Insurance protection and estate planning are key to your family’s financial peace of mind. Insurance protects you from serious financial loss and provides for your family, and estate planning ensures your wishes are carried out in case you are no longer there.

Protect Your Stuff

Homeowners and Renters Insurance: Both homeowners and renters insurance cover your home and its contents, but in different ways.

• Homeowners pays for damage to both your house and structures (like a garage), while renters insurance covers just your possessions. (Your landlord is responsible for the building.)
• Both policies cover personal property that is damaged or stolen, including furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing, jewelry and dishes.
• Both provide liability coverage against accidents in your home or on your property.
• Both have deductibles — an amount you pay before the insurance covers the rest.

Note: Due to an increase in extreme weather events — such as storms and flooding — some insurance companies have greatly raised their rates or stopped issuing homeowners policies in certain states.

Compare the features of homeowners insurance and renters insurance.

Car insurance provides financial protection in case your car is damaged or stolen, you’re injured in an accident or you’re at fault for an accident that causes injury or property damage to someone else.

• Insurers base your premium (payment) on how risky they think it will be to insure you. Risk factors include your age, gender, type of car and where you live. The higher the projected risk, the more expensive your insurance.
• Uninsured motorist coverage provides financial protection if you are hurt in an accident and the other driver doesn’t have insurance.
• Your policy may also offer features like roadside assistance and car rentals, if yours is being repaired.

Learn the basics of car insurance.

Protect Your Life

Life insurance provides a death benefit (payment) to the beneficiary when an insured person dies. Your premiums (cost) will be based on how risky an insurer thinks it will be to insure you, including your age, gender, health and whether you smoke.

There are two main types of life insurance, permanent and term.

• Permanent life insurance policies are intended to provide coverage for life. They pay a death benefit and can also accumulate cash value. The cash value may be invested or earn interest depending on the policy. The main intent of cash value is to keep the policy funded in future years, but most policies also allow the owner to use the funds for other purposes, either through withdrawals or loans. It’s important to understand that doing this can impact the policy’s ability to remain in force.
• Term life insurance policies provide coverage for a fixed time, such as 15, 20, or even 30 years. They pay a death benefit but do not accumulate cash value. The premiums are typically less expensive than permanent insurance.

Service members and their families can also access low-cost life insurance through the military. Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) provides $500,000 of automatic coverage unless you elect to reduce or cancel the coverage. Coverage includes Traumatic Injury Protection Insurance (TSGLI), which provides up to $100,000 to service members during recovery from a serious injury. Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI) provides up to $100,000 in term life insurance to the spouses and dependent children of service members.

As a spouse, keep in mind that if you are currently not working or underemployed, it’s important to consider the cost of child care should you be unable to care for your child(ren). MilSpouse Tessa explains how it’s key to Know Your Worth.

Watch this video comparing permanent and term insurance.

Estate Planning

An estate plan supports most of the important legal, health, and financial decisions in your life and after you pass. It documents things like what happens to your property, who will care for your children, and who will oversee your finances and health decisions when you are unable.

Things to remember:

• Estate planning is not just for the rich — every family can have peace of mind knowing that important end-of-life decisions have already been made.
• Estate planning may sound daunting, but it’s really a series of small steps you can take one at a time.
• Estate planning is an ongoing process. Once you prepare the major documents, you will need to periodically review them to make sure they’re accurate and up to date.

There are many ways to plan your estate, but most plans include these five key documents:

1. Your will specifies who will receive your property when you die, appoints a guardian for your minor children and names an executor to handle your affairs when it is time to probate your will.
2. A durable power of attorney appoints another person to manage your legal and financial affairs in case you can’t due to prolonged absence, injury or illness. It stays in effect during your lifetime unless you revoke it.
3. Your health care directive or living will lets you specify medical procedures you want taken — or not taken — if you aren’t able to state your preferences. For example, you can specify desired types of treatment, such as no cardiac resuscitation but maximum pain relief.
4. You use a medical power of attorney or health care proxy to appoint someone to make health care decisions on your behalf, in case you become incapacitated through illness or injury.
5. Your letter of instruction is a summary of essential information that clarifies your wishes concerning personal and financial matters such as who will need to be notified of your death and instructions for your funeral.

Note: Service members who are deploying are required to complete or update their Record of Emergency Data (DD Form 93). This document tells your wishes to the military if you die or become incapacitated, including who you want to be notified and how certain benefits should be distributed.

You may also need to prepare a family care plan to determine how you want your family cared for while you’re away. This document is required for certain service members, such as those who are single parents or dual-member couples with dependents.

Watch this video about the five key estate planning documents.

Take the Next Step

The Office of Financial Readiness offers free guidance from Personal Financial Counselors on your installation. They are experienced with insurance and estate planning and understand the needs of military families.

MilSpouse Money Mission® is a Department of Defense resource that offers FREE personal financial education specifically geared toward military spouses. There is a Money Ready guide for various stages of financial life, a MilLife Milestones section to help you through the big moments in your military journey, a blog, spouse videos, quizzes, calculators and more!

MilSpouse Money Mission® is a Department of Defense resource that offers FREE personal financial education specifically geared toward military spouses. There is a Money Ready guide for various stages of financial life, a MilLife Milestones section to help you through the big moments in your military journey, a blog, spouse videos, quizzes, calculators and more!