Confidence in workplace-only life insurance drops sharply after 60 — and the people most at risk are the least likely to do anything about it.
September 28, 2026
Life insurance through work is often the easiest coverage to get. No medical exam, no separate bill, just a line on the benefits enrollment form. That convenience comes with real limits, though.
Only 59% of private-industry workers have access to an employer life insurance plan at all, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And access is only half the question. The bigger one is whether that coverage would actually be enough.
BestMoney surveyed 1,000 US adults about how confident they are that employer-only life insurance would hold up if someone had to rely on it alone. Confidence is mixed, and it splits sharply by age. Adults 60 and older, the group for whom replacing coverage is typically hardest and most expensive, are the least confident of all and the least likely to say they'd buy a policy of their own.
43% of respondents currently have life insurance through their employer, 32% don't, and 21% aren't currently employed. Looking only at employed respondents, about 55% have employer coverage, in line with the 58% of private-industry workers who, per the same BLS data, actually participate in an employer life insurance plan.
Having the benefit isn't the same as understanding it. Just 26% of all respondents know the exact dollar amount their employer provides, and even among people who currently have workplace coverage, only 55% do.
Do You Know Your Employer Life Insurance Amount? | % of All Respondents | % of Those With Employer Coverage |
Yes, I know the exact amount | 26% | 55% |
I have a rough idea | 20% | 34% |
No, I don't know at all | 11% | 8% |
Doesn't apply, no employer coverage | 43% | 2% |
That gap between having a benefit and understanding it is the first crack in employer-only life insurance as a safety net: it's hard to plan around a number you don't know.
Overall, 48% of respondents say they're confident an employer-only policy would support a family if something happened, while 35% aren't confident and 17% aren't sure. That's close to an even split, but it breaks apart by age:
Age Group | % Confident Employer-Only Coverage Would Be Enough |
18–29 | 59% |
30–44 | 68% |
45–60 | 71% |
60+ | 19% |
Confidence climbs through people's prime working years and peaks at 71% among 45-to-60-year-olds, then drops to just 19% among adults 60 and older, 53% of whom say they're not confident it would be enough.
Part of that gap reflects where people are in their working lives. Only 11% of respondents 60+ currently have life insurance through an employer, and 46% aren't currently employed. Across the full survey, confidence tracks closely with having the benefit in hand: 78% of respondents with employer coverage are confident it would be enough, versus 28% of those whose job doesn't provide it.
Some 78% of people with workplace life insurance are confident it would be enough, yet only 55% of them know their exact coverage amount.
That 52-point swing between the most- and least-confident age groups lands on the people closest to, or already in, retirement, when buying a new policy tends to get pricier and harder to qualify for.
An employer plan might be enough, depending on the amount of coverage you have. Some employers offer 10x your salary, while others only offer 1x. But there's also a danger to only having employer-sponsored coverage: you're relying on someone else. They could change or cancel their benefits plan, they could go out of business or downsize, and you might choose (or need) to leave the company.
65% of respondents already knew that most employer life insurance ends the day someone leaves their job, regardless of tenure. Despite that awareness, 43% of all respondents say they've gone without any life insurance for a period after changing jobs or being laid off. Among those who've ever had employer coverage, that rises to 57%.
Some 57% of people who've had employer life insurance have gone uninsured after a job change or layoff. Among 30-to-44-year-olds who've had workplace coverage, it's 70%.
It's a real concern for many: 40% agree that losing their life insurance would be one of their biggest financial worries if they lost their job, rising to 59% among 45-to-60-year-olds.
Awareness alone isn't closing this gap. The data points to a planning problem, not an information problem. Avoiding a coverage lapse takes a specific action taken in advance, like lining up portable or individual coverage before a job change, not just knowing the employer policy ends on day one.
Respondents don't even see the rule itself as unreasonable. About half (50%) say it's very or somewhat reasonable that coverage ends the moment someone leaves a job, versus 30% who call it unreasonable.
"There's no tangible problem with having a gap in life insurance coverage. It's not like auto insurance, where a gap can cause you to be rated at a higher risk category. But practically speaking, a gap in coverage means that if something happens, you aren't covered. So, in my professional opinion, a coverage gap isn't safe, unless you have a backup plan in place, such as savings, to bridge the gap," Harris explains.
When asked how many months of expenses an employer-only payout would typically cover, answers were scattered almost evenly across every option. Most people are guessing rather than working from an actual coverage amount:
Estimated Months of Expenses Covered | % of Respondents |
Less than 3 months | 18% |
3–6 months | 25% |
6–12 months | 21% |
More than 12 months | 12% |
Not sure | 24% |
If you're not sure what that number should be for your household, BestMoney's guide to how much life insurance you need walks through the math.
49% of respondents have an individual life insurance policy separate from anything through work, essentially even with the 48% who don't. But that even split hides a real age pattern.
Age Group | % With an Individual Policy |
18–29 | 32% |
30–44 | 60% |
45–60 | 63% |
60+ | 39% |
Ownership peaks in the middle years and drops off at both ends. The age group least confident in employer-only coverage is also far less likely to have its own policy (39%) than the most confident group (63% of 45-to-60-year-olds).
The gap widens when it comes to willingness to fix it. When asked how likely they'd be to buy an individual policy right away if they switched jobs and their new employer didn't offer life insurance:
63% of 45-to-60-year-olds say "likely" or "very likely."
Just 29% of adults 60+ say the same.
25% of adults 60+ say "very unlikely," versus 5–8% in every younger group, though their single most common answer is still "neutral / not sure" (35%).
Because the question is framed around a job switch, it may feel less relevant to the many respondents 60+ who are no longer working, which likely pushes some of them toward "neutral" or "unlikely."
Even within the 60+ group, confidence doesn't predict action: 41% of "not confident" respondents have their own individual policy, essentially matching the 42% among the smaller "confident" group.
Confidence by gender is nearly identical:
Confident: 48% of women, 49% of men.
Not sure: 20% of women, 12% of men.
Not confident: 32% of women, 39% of men.
Gone without coverage after a job change: 41% of women, 45% of men.
Income doesn't show a clean pattern either. Confidence generally rises with income, but not in a straight line: respondents earning $150,000–$174,999 report the highest confidence of any band (80%), while the top bracket ($200,000 and up) drops back to the middle of the pack (50%). Individual income bands are small, so treat these as directional.
Gender and income barely move the needle. Age, and whether someone currently has the benefit, matter far more.
If you're one of the roughly half without a personal backup, comparing individual life insurance policies is a reasonable next step.
The numbers point to a simple test: if your employer coverage disappeared tomorrow, would your family be okay? For a lot of respondents, especially those over 60, the honest answer is "I don't know." Here's where to start:
Get your actual coverage amount: Ask HR or check your benefits portal rather than guessing. Only 26% of respondents know theirs, and just 55% of those with employer coverage do.
Check if your plan is portable or convertible: Find out whether your employer plan can be continued or converted to an individual policy when you leave a job. Not every plan offers this, and it's worth knowing before you need it.
Get a term life quote while you're healthy and employed: Learn how term life insurance works before you shop. Individual coverage is generally less expensive to lock in earlier, and it isn't tied to your job status.
Treat this as a priority if retirement is close: If you're within a decade or two of retirement, don't leave this for later. BestMoney's picks for the best life insurance for seniors are a good place to start.
"In an ideal world, you would have coverage you own outside of work, so you wouldn't need to secure coverage between jobs. But if you do need coverage during the gap, consider talking to an independent insurance broker. Independent producers are contracted with multiple carriers and can match your goals, budget, and health profile with the right carrier for you. A captive agent, who only writes one company's product, doesn't have this flexibility and has to fit the client to the product they offer," Harris says.
Employer life insurance isn't bad, but it's incomplete. Only 19% of adults 60+ trust employer-only coverage to support a family, less than a third of the 71% confidence rate among 45-to-60-year-olds. And that low confidence isn't turning into backup coverage: among adults 60+, individual policy ownership is nearly identical whether someone feels confident or not.
The confidence that does exist isn't always grounded, either. Most people with workplace coverage feel good about it, yet nearly half don't know the exact amount, and 57% of those who've had it have gone uninsured after a job change.
If there's one number worth acting on, it's your own coverage amount. Everything else, from confidence to backup plans, starts with knowing what you actually have. Finding it costs nothing and usually takes one email to HR.
Usually, yes. Group life coverage is generally tied to your employment and ends when you leave, though some plans let you convert or port the coverage to an individual policy. In BestMoney's survey, 65% of respondents knew workplace coverage typically ends when the job does.
It depends on the coverage amount and what your family would need. Employer plans vary widely, from 1x to 10x salary, according to Harris. Only 48% of respondents are confident employer-only coverage would be enough to support a family.
Check your benefits portal or enrollment documents, or ask HR or your benefits administrator. You can also contact the insurer that administers the plan. Among respondents with employer coverage, only 55% know their exact amount.
This BestMoney survey was fielded in August 2026, among 1,000 US adults 18 and older, drawn from a general population panel spanning all major US regions, genders, age groups, and household income levels. Individual questions saw slightly lower response counts as some respondents skipped later questions, as low as 502 on the final two questions and the demographic items.
Of respondents who provided their age, 11% were 18–29 (56 people), 36% were 30–44 (179), 16% were 45–60 (78), and 38% were 60+ (189). The sample was 51% women and 49% men. Results are unweighted, so adults 60+ make up a larger share of the sample than of the US adult population, and findings for smaller groups carry more uncertainty.
Elizabeth Rivelli is a business finance and insurance expert at BestMoney.com with over five years of experience covering car, home, life, and health insurance. She has contributed to major outlets such as Investopedia, Forbes, CNN Underscored, U.S. News & World Report, and Bankrate. Elizabeth also partners with insurance companies to provide readers with practical insights into industry trends.
