3 Questions Married Couples Should Ask When Getting Life Insurance

These are all important points to touch on.

Getting married means making a big commitment. After all, you're signing up to share your physical and emotional space with another person. And in many cases, you're also signing up to combine your finances.

Speaking of finances, once you're married, you may want nothing more than to protect your spouse from financial difficulties. A good way to do so is to buy life insurance.

But that's not a decision married folks should make individually. Rather, you and your spouse should get in sync so you're both comfortable with the amount of life insurance you're putting in place. Here are some questions you should ask as you go about the process of shopping for life insurance.

1. How much life insurance should each of us have?

If you and your spouse earn roughly the same amount of money, then you may decide that you'll get the same amount of coverage with each of your individual policies. But maybe that's not the case. And if you earn, say, $100,000 a year while your spouse only earns $40,000, then it may not be necessary to buy as much life insurance for your spouse.

On the other hand, your spouse who earns less might become more of a caregiver to your children once you have them. So you may not want to skimp on life insurance for them despite their lower salary. Have that talk so you don't end up over- or under-buying insurance.

2. How many years of coverage do we need?

If you buy a whole life insurance policy, you'll be covered for the rest of your life. But whole life insurance can be prohibitively expensive, so many people find that term life insurance is a far more affordable option. In that case, though, you'll need to figure out how many years of coverage you need.

If you and your spouse are in your 30s, you may decide that a 30-year term policy for each of you is a good bet, since that means having coverage until retirement age. Or, you may decide to only opt for 20 years of coverage, the logic being that if you have kids soon, a 20-year policy could get you to the point where they're old enough to head off to college and start taking care of themselves.

There's no right or wrong answer. The point, rather, is to land on a coverage period you're both comfortable with.

3. What do our joint debts look like?

The purpose of putting life insurance in place is to make sure your spouse isn't left in the lurch in the event of your passing. So you'll want to consider the debts you hold jointly when deciding how much insurance to buy.

Many people aim to buy enough life insurance to replace 10 years of income. Some even opt to replace 20 years of income. But in addition to income replacement, you'll want to secure a high enough life insurance payout to cover joint debts that could become a burden for a surviving spouse. So if you and your partner owe $250,000 on a mortgage loan, that's a number to factor into your calculations.

It's a good idea to buy life insurance, whether you're newly married or tied the knot years ago. And it's just as important to run through these questions together so you and your spouse end up with the right amount of coverage.