says, is that you aren’t putting money in a “use it or lose it” policy. “You can look at the policy and know somebody you care about will receive a benefit from it—either you for long-term care needs or your heirs receiving a death benefit.”
Although you may be winding down or have completed the phase of life where you earn income from work, life insurance still matters. In this stage, you want to consider ways to protect the cash flow needs of a surviving spouse or partner. As Randall points out, “Many retired couples depend on Social Security and pensions as their primary retirement income, but when a spouse dies, those payments may be reduced even though living expenses don’t change dramatically.”
Permanent life insurance can also be a tax-efficient tool for passing on wealth to the next generation. You may want to consider buying a life insurance policy with money intended for your heirs. When you die, the named beneficiaries would receive the policy proceeds tax free (though the value of the death benefit may still count toward the taxable value of your estate).
In this later stage of life, your strategy should be adjusted to protect:
Your unexpected death would leave a void in many ways. But ensuring your loved ones are covered financially can help prepare them for the challenges they’d face if you were no longer around.
Reviewing your protection strategy on a regular basis, at least every few years, can help you be as prepared as possible, Randall says. “You want to make sure the coverage you have in place is suitable for where you are in life and where you intend to go.”
This article was updated in Oct. 2026.
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