Knowing it’s time to review your life insurance is one thing. Actually doing it — reading your own policy, recalculating what you need, and deciding whether to keep, replace, or supplement your coverage — is a different exercise entirely. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s the process we walk clients through.
If you’re still trying to figure out whether now is even the right time to review, our companion guide on five financial planning scenarios that signal a review is overdue covers that first. This guide picks up from there — assuming you already know a review is due — and walks through exactly how to conduct one.
Step 1: Find your actual policy and read the real terms
Most people know they “have a policy” but couldn’t tell you the specifics without digging up the paperwork. Before you can evaluate anything, you need the actual document — not your memory of what you bought.
Look for these specific details:
Coverage amount (face value). The death benefit your policy currently pays out. This is often the only number people remember, and it’s frequently the one that’s most out of date.
Policy type. Is it level term (fixed premium for a set period), annually renewable term (premium increases every year), or a permanent policy like whole life or universal life? Each has very different implications for a review.
Remaining term length. If it’s a term policy, how many years are left before it expires or the premium jumps significantly? A policy with three years left needs a different conversation than one with fifteen.
Conversion privilege. Many term policies include the right to convert some or all of the coverage to a permanent policy without new medical underwriting, usually within a specific age or time window. This is one of the most overlooked features on an existing policy, and it can be extremely valuable if your health has changed since you bought it.
Riders. Waiver of premium, accidental death, child term riders, and other add-ons may already be part of your policy. Know what you’re paying for.
Current premium. What you’re actually paying today, and whether that premium is guaranteed to stay level or is scheduled to increase.
Step 2: Recalculate your coverage need from scratch
Don’t start by asking “is my current coverage amount still enough?” Start by asking “if I were buying life insurance for the first time today, how much would I actually need?” Then compare that fresh number to what you have.
A reasonable starting framework:
Income replacement. Most working adults need roughly 10 to 15 times their annual income in coverage, though this varies based on how many years that income needs to be replaced.
Outstanding debts. Mortgage balance, business loans, co-signed loans, and any other debt that wouldn’t disappear if you did.
Dependents and their timeline. How many years of financial support do your children, or anyone else who depends on you, actually need? A newborn has a very different timeline than a college junior.
Final expenses and existing liquid assets. Subtract savings, other liquid assets, and any existing coverage you’re not replacing from your total need.
If the number that comes out of this exercise is meaningfully different from your current face value — in either direction — that’s your answer about whether a change is warranted. Our life insurance needs calculator guide walks through this in more detail.
Step 3: Compare your current premium to what you’d pay today
This step surprises people in both directions.
If your health has improved significantly since you bought your policy — you’ve quit smoking for over a year, lost significant weight, or gotten a health condition under control — you may qualify for a meaningfully better rate class today than the one your existing policy reflects. In that case, a new policy at your current age but improved health could actually cost less than what you’re paying now, even though you’re older.
If your health has declined, a fresh comparison tells you something different: it may confirm that your existing policy, even if it’s not perfectly sized, is worth keeping precisely because replacing it could mean applying at a worse rate class or facing new underwriting altogether.
Either way, you won’t know without actually running the comparison. This is where working with an independent broker matters — a real, current quote across multiple carriers tells you whether change makes financial sense, rather than guessing.
Step 4: Decide — keep, replace, or supplement
Once you’ve got the real terms of your existing policy, a fresh calculation of your actual need, and a current market comparison, you’re choosing between three paths.
Keep what you have. If your existing coverage still roughly matches your need, your premium is competitive, and your health hasn’t changed enough to unlock better rates, the simplest answer is often to leave it alone. Not every review ends in a change, and that’s a perfectly good outcome.
Replace it. If your needs have grown substantially, your health has improved enough to justify new underwriting, or your current policy is a poor structural fit (an expiring term with no conversion option, for example), replacing the policy may make sense. Never cancel an existing policy until a new one is approved and in force — a gap in coverage, even briefly, is a real risk.
Supplement it. Often the most efficient answer isn’t replacing your policy at all — it’s adding a second, smaller policy to cover a new gap. If you have $500,000 in force from ten years ago and a new mortgage added $300,000 in obligations, a new term policy for that specific gap can be cheaper and simpler than unwinding and replacing what you already have.
A note on permanent policies specifically
If your existing coverage is a whole life or universal life policy, the evaluation includes one more layer: cash value. Before making any changes, request an in-force illustration from your carrier showing the policy’s current cash value, projected future performance, and what happens if you stop paying premiums. Surrendering or replacing a permanent policy without understanding its cash value and any surrender charges can mean giving up more than you realize. This is a conversation worth having directly with your broker before taking action.
What to bring to a policy review conversation
- Your actual policy documents, or at minimum your policy number so your carrier or broker can pull the details
- Your current health status, including any medications or diagnoses since your original application
- A rough sense of your current income, debts, and dependents
- Any life changes since you bought the policy — marriage, children, a new home, a business
Coming prepared with these turns a policy review from a vague “should I look into this” into a concrete, 15 to 20 minute conversation with real answers.
Get a free policy review today
At Term Insurance Brokers, we walk clients through exactly this process — reading the real terms of your existing policy, recalculating your actual need, and comparing current market rates — before recommending anything. Sometimes that means a new policy. Often it means confirming what you already have is still the right fit.
There’s no cost for a review and no obligation.
Get Your Free Policy Review
No cost. No obligation. Takes about 15 minutes.
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Term Insurance Brokers is a team of licensed independent insurance agents operating in 35+ states, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are not affiliated with any single insurance company.