b'Whether you make more or less than this in annual income isAnother way to look at this is to ask, in your current lifehow not the question. The point is: when was the last time you satmuch are you saving, versus spending (and that includes down to calculate how much insurance you truly need? Peopletaxes, because taxes reflect money that you are not saving). tend to buy life insurance in their thirties when they are thinkingWhatever you make in income, if you are spending 80% and of starting a family. Many never go back to revise that amountsaving 20%, that spending column needs to be replaced in as their family grows, or as their income grows.the unfortunate event that you are no longer here to make that money. That 80% of your income today needs to be produced Private equity has driven up the price of practices. plus inflation protection for the rest of your spouses life, and Another reason to re-evaluate your life insurance coverageit needs to provide for the amount you want to provide for your has to do with practice values. If you are a partner in privatechildrens educational needs, as well as legacy desires, if you practice, you may have noticed that practice values havehave any. Typically, we do not include your home as an asset gone up dramatically in recent years. This is because privatein these calculations because if you pass away, your family will equity firms have entered the dental and medical space andstill need a place to live and will likely incur costs associated have started acquiring practices, thereby driving up prices.with this expense.Anyway, you do the math, and you will If you were to have a valuation done on your practice, andprobably realize that you are underinsured. it showed an increase in value, that should propel you toReview your existing life insurance coverage with an increase your life insurance coverage to adequately fund yourexperienced professionalbuy-sell agreement. The best gift you can give yourself and your loved ones is to Other things that have been trending upwards in the pastset up a meeting with an insurance professional to accurately few years are incomeswhich ties into another upwardcalculate your life insurance need. From there, if you identify trending factor, namely inflation. Rising inflation means thatthat you are underinsured, you can look at what is the right the cost of everything is going up, and with it naturally thekind of insurance for you. Too many people get caught up in replacement cost of everything in your life is going up. Yourthe question of what kind of insurance should I buy? and life insurance policies need to be updated to reflect thesethen abandon it altogether because they dont understand the increases in price.different products or they get overwhelmed by price-shopping, How do you know how much life insurance you need? etc. The best place to begin is to figure out how much you need. Once you know that, you can move to the next step of You may ask, how does one calculate life insurance needs?determining how best to fill your insurance coverage gap. Without getting into too detailed of a calculation here, the simplest answer is that your life insurance need is theIf you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out to me!amount of money your family will need in the future to live minus the assets (including retirement plans) and lifeAbout Treloar & Heiselinsurance you currently have. This will give you a ballparkTreloar & Heisel, an EPIC Company, is a financial services number, its a starting point. If you work with a financialprovider to dental and medical professionals across the country. professional, they will ask you how much youre saving, howOur insurance and wealth management divisions assist much youre paying in taxes, what assets you have, and howthousands of clients from residency through retirement. We they are invested. That will give you a more accurate picture.strive to deliver the highest level of service with custom-tailored advice and a strong national network.29'