Life Insurance

A common starting point is ten to fifteen times your annual income, adjusted for your mortgage, debts, number of children, and what your family would actually need to stay in place. We work through that with you rather than defaulting to a round number.

For most families the honest answer is term: far more coverage per dollar during the years people depend on you. Permanent insurance has real uses, mostly around estate planning and lifelong dependents. We will tell you plainly which situation you are in.

Many policies today offer accelerated underwriting with no exam for qualified applicants, depending on age, coverage amount, and health history. Where an exam gets you a meaningfully better rate, we will say so.

Life insurance death benefits are generally income-tax-free to beneficiaries. Large estates can involve estate tax questions, which belong with your tax advisor. We coordinate with them when it matters.

Group coverage is a good start but is often one or two times salary and usually ends when the job does. A personal policy is yours regardless of employer, and rates are typically best while you are young and healthy.

Term insurance covers a set period, like 20 or 30 years. Outliving it means no payout, which is the point: it is protection, not investment.

Material misrepresentation can void a policy. Honest answers protect your family's claim.

Policies carry a standard exclusion period, usually two years, after which it is covered.

Certain aviation, occupational, or hazardous-activity exposures can be excluded or rated. We will flag anything relevant before you apply.

We are licensed in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York, and applications in Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan are with those states now. We do not quote a state before its license is issued. Start a quote and we will tell you where you stand before you spend time on it.

You answer a short set of questions, and a licensed broker at Menlo reads them, maps your operation to a class, and shops it with the carriers we are appointed with. There is no instant bind and no black box. You talk to a person before anything is quoted.