How much life insurance does a Palmetto Bay family actually need?

If the household spends the paycheck, the policy has to replace years of it. A 35-year-old with 20 years of high-need parenting left is not a 55-year-old with a house almost paid. We pick a year-count on purpose: 15, 20, 25. Then we multiply. Then we discount anything the survivor already has — savings, existing group life, a pension that actually exists.

Group life at work is a bonus, not a plan. It disappears when the job does. We count it for this year. We do not build the house on it.

Mortgage, car notes, a HELOC on a Palmetto Bay house, student loans that are not discharged. Some debts the survivor can refinance. Some they cannot. We list them. A $550,000 mortgage on a two-income household is a different leftover than the same mortgage on one income.

Credit cards are usually a cash-need, not a reason to add $80,000 of permanent insurance.

If a stay-at-home parent would have to work, childcare in Miami-Dade is a real number. We add years of it. College is optional in the sense that the child can still have a life without a 529 filled by insurance. If funding school is a family promise, we add a lump. If it is a wish, we do not let it crowd out the mortgage.

Special-needs planning is not optional. That is a permanent conversation, often with a trust attorney, not a rider we hide in a term app.

Insure both adults who produce care or income. A Palmetto Bay parent who does not take a W-2 still has a replacement cost. We quote a smaller term on the unpaid labor because the paid labor cannot also do pickup at 3:15. Families resist this and then agree when we price a year of after-school and a housekeeper.

Joint policies exist. We rarely lead with them. Two individual terms are cleaner when someone remarries, moves, or needs to convert later.

Say $140,000 household income, $480,000 mortgage, two kids under 10, $80,000 in savings, $50,000 group life. A 20-year income replacement plus the mortgage minus savings and group might land near $1.2–$1.6 million in term, split across two people. That is a sketch. Your file will move it. The sketch is why we do not sell $250,000 and call it done.

Start a life quote with ages and a target amount, or with no amount and we will propose one. An advisor calls. You can say it is too much. You should see the math before you say that.