Life insurance can often feel like an uncomfortable topic to even think about, which is likely why only about half of Americans had life insurance in 2021 – and that number includes both those who bought life insurance and those who received it as a work benefit, so the number of people in the market to buy life insurance is actually lower.

The big question is: why buy life insurance? It’s often provided by employers and even some banks, so it can seem like an add-on benefit more than a necessity. We just don’t think of it the way that we think of insurance for our auto or our home, but maybe we should. There are a lot of great reasons to buy life insurance; we’ll list some you may not have considered below.