If you are a police officer or first responder, you may have already determined that you are in a risky business.
You are on every turn to protect civilians in your community, there is always a risk that you could get injured or, in the worst case, never make it home.
It is important that you take the necessary steps to ensure that if you do not make it home, your surviving loved ones will have the financial resources to continue.
Many police officers and first responders are under the impression that life insurance companies like to pass on insurance to police officers, but the good news is that insurance companies understand the risk and many will compete for your business.
Simply put, each year a lot more people die from car accidents than police officers are killed on the job. It is surprisingly easy to get affordable life insurance if you are a police officer.
Why is life insurance important for police officers?
Let us start with an important and confirmed statistic from the Officer Down Memorial page (odmp.org). In 2020, 359 police officers were killed in the line of duty, of which 332 were men and 27 were women.
Now, compare those figures with the death toll as a result of a car accident in 2020 which is 1.36. Sure, many of those accident victims may be police officers, but you’ll probably understand one risk more than another.
Whether a police officer dies on duty while protecting the public or as a result of an illness or an unrelated job accident, they should have life insurance so that loved ones are not financially ruined after a loss.
The risky issues police officers must deal with on the job are greater than the average employed person must deal with:
Response to traffic accidents
Officers working in the traffic department, such as the police, spend most of their time on highways and county roads or in city areas that they are charged with patrolling. It definitely puts them at risk when there is no accident on the side of the road.
On the job Careless Shootings
Since a police officer has been trained and then authorized to carry a weapon, being on duty or sometimes off duty exposes them to the risk of being shot at by a perpetrator or even friendly fire because of a crossfire situation.
Act as Respondents
It is certainly not unusual for a police officer to be placed in the position of first responder. Whether it’s a bank robbery or a collapsing bridge, police officers will assist other first responders by getting involved in the investigation or publicizing a community to gather facts and evidence.
Are police officers considered high risk?
Being employed as a police officer means that the officer works in many different situations throughout his employment.
An officer may serve as a vice president for several years and then may be appointed as a school resource officer. When an officer is onboard like a service member after graduating from the Academy, they will be assigned to different departments or divisions during the course of their employment.
But when we considered the statistics we mentioned earlier and considered the overall risk of being a police officer, insurance companies understand that, although police officers do take risks on the job, overall, the business is not considered high-risk by most insurance companies. is believed.
Life Insurance Policies Provided through Work Enough for Police Officers.
Unless an officer is single and there are no children. Although employer-sponsored life insurance is a great benefit to take advantage of, it will fall short of your surviving loved ones’ financial needs if that is the only life insurance an officer has.
- The death benefit is typically limited to a multiple of an officer’s annual salary and in many cases, the limit is not sufficient to replace the deceased officer’s salary for more than a few years.
- Most life insurance policies offered by the department or union pay a lower benefit if the officer dies while off duty.
- In general, an employer-sponsored life insurance policy is not portable. This means that when the officer retires (most can after serving 20 years), the coverage will not follow the officer.
How much Life Insurance Do Police Officers Need?
If an officer has a family, and most do, the purpose of his or her life insurance policy will be to replace the officer’s income so surviving family members can financially continue after the officer’s death.
Replacing your income is more than just buying a multiple of your annual salary. When you are determining the death benefit needed to replace an officer’s income (especially if he or she is the sole breadwinner in the household) the following financial obligations should be considered:
- The surviving family’s annual living expenses
- The mortgage balance, if any, on the family residence
- Any personal debt
- The estimated cost of college tuition for any children in the household
- Estimated contributions needed for a spouse’s retirement fund
- The estimated cost of the funeral and burial service
We have found over the years that in almost every case, the calculated replacement income is much higher than a multiple of 3 or 4 times the annual salary of an officer.
Which Types of Life Insurance Policies are Available for Police Officers?
Police officers will have the same access to life insurance products as any other individual.
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance continues to be the most affordable type of life insurance for income replacement.
Most companies will offer term policies with policy terms of five to thirty years. And, in the last few years, several companies began offering policies with terms of up to 35 and 40 years.
Since a term policy doesn’t provide permanent coverage and there is no cash component attached, term life insurance will always be the most affordable choice.
Permanent Life Insurance available
Permanent life insurance guarantees a death benefit for the life of the insured as long as premiums are paid. A permanent policy (sometimes called cash-value life insurance) also has a cash component that will build value over time and earns tax-deferred interest based on the investment performance of the insurer issuing the policy.
The two most popular permanent life insurance policies are whole life and universal life.
- Whole life insurance provides permanent insurance coverage for the insured’s lifetime and cannot be canceled by the insurer as long as premiums are paid. Additionally, once the policy is issued the premium can never increase and the policyholder can access the cash whenever needed and for any reason.
- Universal life insurance is similar to whole life because it can provide permanent coverage if properly funded. The difference between the two is that universal life policies are flexible, meaning the premium payments and death benefit can be changed by the policyholder. Generally, universal life is cheaper than whole life and typically earns more interest on the cash value account.
How do Insurance Companies Determine Your Premium?
A police officer’s life insurance policy is underwritten virtually the same as any other applicant. Certainly, age and health are the most dominant factors for rating but many carriers use a supplemental questionnaire once you disclose that you are in law enforcement.
You can expect to provide some information to the insurer on the following topics:
Do you carry a firearm?
Since an armed officer may be a higher risk than an unarmed officer, your insurance company will ask about when you are and when you are not carrying a firearm.
Do you often go out in the field?
Since many officers are assigned to “desk duty” either permanently or temporarily, the insurer will ask if you ever go to the field for tasks like investigations, canvassing, and questioning possible witnesses to a crime, or crime scene investigation tasks.
What safety measures do you take?
These questions are directly related to following established protocols and whether or not you take additional safety measures while on the job.
Do you handle major crime cases?
Certainly, major crime cases can be more dangerous than misdemeanor cases so the company will likely ask if you work major crimes and what is your average monthly or annual caseload.
What is your specialty?
If you have gone through special training over and above normal academy training, the insurer will ask in what field you have special training.
