If you have a family that you want to make sure are covered if you should die unexpectedly or if you just want to make sure that your death will not have a negative financial impact on your loved ones due to funeral costs, you are likely looking at life insurance plans. However, life insurance plans are one of those investments that you hope never pays off, in the case of trying to protect your loved ones due to the fact that you are the main financial provider. Here are some tips for navigating the world of life insurance so that you can spend your money as effectively as possible.

1. Calculate Years of Support Necessary

If you have children and a spouse and you want to make sure that they are all taken care of in the unfortunate event of your death, you likely don't want the coverage to run out too soon. One way to make sure that your children and spouse are fully covered is to calculate the years of support that are necessary and get a plan that includes that number of years of support.

To calculate years of support, take each of your children's ages and subtract them from 18 or the highest year that the life insurance plans in your area will pay out on. If the life insurance plans will pay out until any age, choose an age that you want to support your children through. Then, take that number and multiply it by the amount of financial support that the child requires for each year. Add each of those numbers up to get the total amount of money that your life insurance policy will need to cover.

This type of life insurance is known as term life insurance.

2. Look at Whole Life Insurance

If you want to support a spouse or a disabled child indefinitely, look into whole life insurance. Whole life insurance is when you pay a higher premium to guarantee that your loved ones on your plan will be supported indefinitely. This is critical because it will be more costly to you in the short term but will fully cover any calamity in the long term. Talk to your insurance adviser in order to make sure that this is the right choice for your needs. It might be better to set up a trust in the case of a disabled child, depending on his or her needs.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in life insurance.