I asked my financial advisor the same question and his answer was to keep it.

Mind you, our financial situation is much more stable than yours with a net worth of about $13M. But we are older (in our 60s).

How old are you? How long are you each planning to work? What other financial goals do you have before retiring if you're alive? The insurance is about 9 years of the salary your survivor benefit won't cover. What would you be paying for in the next 9 years if alive?

What is your wife's salary currently going to, and how long is she planning to work? Would either of you want to keep working if the other died?

I also don’t understand why the policy increases every year? $2000/ year seems reasonable. I will tell you that when my DH’s policy EXPIRED, the insurance company offered the same policy, but the price increased to $15,000 per year! That was easier to decline.

Anonymous wrote:Drop it and concentrate on investing the money yourself as you see fit.
I'd get rid of the rental also unless someone from the family will live in it in the future. Very small chance it will increase in value or have bigger returns that the stock market. Money printing will continue.
My partner passed away when our child was 9-years old. The SS we get til the kid is 18.5 is very big help. I'm not even going to bother with the $110k life insurance that was through work. It is sitting somehwere waiting for the kid to turn 18.
I concentrated on maximizing tax credits/deductions, investments, retirement, and learning all I could about the markets. It paid off within few years. I get very high returns now. Insurance and investing could have gone hand in hand, but I don't see it in your case.
Your kids are older. Drop it, learn to invest, and show the kids how you did it. You don't want your kids wasting 25 years on insurance they most likely will never use while also not learning to get bigger returns that market's 10%.

Here is a poster who doesn’t understand how insurance works and probably can’t give you reliable advice about investing either.

OP, I dropped mine with nearly the same stats as you at the end on my 20 years term policy. I bought some term life through by fed benefits for H and I and they are more than enough at this point. Our goal for insurance at this point was to pay off the mortgage, pay for funeral expenses, which was less insurance and cheaper than our prior policy.

The insurance is to cover the house, the spouse and the children. Sounds like they are all covered - drop it.

FWIW, we dropped ours as well, in a similar situation

We dropped it when our oldest turned 20-21? and the policy expired. College is nearly fully funded and DH and I both work. We’ll cash flow the last year for each kid. We’re not high income due to career changes in our 50s and our NW is $7M.

We dropped ours because house was paid off and each had over $1m in 403(b) and we were over 55.

Anonymous wrote:If you decide to get rid of it, you should sell it as opposed to dropping it. Years 25-30 of a 30 year term policy are the most valuable and there are legitimate companies that will pay you for it.

If that is true and it is possible to sell your policy this is by far the best advice you got here. Your policy is likely to be worth thousands if there is a resale market.

Drop it and concentrate on investing the money yourself as you see fit.
I'd get rid of the rental also unless someone from the family will live in it in the future. Very small chance it will increase in value or have bigger returns that the stock market. Money printing will continue.
My partner passed away when our child was 9-years old. The SS we get til the kid is 18.5 is very big help. I'm not even going to bother with the $110k life insurance that was through work. It is sitting somehwere waiting for the kid to turn 18.
I concentrated on maximizing tax credits/deductions, investments, retirement, and learning all I could about the markets. It paid off within few years. I get very high returns now. Insurance and investing could have gone hand in hand, but I don't see it in your case.
Your kids are older. Drop it, learn to invest, and show the kids how you did it. You don't want your kids wasting 25 years on insurance they most likely will never use while also not learning to get bigger returns that market's 10%.

a couple more years

Why is it going up? You didn't buy level term?

I would keep it as long as you have the mortgage. Otherwise, if you drop it and one of you dies suddenly, the other spouse is left covering the entire mortgage and might have to dip into other assets. The life insurance proceeds would enable you to pay off the mortgage.

I agree with PP who suggested dropping the insurance on the lower-earning spouse.

Also, what does your wife want to do with respect to your insurance?

That's key here. She'd be navigating the next chapter (wedding expenses, grandchildren) on less than half of your current income. If she would feel better and more secure keeping the insurance in place, it's worth it.

I would drop it on DW as she's the lower earner and replacing her income isn't as much a concern.