Executive Summary
- 27% of insured Americans have workplace life insurance and no individual coverage (2026 LIMRA Workplace Benefits fact sheet).
- 47% of owners have coverage through the workplace; 32% of owners say they have coverage because the employer provides it (2026 Insurance Barometer Study, LIMRA and Life Happens / Workplace fact sheet).
- Jobs end. An annual review asks what remains — and what a carrier would see if you applied for individual coverage now.
Workplace-only is common
If you have life insurance through work, you have life insurance. That sentence is true and incomplete.
The 2026 LIMRA Workplace Benefits fact sheet reports that 27% of insured Americans have workplace life insurance and no individual coverage. The 2026 Insurance Barometer Study, LIMRA and Life Happens, reports that 47% of owners have coverage through the workplace, and 32% of owners say they have coverage because the employer provides it.
For those households, “I have coverage” and “this would replace the years we would need if the paycheck stopped” are different claims. Group amounts are set by an employer schedule, not by a household needs conversation. They often sit beside other benefits and get less review than a policy you pay yourself.
An annual review is how you find out which sentence you are living in.
Group coverage follows the job
Certificates end, shrink, or convert on the plan’s rules when employment ends — resignation, layoff, a move to contract work, disability leave, or retirement.
Portability and conversion at the group plan, if they exist, are not the same as conversion on an individual term contract, and they are not automatic. Waiting until the last day of work to read the booklet is how people go bare.
If workplace is one layer among others, the review is simpler: what does the group amount do, and what does the individual policy do, and do the beneficiaries match.
If workplace is the only layer, the review is the whole plan.
Individual coverage is a separate decision
Applying for individual life insurance while you still have group coverage is a new underwriting file. It can be the right path. It is still an application.
Health, prescriptions, prior applications, and the amount you ask for will be evaluated. A no-exam or accelerated path, if one fits, is still underwriting. Coverage decisions are made in underwriting — not by a quote engine. Carriers evaluate data, not intentions.
Do not drop a group certificate because you intend to apply. Sequence: understand what you have, then decide whether a new application belongs, then keep overlap until issue.
A 15-minute review can map the certificate, the amount, and the clock — before the job maps it for you.
Understand how to protect your insurability before applying.
If work is your only layer, map what remains if the job ends. Fifteen minutes. Not an application.
Call 800.365.TERM (800-365-8376)
Information only. This article is not tax, legal, or investment advice.