If you own stock, the value of your assets has tumbled, despite recent market improvements. If you own a house, its value has fallen, perhaps massively. Unemployment hasn’t been this high in a quarter century. The jobless rate for college graduates, while lower, hasn’t been so high since that educational breakout was firstcalculated in 1992.

If you’re under age 60, financial stability has suffered a sprain more severe than any other in your lifetime. According to the soothsayers, it will not heal quickly and real growth will come slowly. Meanwhile, your financial obligations have probably not declined.

Your life insurance need has probably increased during this painful recession because the value of your assets has decreased. If you haven’t looked at this balance in a while, it’s time.

In re-evaluating your current need, set aside the idea that your assets will eventually recover. Even though they probably will recover, this is the primary question: what will happen to my family if I die before my personal “asset recovery plan” succeeds?

A financial product that has not lost value
While so many other assets have declined in value, the amount of your life insurance today is the same as it was last year. Actually, if you had been insured through Life for Life, the amount of your insurance probably would have increased due to the Annual Benefit Increase provision that’s automatically included for those under age 60.

How much life insurance do you really need?
You should not guess at the answer, and you need not do so. A new, online calculator, called CALC, should be a big help in your analysis. Click here to see how CALC can give you sophisticated information without your spending all weekend at it.

CALC offers a highly personalized result by considering many factors, like inflation, investment yields, educational aspirations of family members, debt levels, future workplace promotions, and differences in regional living costs.

College funding
Costs for higher education may represent a significant portion of your life insurance need. CALC asks for specific information – not just your dependents’ ages, but the types and locations of institutions that you envision for them.

Value of daily activities
The monetary value of all you do – yard work, meals, laundry, picking up the kids – is often vastly underestimated. CALC helps to capture the value of "at-home" contributions.

It even offers suggested hourly rates for work you would otherwise perform yourself. Estimated costs for services like child care can be adjusted for geography and the duration for which you expect your family to need these services.

Results summary
CALC’s results are laid out clearly, including assumptions built into the program and those you’ve chosen to override. Your end result may be viewed instantaneously, saved for reference, or printed.

Further, you should recalculate your needs each time you have a notable change in your life, e.g., marry, have a child, lose a parent, buy a house. Experts suggest re-evaluating your needs every 5 to 10 years to ensure your insurance amount is adequate. It would be a good idea for each adult in your life to use CALC.

CALC can be finished in as little as 15 minutes. You’ll need basic financial data, most of which you probably know without your records.

CALC can be used free, with no obligation, and completely anonymously.

Try it!
If you decide you need more life insurance, consider applying through your alumni/ae insurance program. But whatever you do, don’t delay.