Most people buy life insurance during a big life moment: a new baby, a new mortgage, a new job with a benefits packet to fill out. They sign, file the paperwork somewhere safe, and never look at it again.
Then life changes. Income goes up. A second child arrives. The mortgage shrinks. A parent moves in. The policy, meanwhile, stays exactly the same as the day it was written.
A life insurance review is simply the habit of checking that your coverage still matches your life. It costs nothing to do, and it is one of the few financial exercises where families routinely find both a protection gap and money they are wasting in the same sitting.
Here is how to do it yourself, in plain English.
Step 1: Find out what you actually have
Before you can judge your coverage, you need to see all of it in one place. Pull together:
- Individual policies you bought yourself, from any carrier
- Group coverage through your employer (check your benefits portal, not your memory)
- Coverage through a spouse's plan that lists you or your children
- Mortgage or loan protection policies sold to you by a lender
- Riders attached to existing policies, such as accidental death, child riders, or waiver of premium
For each one, write down four things: the carrier, the death benefit, the type (term or permanent), and the annual premium. That single page is the foundation of the entire review.
A note on group coverage
Employer coverage is a genuine benefit, but it is rented, not owned. It usually ends when the job ends, it is often capped at one or two times your salary, and it rarely travels with you. Count it, but do not build your family's entire plan on it.
Step 2: Work out what your family would actually need
The honest question is not "how much insurance should I have?" It is "if my income stopped tomorrow, what would my family still have to pay for?"
Add up:
- The mortgage or rent balance
- Other debts: car loans, credit cards, student loans, a business line of credit
- Income replacement for the years your family would need it, not forever
- Childcare and education costs that are still ahead of you
- Final expenses and any estate or tax obligations
Then subtract what already exists: current savings, retirement accounts your family could access, and any coverage you found in step one.
The number left over is your gap. It is often smaller than a sales conversation would suggest and larger than most families assume.
Step 3: Check the type of coverage, not just the amount
Term and permanent insurance solve different problems, and neither is automatically the right answer.
Term insurance covers a defined window: 10, 20, or 30 years. It is the most affordable way to cover a temporary obligation, like the years until the mortgage is paid and the children are independent.
Permanent insurance lasts for life and builds cash value. It fits longer-term needs, such as estate planning, a lifelong dependent, business continuity, or leaving a guaranteed legacy.
Two questions worth asking about your existing policy:
- When does my term expire, and how old will I be? A 20-year term bought at 38 ends at 58, which may be before retirement, and renewal at that age is expensive.
- If I hold permanent coverage, is it performing as illustrated? Request an in-force illustration from your carrier. Policies sold in higher interest rate eras do not always behave the way the original projection promised.
Step 4: Verify your beneficiaries
This is the step families skip, and it is the one that causes the most damage.
A life insurance payout goes to whoever is named on the policy. Not who is named in your will. Not who you meant to name. The form wins.
Check that:
- Every policy has a named primary beneficiary and at least one contingent beneficiary
- Names, spellings, and relationships are current after any marriage, divorce, or death in the family
- You have not named a minor child directly, which can force the payout into a court-supervised process instead of into your family's hands
- Percentages across multiple beneficiaries add up to 100
- The named person or trust matches what your will and estate documents assume
If you have set up a trust, confirm the policy and the trust actually talk to each other. A well-drafted trust with an outdated beneficiary form protects nobody.
Step 5: Compare price against today's market
Premiums are based on your age and health when you applied. If your health has improved since then, if you stopped smoking, or if rates in your age band have simply come down, you may be paying above market for the same protection.
Before you change anything, three cautions:
- Never cancel an existing policy until new coverage is fully approved and in force. Not applied for. In force.
- Reapplying means re-underwriting. A health condition that appeared since your original application can raise your cost or limit your options.
- Watch for surrender charges on permanent policies. Exiting early can cost more than staying.
How often should you do this?
Once a year is a reasonable rhythm, and immediately after any of these:
- Marriage, divorce, or the loss of a spouse
- A birth or adoption
- Buying, selling, or refinancing a home
- A significant change in income
- Starting or selling a business
- A change in health for you or a dependent
- Becoming responsible for an aging parent
What good advice looks like
A genuine review should leave you understanding your own plan well enough to explain it to someone else. If a conversation moves straight to a product recommendation before anyone has asked what your family owes, earns, and worries about, that is a sales call, not a review.
You should be able to end the meeting having changed nothing at all, and still walk away with something useful written down.
Your next step
Start with the one-page inventory in step one. You can build it in an evening, and it will tell you more about your family's financial position than any product brochure.
If you would like a second set of eyes on it, KAV Solutions offers a complimentary Financial Need Analysis. A licensed, independent advisor walks through your coverage, your goals, and your gaps with you. No products, no fees, no pressure, just clarity you get to keep.
Book your free Financial Need Analysis at kav.solutions/contact#enquiry-form, or calculate your retirement readiness score at kav.solutions/resources/calculator in under two minutes.
KAV Solutions is a women-led community of licensed financial professionals educating families across the USA and Canada. This article is general education, not individualized financial, tax, or legal advice.