Insuring Your Stay-At-Home Partner

Many families do not consider insuring their stay-at-home partner.  Typically, most families only think about purchasing life insurance for the incoming producing spouse.  To determine how much life insurance you need for insuring your stay-at-home partner, the partner’s duties must be analyzed and a price is to be put on how they contribute to the family.  Etler-Kettenacker Agency encourages all families to evaluate what their life would be like without their stay-at-home partner.  Life insurance is not something you can purchase after the fact; it’s an act of love that should be done as soon as a family is started.

Why is insuring your stay-at-home partner necessary?  Some things that need to be considered are how much the working partner would have to pay for child care, how often does the stay-at-home partner prepare meals, clean the house and would they return to work after the children reach a certain age?  These are all tangible duties or contributions that the stay-at-home partner brings to the table.

When insuring your stay-at-home partner you must determine how long your child or children will need child care while the income-producing spouse continues to work to pay all of the expenses that were present prior to the loss of the stay-at-home spouse.  Child care is not cheap and must be taken into consideration particularly if there is more than one child.

Does the stay-at-home partner prepare meals?  If so, how many meals and how often?  This is also something that should be considered when insuring your stay-at-home partner.  If that partner was no longer there, who would prepare the meals for your family or would the surviving income-producing spouse take the children out to eat for meals.  Either way, meal preparation is a tangible service that the stay-at-home partner performs for the family.

Would the stay-at-home spouse return to work to help with college expenses when the children get older?  This is yet another aspect to consider when insuring your stay-at-home partner.  Once your children are in school full-time will the stay-at-home partner contribute to your children’s post-secondary expenses by becoming employed?  If so, this should be taken into account as loss of income or financial stability if the stay-at-home partner passes.

The bottom line is, will the income-producing spouse suffer any financial changes or even distress if the stay-at-home partner is no longer present?  It is very likely that the income-producing spouse contributes to the financial stability of the entire family such as child care, preparation of meals, transportation and future income for college tuition.  These are just a few ways the stay-at-home spouse contributes financially to the family and thus should be insured. 

Insuring your stay-at-home partner with a term policy or a cash policy that earns money is an act of love and recognition of how much they contribute to the family’s financial and emotional stability.  Sometimes this is a difficult topic to discuss with your spouse.  For guidance and information please feel free to contact one of Etler-Kettenacker Agency’s staff to determine how much life insurance you need when insuring your stay-at-home partner.  In addition to determining the amount of life insurance EK Agency can help you determine what type of life insurance product you should select for your stay-at-home spouse.  EK Agency is here to help you make life’s important choices.