Does it make sense to buy life insurance if you have no dependents?

Answer 1

Generally, no.

By dependents I assume you mean family. Life insurance is meant to help people who are dependent upon you for their support.

However, if you have a partner in a business the partner may be dependent upon your share of the work or your expertise. If you pass away there will be money to continue the business. Also, if you have non-dependent children they will possibly inherit your share of the business. I would guess your partner would not want to be in business with your children. A life policy can provide the money for your partner to buy them out.

Also, many people do get a life policy to leave a legacy. They will get a policy with a non-profit organization or a charity as a beneficiary.

Answer 2

People always ask this question and get so many answers, many of them the cut and dry "no" answer. Well, it might, depending on your circumstances. If your only concern is someone burying you in the way that you've requested, and you do NOT have enough money in your checking/savings accounts to cover this, then yes, get a small policy. Remember, anything else, unless there is a named beneficiary, will still go to probate. Furthermore, the proceeds of life insurance are not taxed to the beneficiary, but a life policy does create an "instant estate", and thus, the amount is included in your estate. Of course, unless you're making 2 mil or more, you're not worried about taxes, but you should be worried about creditors going after any assets in the estate if you intended for someone else to have that money.

That being said, another reason you might want to have a life policy--a variable or variable universal policy--is to take advantage of an additional way to save. Life insurance policies are generally not the best way to invest, but if you've maxed out all of your other allowable contributions, look for something else where your money can grow at much better rates (even fixed!) than savings or money market accounts, and then you can typically take tax-free loans from. The loans don't have to be paid back, they just come off the death benefit/cash value if you croak, so make sure you're leaving enough to fund a death benefit requirement.

Now, you see? It's not always a simple yes or no answer that people try to put down here. Believe me.

Answer 3

To buy life insurance one my have what is known as an insurable interest, some sort of relationship family, friend, and business. This is why we cannot buy life insurance as a bet on daredevils or other high-risk groups. It is problematic to buy a life insurance policy for just your estate. Life insurance should not be used as a “savings vehicle” or a means to get an easy loan at a cheap rate in the future, despite what your salesperson says. You could do a modified endowment contract which is very esoteric and may be useful in retirement; however this comes with an incredible amount of IRA scrutiny, something I like to avoid.

Answer 4

Should you have life insurance if you have no dependents? Hopefully you have relatives (i.e.), brothers, sisters, Mother or Father, Aunts or Uncles or Cousins. When you expire from this world did you just want to be thrown out with the trash or treated with respect and have someone give you a proper burial or cremation? Whichever the case might be..... there must be someone you love that would want to honor you and leaving "some" money to see that you are well taken care of would be the adult thing to do. Wish you well!!

Answer 5

Yes it does make sense. A single person with no dependents will need to pay off for funeral expenses, medical bills, debts, such as credit cards or student loans, elderly parents who may be dependent upon you for support. Buying life insurance at a young age is cheaper. As you get older or possibly incur a serious health condition, it will be more expensive or difficult to buy a policy.

Answer 6

Yes

several reasons

No one lives forever, we all at some point have to face retirement, and we need to have funds saved up using a diverstity of financial mechnanisms because there's all kinds of problems could happen with the economy ... we do not want to put all our long term financial plans into an assumption that
* the stock market will go in one direction for the long term
* our investments will turn out to be wise
* our 401 k plan will always be managed by competent people who never get burned
* our real estate won't get hit by an earthquake or weather disaster
* our banks will either be blue chip, or government insurance never fails

You may have no dependents now, but later you may fall in love and get married

Answer 7

It depends upon your goals and your current age. If you are young, you might want to go ahead and purchase it now for several reasons, the younger you are the lower the cost, you might become uninsurable at any point (i.e. if you develop cancer or any other very serious disease you might not be able to find any company to insure you), you will have the time to be able to build up the cash reserves in the policy, etc..

Some of the other advantages of having a policy that builds up a cash reserve, you can use your policy as collateral for loans, you can borrow against the value directly from the insurance company without having to get approved, you can use the policy to fund your retirement, etc.

In terms of the beneficiary one of the other contributors suggestions are on point, i.e. a favorite charity, another family member, etc.

If you cannot afford a policy that builds up a cash reserve, I would still considering purchasing a term policy with a conversion privilege, i.e. to lock in your lower rate, assure your insurability, etc.

Answer 8

If you are single and have around $10K saved for your funeral expenses, you may not need life insurance. Of course you may want to save more than this amount since the price of everything is going up, including funerals. If you own a home and other assets, are these paid for? Do you have a relative you would like to leave as your beneficiary? If so, you may want to have enough life insurance to pay all your debts when you pass away. My husband sells mortgage life insurance and I am glad we have it!

Answer 9

No.

The point of life insurance is to help your dependants make up for the lost income or extra costs associated with you being gone. This would be things like, paying for college, daycare, car bills, house bills.

If no one depends on your income on a daily basis you would be better off taking the money you would use for life insurance and investing it in something with a better rate of return. The older you are, and therefor closer the end of your life, the more insurance will cost you. Instead of paying for high insurance try investing in stocks.

I would only recommend insurance for married couples who dont have enough money for retirement and for adults with children who have not finished college.

Answer 10

Yes. The money from the insurance can pay for your memorial and other expenses that you've racked up in this world. If there's some left over, you can designate who gets what. I have life insurance myself and made my siblings my beneficiaries. (This made my mom made but she's already been thru college! LOL) You could start off with a $50k policy thru your employer.