If you’re a P&C agent adding life insurance to your book of business, this is the conversation we need to have.

The $50,000 to $200,000 term policies written for $30 to $40 a month have become an industry habit and it’s one worth breaking.

That amount of coverage may have felt meaningful a decade ago, but in today’s economy, it doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to.

A $100,000 death benefit might cover a year of lost income, a few months of mortgage payments, and final expenses. That’s not a safety net. That’s a speed bump for a grieving family trying to rebuild their financial life.

The recommendation is simple: start the conversation at $1,000,000 in death benefit with a 20 or 30 year term.

For most healthy adults, that lands between $1,200 and $2,000 in annual premium a meaningful but very achievable number for a family that’s serious about protection.

A million dollars gives a surviving spouse real options. It covers income replacement, mortgage payoff, education funding, and breathing room to make decisions without financial panic driving them. That’s the outcome we’re supposed to be delivering.

Anything less and we’re checking a box, not solving a problem. There’s also a professional reality worth acknowledging: larger policies with longer terms pay better.

A 20 or 30 year term policy at adequate coverage levels generates meaningfully more revenue than a minimum-coverage 10 year policy written to keep the monthly premium as low as possible.

You don’t have to choose between doing right by your client and building a sustainable practice writing appropriate coverage does both.

If you’re not sure where to start, Quote&Apply makes it easy to run $1,000,000 term quotes across multiple carriers in seconds, so you can show clients exactly what real protection looks like and what it actually costs.

Most of the time, it costs less than they expected.