I only provide enough insurance on my wife to ease the transition into living without her financially. Very subjective but you need to put a value on what your worth in terms of daily or monthly cash flow and then set a time period where the remaining spouse, person, etc will be able to adjust or say sell a business. As Charm says this is a huge selling job on the public. I don't provide for much on my wife because I am confident that I can recover financially quicker than she could without me. She on the other hand plans on retiring to the south of France with my proceeds. We don't always see things the same logical way. I was a tad surprised that with all the life ins on me that she worked so hard to keep me alive. Women, you just can never figure them out!!