Many people wonder if life insurance is necessary. I help customers with this question every day. My answer: It depends on what’s important to each individual. I talk about the different reasons people buy life insurance, and the impact it can make.

For Your Family: The biggest reason people buy life insurance is to protect their loved ones. It is purchased out of love for the family. If you have a partner or a family and don’t have life insurance, they could lose everything if something happened to you. Life insurance will help ensure your family will be taken care of if you’re not there and allow them to continue their standard of living.

Most wage earners find it especially important to have life insurance as a Plan B, but stay-at-home parents can benefit from it, too. If something were to happen to them, the other parent would potentially have added expenses, like child care, housecleaning, eating out more, etc. Even if you don’t have a family yet but plan to, it’s more affordable the younger and healthier you are.

For Your Business: A lot of business owners also have a big need for life insurance. Not only can it protect your own family, but if you have one or more business partners, you can set up partnership agreements, so that if something happens to one of you, the other partner(s) would take over your share of the business, while the family of the person who dies would get a life insurance payout.

For Giving Back: I’ve had customers who are passionate about nonprofits and some that travel abroad on mission trips. Some of these customers have purchased life insurance for the expense of being flown back if something were to happen to them overseas. Others have chosen a charity as the beneficiary of their policy, so even if they’re not around, they can continue to give back to their cause. It’s something that’s dear to them, and many people decide it’s important enough to protect.

Cost of Not Having It: So how do you decide if life insurance is worth it? The most important thing to keep in mind is that it could mean you’re able to take care of the people you care about for the rest of their lives, instead of them losing everything.

I have helped a lot of customers over the years and have seen firsthand the incredible difference it can make. It will protect your family for years to come.

If you’d like to learn more about life insurance and how it can help you protect what’s important, your local State Farm agent is here to help.

For help figuring out your own life insurance needs and to talk through your options, talk to your local State Farm agent today.