Definition of "Needs approach"

Personal insurance method used to analyze the amount necessary to maintain a family in its customary life-style, should the primary wage earner die. This includes such considerations as:

  1. immediate needs ("cleanup fund") expenses associated with final medical treatments and burial, inheritance taxes, estate taxes, probate costs, outstanding debt.
  2. continued income while children are still in school and depend on family support.
  3. continued income for the surviving spouse after children no longer depend on family support.
  4. continued income to pay a mortgage, education expenses, emergency expenses, and miscellaneous expenses.
  5. retirement fund for the surviving spouse.
From the sum of these expenses, subtract sources of income available to the surviving spouse (Social Security, investments, employee benefit plans such as group life insurance and pensions), to arrive at a final figure on which to base the amount of life insurance the wage earner should consider.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Conversion of form of ownership from a mutual insurance company to a stock insurance company. Interest in demutualization of life insurance companies surged in the early 1980s among many ...

Trust in which the trustee distributes capital and income to the beneficiaries of the trust according to their economic needs. ...

Procedure for accumulating, conserving, and distributing personal wealth. In essence, estate planning focuses on enhancement of the value of an estate and its conservation. At the death of ...

Factor applied in retrospective rating in order to increase the basic premium to cover state premium taxes for liability and workers compensation insurance. For example, if a state premium ...

Nonparticipating life insurance under which the first few annual premiums are smaller than would be the case under a traditional nonparticipating policy. While the maximum amount of these ...

actual fire losses divided by the total value of the property exposed to the peril of fire; actual losses resulting from fire divided by the total fire amount of in-force business. ...

Situation in which several liability insurance policies are in force to cover the same risk, thereby resulting in higher limits of coverage than is required to adequately insure the risk. ...

Buy or sell order for security that expires at the end of the trading date on which it was entered if not executed. ...

Insurance coverage purchased on the same item from two or more insurance companies. ...

Popular Insurance Questions