20M Households With Dependent Children Are Underinsured

NEW YORK, July 8, 2015– 37% of Americans with children under age 18 do not have any life insurance, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) study. And about one-third of the parents who do have life insurance have no more than $100,000 of protection.

“These numbers mean that over 20 million households with dependent children either don’t have any life insurance or don’t have nearly enough,” said Doug Whiteman, Bankrate.com’s insurance analyst.

-Overall, 42% of Americans lack life insurance and about half of those who have it are covered for $100,000 or less.

-Even 1 in 4 insured people with annual household income of $75,000+ have $100,000 or less in coverage.

-11% of women and 5% of men say they have life insurance, but they don’t know how much.

“There are many rules of thumb regarding how much life insurance is enough,” Whiteman said. “Ultimately, it’s a personal decision that’s based on a range of factors including your debts, mortgage, potential college costs for your children (that’s if you have any), and likely burial expenses. Bankrate has a great life insurance calculator to help you come up with the right amount.”

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/money-pulse-0715.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (500, including 296 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from June 18-21, 2015. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com, InsuranceQuotes.com and Caring.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, Insweb.com, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of over 600 local markets, Bankrate generates rate tables in all 50 U.S. states. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 100 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.