Increase life insurance before turn 40

[niccig]

We have a 500k policy on me. It's pretty cheap as got it early 30s. I'm 40 at end of year and wonder if should increase it before my birthday. We got it at urging of accountant as was SAHM at time and it was to cover cost of full time nanny for DS. I'll be working in 2 years when finished with grad school and though thought maybe i should increase now to cover expected salary. How many times salary are you supposed to have?

Thanks

[Zukini]

I understand it to be 10x salary.

But that's a baseline depending on # of children, ages and your expectations for how the money is to be used - care and schooling through 18, or is college included? Any special healthcare needs to be accounted for? General lifestyle - will more money be needed to keep your children at their same lifestyle once they live with their guardian (who might have a different lifestyle?)... And also, probably might be useful to offset the total coverage amount for dependents by any investments / retirement / assets that would also be cashed out in the unfortunate event.

[kbud]

We are in the process of increasing DHs life insurance as he turns 40 next month. We originally got a 20 term for him about 10 years ago. We feel he needs a bit more insurance. We started checking rates in Jan and at that time they already classified him as 40 even though he's not. Having said that though we are finding far cheaper coverage for him now than we did 10 years ago, of course he has lost a good amount of weight since then. You can also keep your current policy and add a second policy for the difference. I shopped around to replace mine but I can't find anything cheaper.