Your Money: Why people in their 20s and 30s need life insurance

Maybe you’re in your 20s and 30s, single, without children -- do you need life insurance? Many financial planners will tell you yes. Here’s why.

Cover yourself, just in case

There could be a partner, marriage or children in your future. The younger you are when your purchase a life insurance policy, the cheaper it will be.

“It’s wise to go ahead and get a good 20-year term policy in place while rates are low. If you end up deciding to stay single forever, you can always just cancel it without consequences,” says Beverly Miller, a personal finance coach in Pittsburgh.

Capitalize on your insurability

Not only is it cheaper to get a policy when you’re younger, you’re also more likely to be healthy. By locking in a policy now, you avoid the expense and possible inability to get insurance when you have medical conditions that would make you ineligible.

Take care of mom and dad

Life insurance can pay off any debts that your parents took on to support you through college, such as co-signing for a car or student loans. “If someone has $200,000 in student loans with their parents as co-signer, then a life insurance policy can handle that. Let's not leave parents holding the bag,” says Earl Jones, an insurance agent with State Farm in Sunnyvale, California.

Or you may just want to name your parents as beneficiaries to help them financially when they’re elderly, in the event you die before they do. 

Says Travis Sickle, a certified financial planner with Sickle Hunter Financial Advisors, in Tampa, Florida, “Life's full of uncertainties, and this is one part that just helps close the risk gap.”