Typical U.S. adults think family breadwinners should have an average of about $589,000 in life insurance coverage but have only $300,000 in coverage.
Researchers at New York Life Insurance Company, New York, have publishing that finding in a summary of results from a recent telephone survey of 1,003 U.S. adults ages 25 and older who have dependents and also have annual household incomes over $50,000.
Researchers asked the participants to estimate how much coverage their families would really need, rather than using the usual rules of thumb to determine how much coverage the participants might need.
The difference between the median estimated coverage need and the median amount of coverage that the participants actually had suggests that the typical U.S. family faces a coverage gap of about 49%, the New York Life researchers write.