Anonymous wrote:Do not ever name someone as beneficiary if you expect that they will use the money for the benefit of someone else. You have NO WAY to ensure that will happen.

Even if you trust your sister, let me give an example. You leave a 1M life insurance policy to your sister, intending that she takes care of your child. She drops dead, and guess what-- her ne'er do well husband inherits all of it and tells your kid to pound sad--as he has every right to do.

Or, she gets in an accident and is sued and loses it that way.

really, there are tons of ways this could go bad. Don't do it. Set up a trust.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have pointed out, the contingency you should be planning for is one of you dying, not both. Have enough insurance so you or DH could maintain your lifestyle. I don't believe in the DCUM standard which says a parent's death should make their kid rich.

OP here. I think people's replies seemed to focus on my sister, but we did choose the insurance amt based on only one of us dying. We figured that would be enough for the surviving spouse to pay off the house, and pay for college but regardless of whether it's only one of us dying or both, I'm still wondering if we need to increase insurance now that we have two kids. I guess that's my basic question...certainly not to make my kids or sister rich!