Baby and Child Life Insurance

bdream0916

Hey Ladies, as a FTM I have a lot of questions about baby and childhood life insurance. Was or is this something that is really important to you? Did any of you use the Gerber Grow Up Paln? I would love any insight or advice.

emmaaa

I am fortunate that it is offered to me for my children through my employer. I think the max you can do is $10,000 per child and it only costs around $1.00 a month and is the same for DH so I think DD is double covered and so will this baby. If our employers didn't offer it, we would look into a private plan. You never plan or want something awful to happen to your child, but if it does, there is the extra layer of security and one less thing you have to worry about (TW like a funeral) because that's the last thing you will want to think about at a time like that. I wouldn't think any larger amount would be necessary

tosh24

Like @emmaaa, my kids are insured through a plan my employer offers. I pay a few bucks a month total for both of them. Limit is $10,000 each. I'll add this new baby on after it's born. 

I have seriously thought about having them insured privately, though. Mainly so that they are covered by a plan that will stay with them for the rest of their lives and they don't have to worry about "pre-existing conditions" and whatnot like they would if they apply as adults. 

I've heard sketchy things about the Gerber Plan. I'd look into plans from a major insurance carrier (Sunlife, etc).

bdream0916

@tosh24 @emmaaa Since I'm going to be a SAHM I won't have the employer option. That's awesome that your employer provides that. 

@tosh24 Have you heard bad things? That's good to know. 

skilouise

Meh.  I guess I get the value for those who would face a legit financial hardship if they had to pay for a child's funeral. Otherwise, I don't see the value of throwing away money - even a small amount - for a tiny insurance policy that is extremely unlikely to be necessary. If an employer provides it for free, sure, but it's not something I'd ever pay for. 

My brother and I received a small payout after my mother's death on a whole- life policy that my great - grandparents bought when my mom was a kid. Going through the old financial statements, it was such a waste of money. They would have gotten a much better return just sticking the money in a CD or other low risk savings vehicle. Today's plans may be different, obviously, but the cost - to - benefit ratio of my mom's childhood life insurance policy was definitely not great.

bdream0916

@AshVA That's a really good point. As I'm still deciding, I really am not leaning one way or the other, but I like the idea of putting money on a CD instead of throwing it at an insurance company. My husband and I are more than able to pay for a funeral, should something happen. The plan I was looking at is $10 a month for $25,000 of coverage.

sparkymcgeee

We have life insurance on both of our kids but it's not a whole lot. It's like 10 or 15k a kid. Just enough to cover funeral expenses or some medical bills if anything were to happen to my kids. No one wants to think about it but I think it's important to have SOMETHING in the just in case scenario. Savings, life insurance, whatever. 

tosh24

@bdream0916 I think there's more to consider than just "throwing money away". I have a pre-existing medical condition that prevents me from getting life insurance. It was discovered as a late teen. Luckily, I get covered through my employer for a decent amount, but definitely not as much as DH would need to cover our mortgage, lost income, and hiring of a caregiver for the kids long-term. There's no way for you to know at this point if your kid is going to have future health issues that will preclude them from life insurance coverage. I wish my parents had looked into getting insurance for me when I was younger, just like my aunt and uncle did for my cousins. My family would be in a much better position right now if the unthinkable were to happen. You may not be able to save a sum of money that would make it worthwhile to your child's future family on your own. Definitely do your research, but insurance isn't always going to be a waste.

skilouise

@tosh24 My concerns with that approach are that 1) it requires going with a whole life policy, which as a general rule tends to be a bad investment; and 2) the amount of children's whole life policies are so small that they wouldn't really make much difference for an adult. If your parents spent $3-4k on a $10k whole life policy 20-30 years ago, would that really make that much of a difference in your life now? 

tosh24

Whatever my aunt and uncle got for my cousins, has. They added on to their policies when the kids turned 18. Parents still paid for it. I don't know the exact details of their products, I'm not that nosy, but I know in talking with my one cousin she is extremely happy with her parents' decision as she would now be uninsurable.

emmaaa

I don't know anything about pre-existing conditions and receiving life insurance in the future so I will leave that for @tosh24

But I will say, for me to spend $1 a month to cover my daughter for $10K does not seem like throwing money away. If something tragic happened to her or this baby, we would have to take our a loan just to pay for a funeral. I know the cost would be different going private @bdream0916 but also I don't know your situation, does your SO have the option to cover the baby?

bdream0916

@emmaaa That's a really good question. I'm assuming not because he does not have the option of getting life insurance through his job, just medical insurance. But that's definitely something that we can still ask his HR about. We just go through state farm for our own life insurance.

achays11

MH and I don’t personally have life insurance policies for the girls, but my FIL does. He pays for them too. Also, luckily, heaven forebod anything happen to our girls MH’s work will cover all medical costs. 

Mandamay1414

The way I've always approached insurance is that you buy insurance for things that could financially break you were something really bad were to happen (home, health, auto). I had a life insurance policy for myself when I was employed full time and way the primary income. Now DH is the primary income, so we have life insurance for him but not me (I would be able to go back to work full time should he die/lose his income). I will probably not buy life policies for my kids. God forbid something would happen to one of them, we could pay for a funeral without that breaking us financially. I think it really depends on your individual financial situation... Everyone has a different threshold.

nononorman

@Mandamay1414 ditto all that. What a messed up thing to think but the cost of a funeral would be less than we pay in childcare in a year. It would be a financial wash pretty quickly. The bigger financial problem would be I’d prob develop some mental issue and have to go out on unpaid leave etc etc

Mandamay1414

Yeah the disability thing scares me too.. 

MrsHudson2014

We have a $25,000 policy on DD that closes us about $12 a month. At 18, we can get our entire investment back in cash before thinking about an adult plan. So, if nothing happens it's not money wasted. Same with our personal policies.