Is life insurance through work enough?
Employer life insurance is a useful start, but it's usually tied to your job and limited to a multiple of salary. For most families with a mortgage or dependents, it's not a complete plan.
- Author
- Jordan Bloomingdale
- Reviewed
- 2026-02-17
- Updated
- 2026-02-17
- Read time
- 5 min
In this article
Short answer
Group coverage through work is worth having, but it usually ends when your job does. If your family would need money to keep the household running after you die, a policy you own separately is the more reliable piece.
The limits of employer coverage
- Coverage is often one to two times your salary, which may not cover several years of household expenses.
- It ends or shrinks when you leave the employer.
- Rates can increase as you age if you convert it to an individual policy later.
What a complete plan covers
A useful amount of coverage answers this: if my income stopped tomorrow, what still has to get paid, and for how long? That usually includes the mortgage, other debt, childcare, and a few years of normal household spending.
Employer coverage is a head start, not a finish line. The finish line is whether your family can keep the life you've built if your paycheck stops.
You may already have enough
If you have no dependents, no mortgage, and enough savings, you may not need more. The Family Protection Checkup will tell you if that's the case — and we'll say so if it is.
Related questions
Next step
Seven questions about your household, not a quote request.