I'm the son of a parent who died well before I graduated high school. I hate to say it, but $500k isn't nearly enough unless you're in a very low cost of living state. Even if the surviving parent makes a good wage, you will have a surge of childcare expenses. And if the surviving parent wasn't the primary earner that's when you really need the insurance. The thing lots of people don't consider is that you may not die from a car accident where shit just happened. If someone should be unlucky enough to get cancer, you may face several years of illness with not only reduced income or disability pay but an astounding amount of money spent on medical treatment. Just for starters, insurance will not cover eg childcare for young children while parent #1 is sleeping at the hospital while parent #2 is recovering from surgery or chemo or radiation or whatever it may be.
From my experiences as the oldest of several kids, $1mm is really the minimum and it's worth a quick talk with an attorney to not only have (1) a will; (2) a written discussion ahead of time of what you want to have happen if you or your SO should ever be severely injured (see eg the Terri Schiavo debacle); (3) a discussion of who you would like to have raise your kids should both parents be injured; (4) tax avoidance strategies should someone die early.
These are all unpleasant things.
The other thing you may find shocking is how long it takes to get a death certificate issued / the challenges getting access to accounts held only in a single name. Maybe our experiences where unusual but you should not be surprised if it takes 3-6 months to get some of these things sorted. Not to mention the surviving family are usually an emotional wreck.
From my experiences as the oldest of several kids, $1mm is really the minimum and it's worth a quick talk with an attorney to not only have (1) a will; (2) a written discussion ahead of time of what you want to have happen if you or your SO should ever be severely injured (see eg the Terri Schiavo debacle); (3) a discussion of who you would like to have raise your kids should both parents be injured; (4) tax avoidance strategies should someone die early.
These are all unpleasant things.
The other thing you may find shocking is how long it takes to get a death certificate issued / the challenges getting access to accounts held only in a single name. Maybe our experiences where unusual but you should not be surprised if it takes 3-6 months to get some of these things sorted. Not to mention the surviving family are usually an emotional wreck.