Coverage provided by your employer or an association.
Group life insurance is coverage provided by your employer, union, or professional association. Most employers offer a basic policy — typically 1x or 2x your annual salary — at no cost to you. You can often purchase additional coverage (supplemental life) through payroll deduction.
Group life is a valuable employee benefit, but it has significant limitations. Understanding these limitations is critical — many people discover too late that their employer-provided coverage leaves their family under-protected.
Group life should be treated as a bonus, not the foundation of your life insurance plan. Your core coverage should be an individual term life policy that you own and control. Here's the recommended approach:
The best time to buy individual coverage is while you're employed and healthy. If you wait until after you leave your job, you'll be older (higher premiums) and may have developed health conditions that make coverage more expensive or harder to get. Use our Family Protection Planner to see your coverage gap.
Sometimes. Many policies offer a conversion option that lets you convert to an individual policy within 31 days of leaving. However, the converted policy is often more expensive than buying a new individual term policy directly.
It depends. Supplemental coverage purchased through work is convenient but often costs more than an individual policy if you're healthy. Compare rates before enrolling — you may get more coverage for less money with your own term policy.