Couples without children: myths that say you can skip life insurance

Some couples without children truly do not need life insurance, and many more assume they do not without ever doing the arithmetic. The common reasons for skipping it, such as "no kids, no need" or "we both work," each contain a real piece of truth. Each also has a hole that shows up only when one partner dies and the other is left with a mortgage, a smaller paycheck and bills that did not shrink.

This post takes seven of those claims one at a time. For each, it states the claim, tests it against how households and contracts actually work, and says where it holds. The aim is not to talk anyone into a policy. It is to make the decision on numbers rather than on a slogan, and to be clear about the households for whom skipping coverage is a sensible choice.

Myth 1: "No children means nobody depends on us"

The claim is partly right. Children are the most common reason for life insurance, and a couple without them has a shorter list of dependents. But the test is not whether a child exists; it is whether anyone's finances would be harmed by the loss of your income or your work.

A surviving partner is the first dependent in most couples. Two incomes usually cover shared costs that do not halve when one person dies: rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, a car loan, property taxes. The survivor's own paycheck now has to carry all of it.

Here is a hypothetical household. Say Nia, 34, earns $70,000 and her husband Marcus, 36, earns $50,000. Their shared monthly costs are $5,400, and the survivor's take-home pay after taxes is, say, $3,300 for Marcus or $4,500 for Nia. If Nia died, Marcus would face a gap of $5,400 minus $3,300, or $2,100 a month. Over a year that is $25,200. If he needed eight years to downsize, retrain or adjust, the gap totals eight times $25,200, which is $201,600. If Marcus died, Nia's gap would be $5,400 minus $4,500, or $900 a month, which is $10,800 a year.

The numbers are illustrative, but they show the pattern: the partner whose income is larger leaves the larger hole. The myth that "nobody depends on us" confuses dependents with people who share costs.

Where it holds: if each partner earns enough to cover all of the shared costs alone, and no shared debt would outlast the death of either, the dependency is small.

Myth 2: "We have no debts"

Having no debt is a strong reason to need less coverage. It is rarely a reason to need none. Test it by listing what the survivor would face:

• Housing. If you rent, the lease does not end when one tenant dies, and the survivor may owe the rent alone. If you own, a mortgage in both names stays with the survivor. A term policy sized to the loan is one way to match a payoff to a debt; the using term life insurance to cover a mortgage guide explains how.
• Co-signed loans. A car loan or private loan that both of you signed does not disappear at one death. Federal student loans are discharged at the borrower's death, and the guide to what happens to student loans when you die explains the exceptions for private loans and co-signers.
• Final costs. Funeral and burial costs are often thousands of dollars, and the bill arrives within days. See what a funeral costs and how families pay for it.
• The lost second income. Even with zero debt, the survivor loses half the household's earning power. Whether that is a hardship depends on the survivor's own income and savings.

Where it holds: if you have no debt, small expenses and enough liquid savings to cover final costs and a year or two of adjustment, the amount of insurance you need may be small enough that your savings do the job.

Myth 3: "My spouse earns enough to be fine without me"

This claim usually comes from the higher earner talking about the lower earner, or the reverse. It deserves a direct test, because it is the one most affected by what a survivor loses beyond a paycheck.

Test it with three questions:

1. Could the survivor keep the home on one income? If the answer is "yes, but only with a tight budget," the policy buys time and choice.
2. What do you contribute that costs money to replace? Cooking, home repair, tax prep, caregiving for a parent, running a household and, often, supporting each other's career moves have market prices. The human life value: the economist's way to size coverage guide describes the economist's way of valuing a person's future contribution.
3. Does one partner's job provide the family's health insurance and retirement match? Losing that can raise costs well beyond the paycheck itself.

Social Security does not fill the gap for most childless couples. Survivor benefits can go to a surviving spouse who is caring for the worker's child under 16 or who is at least 60 (50 if disabled), according to the Social Security survivor benefits and the $255 death payment guide. A 40-year-old widow with no children and no disability generally cannot collect survivor benefits for another 20 years. The one-time death payment is $255. That is a major difference between couples with and without children, and it is easy to overlook.

Where it holds: when the survivor's own income, savings and Social Security eligibility would let them keep their standard of living, the claim is accurate for that household.

Myth 4: "Our employers cover us"

Employer-paid group life is often one or two times salary at no cost, and that is a real benefit. The test is whether it matches the need, whether it follows you, and who is covered.

Suppose Marcus's employer provides one times salary, $50,000, and Nia's provides two times, $140,000. Compare each benefit with the eight-year gap in Myth 1. If Nia dies, her $140,000 benefit falls short of the $201,600 gap Marcus would face. If Marcus dies, his $50,000 benefit falls short of the $86,400 gap Nia would face (eight times $10,800). Neither benefit would pay off a $220,000 mortgage, if they wanted to.

Group coverage also ends when a job ends, with portability or conversion options that have short deadlines, often about 31 days. A layoff, a move or a retirement can remove it just when coverage is hardest to replace. And the benefit pays the beneficiary you named at the employer, which may be out of date. See employer group life insurance: what it really covers for the usual terms and is life insurance through work enough? for how to measure the gap.

Where it holds: when group coverage is a large multiple of salary, you plan to stay for years and you have no large shared debt, the employer benefit may be enough for now. Revisit when the job changes.

Myth 5: "Only parents and breadwinners need it"

Life insurance covers financial loss, and the loss of a partner who does not earn a salary is still a loss. A partner who stays home to care for a parent, manages a family business's books, or enables the other's long hours has an economic role that would cost money to replace.

More broadly, the people who benefit from your death benefit need not be your children. Aging parents who depend on your support, a sibling with a disability, a business partner, or a charity you want to support are all legitimate beneficiaries, subject to the rule of insurable interest: who can buy life insurance on whom: you can name anyone you choose as the beneficiary of your own policy, but buying a policy on someone else generally requires an interest in their life continuing.

If you own a small business with a partner, a buy-sell agreement funded by life insurance often matters more than personal coverage. life insurance for small business owners and key person insurance explain how.

Where it holds: when no one other than your partner would be affected and your partner needs nothing, a modest policy or none may fit.

Myth 6: "Final expenses are small, so savings will do"

Funeral and burial costs are real but not enormous in the context of a mortgage or a lost income. According to the National Funeral Directors Association's 2023 General Price List Study, the median funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300 and with viewing and cremation was $6,280, excluding cemetery, vault, monument and flowers (see the what a funeral costs and how families pay for it guide). A couple with an emergency fund can pay this.

The test is whether cash would be available within days, not only whether it exists. Savings in retirement accounts may carry taxes and penalties on early withdrawal; savings in a joint account may be reachable immediately by the survivor, but an individual account may be frozen until the estate is opened. Some couples with enough liquid savings reasonably decide that self-insuring final costs is cheaper than premiums.

Where it holds: when liquid, accessible savings clearly exceed final costs and a year of expenses, the claim is accurate. The final expense and funeral cost calculator helps compare.

Myth 7: "We can wait and buy when we have kids"

Waiting is a gamble on health and price. Premiums for a given term policy rise with age because the risk of death rises, and a health problem found in between can make coverage more expensive or unavailable. A couple who buy a 20-year policy at 30 locks in a price and a health class that a couple at 38 cannot assume to repeat. The guide to the the cost of waiting to buy life insurance gives the mechanism.

There is also a middle path. Many couples buy a modest term policy now, sized for the mortgage and a few years of adjustment, and add coverage with a rider, a second policy or a conversion option when children arrive. Some policies include a guaranteed insurability rider that lets you buy more at set events without new medical underwriting; read the rider, because not every insurer offers one and the terms differ.

Where it holds: if you are certain you will not need coverage until a specific event and are comfortable with the risk that a health change will raise the price, waiting is a defensible choice. If you are not certain, price a policy before you decide.

A worked check: should the Nia and Marcus household buy?

Back to Nia and Marcus. They add up the shared needs in a few lines:

Check: $220,000 plus $10,000 plus $201,600 is $431,600, and $431,600 minus $140,000 minus $40,000 is $251,600. If Marcus dies, the numbers are smaller: $220,000 plus $10,000 plus $86,400 is $316,400, minus $50,000 of group life and the same $40,000 in savings leaves $226,400.

Their decision, which is theirs and not a recommendation, is to look at a 20-year term policy sized near $250,000 on each of them, because that is roughly the uncovered gap and it matches the length of the mortgage. They use the How much life insurance do I need? to test the assumptions and compare quotes in dollars before deciding. If the quotes turned out to be too high for their budget, the same table shows which smaller amount would cover the mortgage alone, so they would know what a partial answer buys.

Questions to put to each other this week

A decision like this goes better as a conversation than a purchase. Sit down together and answer these in writing.

1. If I died next month, what would you pay for first, and could you afford it alone?
2. Which of our debts carry both our names, and which have a co-signer?
3. Whom else do we help financially, now or likely within ten years, such as a parent or sibling?
4. Does either of us have a job benefit that would vanish with the job, such as health coverage or group life?
5. How would a plan to have children, buy a bigger home or start a business change the answers?
6. Who is named on every beneficiary form we already have, and when did we last check?

If the answers are comfortable, you have a reasoned case for skipping. If they are not, you now have the numbers to take to a quote.

Who really can skip coverage

For fairness, here is the decision list for the households who can reasonably skip it.

• If both partners could keep their housing and lifestyle on one income, and there is no debt that would outlast either, and savings clearly cover final costs, then skipping may be reasonable.
• If there is a mortgage or co-signed debt, and one partner's income is much larger, then the higher earner's death is the risk to price.
• If one partner supports a parent, sibling or business, then that obligation is a reason for coverage even without children.
• If you are healthy now and plan children later, then pricing coverage today is part of the decision, even if you buy a small amount.

For a broader view of how couples choose, see life insurance for married couples, and for a first-pass test, Do I need life insurance? A plain test. The post Does a couple with no kids need term life? Questions answered answers the common questions in detail.

Key takeaways

• The test for life insurance is whether anyone would be financially harmed by your death, not whether you have children; a surviving partner usually is.
• Shared costs do not halve when one person dies, and Social Security survivor benefits for a childless widow generally do not begin until age 60 (50 if disabled).
• Employer group coverage helps but usually ends with the job and may be well below the real gap, so measure it against your own numbers.
• Some couples with no debt, ample savings and independent incomes can skip coverage, and a decision list is a better guide than a slogan.
• Waiting to buy until children arrive trades a known price for a bet on future health; price a policy before deciding.