Do I Still Need Term Life Insurance?

Summary

Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger

Episode: Do I Still Need Term Life Insurance?
Date: May 28, 2026
Host: Jill Schlesinger, with producer/co-host Mark
Guest: Listener Melissa from the Pacific Northwest

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jill Schlesinger answers Melissa’s questions about retirement preparedness, focusing on whether Melissa still needs term life insurance given her family’s financial situation. The conversation also dives into backdoor Roth conversions, college funding for late-in-life kids, and general best practices for financial planning in retirement. The discussion is tailored, yet relatable for listeners eyeing retirement, juggling late-stage parenting, or managing significant savings and pension income.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Melissa’s Retirement Snapshot

• Family & Age: Melissa, 59, is married to a 71-year-old retired husband. They have two teenage daughters (14 and 15).
• Income:
  • Husband has Social Security and a pension ($5,500/month combined, pension has inflation adjustment, 67% survivorship for spouse).
  • Melissa’s upcoming pension: $13,500/month (!), with some additional pension from a prior job.
• Expenses: Family spends about $11,000/month, including private medical costs for their daughters.
• Savings & Investments:
  • Husband’s IRA: $315k
  • Husband’s Roth IRA: $13k
  • Melissa’s Roth: $300k
  • Melissa’s IRA: $170k
  • Melissa’s current 457 plan: $1.1 million
  • Daughters' brokerage accounts: $25k each, $700/month being added
  • Liquid savings: Checking ($30k), High-yield ($50k), CDs ($120k)
  • Additional: $100k from a rental sale (acting as a note, $1,600/month income); Annuity payout pending

Notable Moment [04:33]:
Mark: “What? Dude, are you kidding me?”
(On Melissa's $13,500/month pension)

On Term Life Insurance in Retirement

• Melissa’s Main Question: Should she keep or buy new term life insurance for the next 20 years?
• Jill & Mark’s Take:
  • Immediate response: Melissa likely does NOT need new term life insurance at 59 due to significant pensions, survivorship benefits, and large assets.
  • If she wants additional security for her teenage kids, a shorter duration (10 years) is more appropriate than 20.
    • Term policy for $500k/20 years was quoted at $125/month.
    • At 59, buying term life "isn't usually necessary," but could be "asset protection" if it gives peace of mind.
    • Ten years would cover her youngest child into their mid-20s—if anything happened during that window, both spouse and kids are likely covered.
    • General rule for listeners: Older parents with significant guaranteed income and assets generally don't need new term life insurance, but life circumstances may warrant a closer look.

Insightful Quote [08:32]:
Mark: “If you wanted to throw away $1,500 a year, I have no problem with that. Like Mark said. Or you know what that is called? That is called asset protection. Not even life insurance.”

Jill Schlesinger [08:44]: “I would not go beyond that. And that’s all that is necessary. But even that, I mean again, like Mark said, you have the money. I think it’s only because you had kids later in life that… we’re even having this conversation.”

Backdoor Roth Conversions

• Melissa’s Scenario: Last year, converted some traditional IRA funds to Roth. Has $171k left in her IRA, with more pre-tax money in her 457 plan.
• Cash On Hand: Substantial liquidity across cash, CDs, and a note from a property sale.
• Jill & Mark’s Advice:
  • Keep converting, but pace based on staying within the 24% tax bracket (current upper limit ~$400k taxable income for joint filers).
  • Don’t sacrifice liquidity: Don't deplete cash reserves to fund Roth conversions.
  • Take into account other taxable income (CDs, note payments, annuity), which may spike in any given year.
  • Coordination: Tell the accountant and advisor about the annual conversion plan, adjusting for any one-off income events that may push her into a higher bracket.

Jill Schlesinger [11:36]: “You’re young. I hope you live for 40 more years, you know, so having that money converted is great. And also your kids are really young. So, ideally the assets that they would be inheriting would be Roth assets.”

Mark [12:21]: "If you could do like $50,000 a year, that would be kind of good. See how that goes and pay the tax on that."

College Savings and Kids’ Futures

• Kids’ Education:
  • Two daughters, 14 and 15; one says she doesn’t want college (yet), both have $25k each in brokerage accounts.
  • Family did not use 529 plans, preferring flexibility.
  • Parental stance: If the girls want parents to pay for further education, “they need a degree to get it paid for from us.”
  • Flexible but clear on educational support boundaries.

Jill Schlesinger [15:10]:
“Now, the other thing is that, you know, maybe. Maybe the college thing is better delayed if somebody doesn't really want to do it. So that's the only thing I. My one reservation is I don't like making kids do stuff that they're going to end up saying like, I'm out of here, I'm done. So if you need help, though, I can be very forceful and in like a kindly anti way, of course.”

Estate Planning

• Status: All documents are in place.
• Jill & Mark: Approve and stress importance when there are young dependents.

Mark [13:50]: “Few. That was a little scary because I literally thought you were about to say, no, no, you're good, you're good.”
(Relief that estate documents are in order.)

Light-hearted and Memorable Moments

• Mark’s shocked reactions to Melissa’s pension.
• Family jokes about incentivizing kids to finish college.
• "Scared Straight for College" reference as a possible strategy for convincing a reluctant teen.
• On pensions:

  Mark [14:14]: "I'm so jealous of these pensions, Mark. When I get a pension..." Melissa [14:16]: "Yeah, they're amazing." Mark [14:18]: "We're superpension, right?" Melissa [14:20]: "Oh, yeah. Blessed."

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [03:10] Guest introduction – Melissa from the Pacific Northwest
• [04:33] Details of Melissa’s and her husband’s pensions
• [05:09] Monthly expenses with teenage daughters
• [06:23] Savings structure and investment account details
• [07:02] 457 balance revealed (“Dude, what are you going to do with all your money?”)
• [07:23] Melissa’s main question: life insurance
• [08:25] Cost of term life insurance ($125/month for $500k/20 years)
• [08:44] Jill’s advice on keeping insurance short-term
• [09:49] Roth conversion: How much and how fast?
• [10:21] Review of Melissa’s liquidity and ongoing taxable income
• [11:36] Long-term outlook for Roth conversions and inheritance
• [13:48] Estate document status check
• [14:14] Mark’s pension envy and banter
• [15:10] Discussion on kids, college, and life choices

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Takeaways for Listeners

• If you’re approaching retirement with strong pensions and investment assets (especially with dependent kids), a long-term term life insurance policy is probably unnecessary. Short-term (e.g., 10 years) could offer peace of mind, but is not typically essential.
• Roth conversions are most efficient when you stay within your targeted tax bracket and preserve liquidity.
• Estate planning and frank conversations with family about education funding are crucial in late-in-life-parenting scenarios.
• Always keep your accountant and financial advisor updated when making planned conversions or withdrawals.

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Notable Quotes

• "Are you kidding me?" – Mark [04:33], shocked at Melissa’s monthly pension.
• "If you wanted to throw away $1,500 a year, I have no problem with that... That is called asset protection. Not even life insurance." – Mark [08:32]
• "You’re young. I hope you live for 40 more years, you know, so having that money converted is great." – Jill Schlesinger [11:36]
• "We’re superpension, right?" / "Oh, yeah. Blessed." – Mark and Melissa [14:18–14:20]
• "If you need help, though, I can be very forceful and in like a kindly anti way, of course." – Jill Schlesinger [15:10] (on persuading kids about college)

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Final Recommendations

Melissa is in excellent shape for retirement, with ample income, assets, and proper estate planning. For listeners in similar situations, the key is to assess actual need for life insurance, optimize Roth conversions while minimizing unnecessary taxes, and plan realistically—but flexibly—for kids' educational paths.

If you need direct advice or want to join the show, go to jillonmoney.com and click "Contact Us".

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Transcript

[Jill Schlesinger]

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[Mark]

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[Mark]

to the Jill on Money Show. It's Thursday, May 28th and we are here answering your financial questions if you've got one. If you're thinking about a new job, if you if you're thinking about starting your own business, if you're wondering whether to buy a house, to sell a house, if you are wondering if some salesperson made a pitch to you, that makes sense. Anything going on for you financially? We'd love to help you out all you need to do is go to our website, jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note, and if you'd like to join us live, you check the little box, and Mark does everything else. While you're on the website, check out all of our content that lives there. We've got podcasts you can subscribe right on our website. We've got a blog, We've got resources, we've got videos all [e-mail]. okay, right now let's talk to Melissa, who joins us from the Pacific Northwest. Hi, Melissa. What's going on? How can we help you out, Jill?

[Melissa]

Mark, I'm just getting ready to retire, and so I've got a few questions about making decisions kind of on term life insurance as well as backdoor Roths.

[Mark]

Okay, that sounds great. So, Melissa, how old are you?

[Melissa]

59.

[Mark]

59. Are you married, single, partnered?

[Melissa]

I'm married. My husband's retired.

[Mark]

How old is he?

[Melissa]

71.

[Mark]

Oh, an older man, and he's retired. So he is receiving Social Security, I presume?

[Melissa]

Yes, he's got Social Security. Just small, and then a pension.

[Mark]

What is the combined amount?

[Melissa]

Let's see, 5,500 between his pension and his Social Security.

[Mark]

Great. Is that pension, is that adjusted for inflation? Is there a cost of living adjustment on it?

[Melissa]

There is, and then we've got a 67% survivorship on it that reverts to 100 if I passed away.

[Mark]

Okay, great. Now you're getting ready to retire. Will you be willing to. Will you be willing. Would you. Are you entitled to a pension as well?

[Melissa]

Yes. Super fortunate that my pension will be about 13 5amonth.

[Mark]

What? Dude, are you kidding me?

[Melissa]

No. Yeah, kind of a regs story. I just ended up in an excellent job with amazing opportunities serving, so.

[Mark]

Oh, my gosh. Congratulations to both of you. Okay, so I presume between your 135 and his 5500, not even including any Social Security for you. That's plenty of money for you guys. You're good. You think you can manage on 19 grand a month?

[Melissa]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Mark]

All right. What do you spend right now for just for the heck of it?

[Melissa]

Well, when I factor in that we need to pay for medical because we have two teenage daughters, we're gonna spend about $11,000 a month.

[Mark]

Okay. But still plenty of money, right?

[Melissa]

Yeah. Yep.

[Mark]

Okay. The two teenage daughters, are we in the process of launching them? Are they in college? Do they plan to go to college? Where are they in the process?

[Melissa]

We made a family late in life. So we have a 14 and 15 year old. One of them doesn't want to go to college. But I think that might come to something different. But we did not do 529s. But we do have savings accounts for both of them in our brokerage, within our brokerage. And so they both have 25,000 in them and we're putting $700 a month in.

[Mark]

Okay, got it. By the way, Mark, you noticed that she's like, well, one doesn't want to go to college. And then like the unsaid portion of we'll see about that is like, we'll just see if mom's going to let that stand. Okay, so Melissa, you've got tons of money coming in. What about your savings? So you've got money that's in a brokerage account?

[Melissa]

Yes. So both my husband and I had 457. So when he retired he's got an IRA that's worth 315 and a Roth that's just at 13,000. And then I was fortunate enough to have a job prior to this that also gives me a little bit more pension money, but also had some investments. So I've got 300,000 in a Roth and 170 in an Iraq. And then.

[Mark]

And you have a current, you have a current 457 plan also?

[Melissa]

Yeah, I do.

[Mark]

How much is in there?

[Melissa]

This is crazy, but 1.1 million.

[Mark]

Dude, what are you going to do with all your money? Tell your kid if you don't go to college, you're not getting any of my money?

[Melissa]

Yeah, pretty much. They need a degree to get it paid for from us, so.

[Mark]

Oh my gosh.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Wow, you got so much going on.

[Mark]

Okay, as you get ready to retire, what's the top of mind question you have?

[Melissa]

So my big question is, do I need term life for the next 20 years?

[Mark]

No. Okay, next. What happens when your pension. Okay, let's say you retired tomorrow and five days later you drop dead. What happens to your pension?

[Melissa]

It reverts to my husband at 67%.

[Mark]

But if you were to die together, your kids would not get any pension income, but they'd get your assets. Correct. Okay. And you do have a lot of assets. I don't think you need term life. Mark, do you think that they need term life? I feel like that's really overkill. Certainly not him because he's on the older side of things. It would be pretty expensive.

[Maury Povich]

You know, I don't know if she

[Mark]

wanted to price it for herself if

[Maury Povich]

it's affordable and it gives her peace of mind. Sure, go for it. They can obviously afford it.

[Mark]

Well, I don't know. 59 years old is not a good time to buy term life insurance. Are you in the military?

[Melissa]

No, but I just got quoted. 125amonth for a half a million for 20 years.

[Mark]

I mean you could. First of all, you don't even need it for 20. What about 10 years? 10 years? I mean you could do 10 years

[Jill Schlesinger]

and that would be fine if you

[Mark]

wanted to do what? If you wanted to throw away 1500 bucks a year, I have no problem with that. Like Mark said. Or you know what that is called? That is called asset protection. Not even life insurance. It's just saying if something happened to me bad in the next, you know, 10 years that not only would the kids get our assets, but they'd get this extra chunk of money. But that's it. I mean I would not go beyond that. And that's all that is necessary. But even that, I mean again, like Mark said, you have the money. I think it's only because you had kids later in life that it is, you know, that we're even having this conversation. Anyone listening? There is no way that I would tell you to go out and get life insurance. Really, it's just not necessary. But this is a very particular case. So I'm going to say to the term life, like Mark said, if, I mean if you said, oh, I can do 125amonth for 10 years is fine with me if you want it. 20 years, a long time. 20 years. They're in their 30s, you know, so you really only need a 10 year time horizon. But if you can buy, in fact I almost would say buy more insurance for a shorter term and see what we price that out. All right, what else besides term life? What else?

[Melissa]

So wanting to understand how much backdoor Roth conversions, so I we converted last year out of my IRA in the brokerage account. So there's 171 left in my IRA there. We've got enough cash in other places besides our brokerage that I theoretically could continue to backdoor. Do I continue to do that, including my 457 because it's all in pre taxed.

[Mark]

Tell me about how much you have in savings.

[Melissa]

30,000 just in a regular checking account, 50,000 in a high yield, 120 in CDs. And then we sold a rental house to my niece. So we're carrying a loan on that. So we've got another 100,000 there plus 1600 dollars a month. And then I have a annuity that comes to fruition in October from my grandparents, so.

[Mark]

So you actually have a lot of taxable income coming in. I mean, because you have those CDs and you know, the note. I wouldn't mind you converting slowly but surely. I mean, I wouldn't go crazy. I wouldn't be like, oh, let's do it all at once. But you know you're gonna have a lot of income no matter what. Right? Right. Between you and your husband. Right. You have income, you kind of, you can't get away from it. So I wouldn't mind if you did start to. Even if it's like you're paying 24%, which is probably about what you're going to end up paying as your top bracket. I wouldn't mind you doing this slowly but surely.

[Jill Schlesinger]

You're young.

[Mark]

I hope you live for 40 more years, you know, so having that money converted is great. And also your kids are really young. So I mean, ideally the assets that they would be inheriting would be Roth assets would be nice. So don't go crazy, don't leave yourself with short of cash. But I love the idea of you converting the top of the 24% bracket is, I think, hold on, I'm squinting here. It's about 400 grand. So you have some room. How much have you been doing in terms, like I would think maybe if you could do like 50 grand a year, that would be kind of good. See how that goes and pay the tax on that. Are you thinking more than that?

[Melissa]

No, I was just thinking maxing out our tax bracket every time.

[Mark]

Yeah, I mean, you'll have to see where everything comes in because of course, you know, you have income from the note. See what happens. Because you're going to get.

[Jill Schlesinger]

This is going to be a weird

[Mark]

year because you're going to get like, you know, your payout of, of. Of stuff. Maybe it's not this year, maybe it's next year when all those one off events go away and you're like, oh, okay, well actually, you know, we're making $250,000 all in on all income. That puts us squarely in the 24% bracket. Then we could go up, you know,

[Jill Schlesinger]

to, up to 400,000.

[Mark]

And then you just have to make sure you've got the money available, you know, and I don't want you to again, don't drain all the money you have in cash as maybe as CDs come due, you say, oh, I can do this now, but keep track of It. Do you do your own taxes or do you work with an accountant?

[Melissa]

I've got an accountant and a financial advisor.

[Mark]

Okay, great. Just let the accountant know that you plan to kind of, and maybe they can help you keep track of it. Just say, hey, I'm going to want to. I really want to make sure that I'm converting every year. I want to stay in the 24, top of the 24% bracket. Just want to give you a heads up that this is happening so that I think it's good to just let everybody, you know, be on the same page around that. Okay, gotcha. Now. You got young kids, estate documents.

[Melissa]

Check. Yep, got those done.

[Mark]

Few. I. That, that was a little scary because I literally thought you were about to say, no, no, you're good, you're good.

[Melissa]

Yeah.

[Mark]

Okay. If you find out other stuff, like the term life stuff, and you want to get a, you know, just shoot us a note, that's fine. And otherwise, I think you're in great shape. You guys are amazing. I'm so jealous of these pensions, Mark. When I get a pension.

[Melissa]

Yeah, they're amazing.

[Mark]

We're superpension, right?

[Melissa]

Oh, yeah. Blessed.

[Mark]

Fantastic. Just fantastic. All right, well, listen, whatever it is that is going on, if you need us for anything else, if you need to know, how are you gonna convince your daughter to go to college? Should we do the whole Scared straight thing? Like, you probably remember that you and I are about the same age. I'm 60. Those scared straight things where they're like, this is what happens if you go to jail, right? So we could do a scared straight about, like, this is what happens if you don't go to college. Now, the other thing is that, you know, maybe. Maybe the college thing is better delayed if somebody doesn't really want to do it. So that's the only thing I. My one reservation is I don't like making kids do stuff that they're going to end up saying like, I'm out of here, I'm done. So if you need help, though, I can be very forceful and in like a kindly anti way, of course.

[Melissa]

Excellent.

[Mark]

Keep that in mind. All right, Good luck to you. Hey, gang. We don't all have pensions. This is an incredible story. But if you've got questions about whether or not you need life insurance later in life, if you waited to have kids, and there are some questions about education funding, anything at all that's going on, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note. If you want to come on the air, just check the box and Mark will do everything else. Don't forget to subscribe to us on the Odysee app or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. And we always like to tell you to try to do something nice. Maybe reach out to somebody. You know, kind of give someone a virtual hug or reach out metaphorically on someone's back. Just a little boop. A lot of people out there suffering and I know that you can make a difference. You know, it makes a difference to you when you do it, but also when you receive it. So be out there, make yourself known. Okay? Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Summer's almost here and you may be thinking a lot about how you want to spend it. Maybe it's a trip or saying yes to a last minute weekend and really enjoying yourself, not stressing about whether or not you can afford it. That's why you need to think about getting your finances in order.

[Mark]

Now.

[Jill Schlesinger]

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[Maury Povich]

On my new podcast On Par with Maury Povich, we're getting down to the truth behind the names that you know and love. Unfiltered conversations with legends like Leanne Morgan, Kathy Griffin, Ricki Lake to find out when they feel the most on par. We're breaking it down with Don Lemon, Aaron Parnas, Lamani Jones, Laughing it up with Josh Johnson, Dan Soder, many more. You know the results are in. Great conversations are always on par. So follow and listen to On Par wherever you get your podcasts.