When you need life insurance in your 20s and 30s

When you're just starting out, life insurance may not be your first concern. But it's worth planning for the unexpected.

Half of millennials have life insurance — whether their own policy, one through an employer, or both, according to the LIMRA and Life Happens 2016 Insurance Barometer report.

"The reason you have insurance is to provide protection for the people you're going to leave behind," said Carolyn McClanahan, a certified financial planner and the director of financial planning for Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.

When you're young and single, you might not need a lot of life insurance — if any. But there are a few situations where you might want to secure a policy in your 20s or 30s:

If anybody counts on you for your income, then you want to have life insurance," McClanahan said.
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Many people start to think about life insurance when they get married or have a child, she said. But they aren't the only people who might benefit from a policy replacing your lost income. One in five millennials financially supports a parent, with an average outlay of $12,000 a year, according to a 2015 TD Ameritrade analysis.

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