Many physician residents and those in fellowship programs are married and may have children. This could mean that they have a net worth of zero — or, more likely, less than zero. Although student loans disappear at your death, consumer and mortgage loans are assessed against the value of your estate. And these are probably co-signed by your surviving spouse.

There is probably never a greater need for large quantities of life insurance than there is during a medical residency. You are within sight of a high paying lucrative career, but you haven't achieved that earning power yet. Residency is also the ideal time to lock in long-term life insurance since you are young and healthy, and thus premiums are quite low.

There are a number of legitimate arguments for buying individual life insurance as a resident.

• Term life insurance is affordable and will never be more affordable than it is right now. One of the underwriting factors that determines the cost of life insurance is age. So the younger you are, the less you will spend on coverage. Simple as that.
• You do not have complete control over your future underwriting status. Sure, you may be perfectly healthy now. But what happens if you wait and become unexpectedly ill or are a victim of an accident? Not only will these ailments add to the cost of life insurance later. They may even prevent you from qualifying for coverage.
• You cannot rely solely on group coverage. A group policy is better than nothing. But it's contingent on your employment or association membership. Unfortunately, these are often subject to cancellation at anytime and premiums are not guaranteed and increase every year. Meanwhile, you can keep your individual policy as long as you pay the premiums.

The purchase of life insurance, done properly, only needs to be done once or twice in your life. This is one of those times.

What you choose to do at this stage depends on what life insurance you already have in place. If you are still healthy and haven't picked up any bad habits, such as smoking or rock climbing, or other hazardous activities you still have lots of options. If you just bought a huge, long-term policy as a resident, that is now a tiny percentage of your income. If you decided to partially insure yourself with a smaller, 30-year policy, you now have the option to buy an additional policy or two and keep the old one in place. But if you bought a shorter-term large policy, now is probably the time to replace it with a longer-term policy.

Don't go it alone! RWM Insurance is licensed with every top insurance carrier in over 30 states and can assess policy options from all the best-rated life insurance providers. Get in touch with us today!

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