You are a single parent, working hard to meet the needs of your family. It can be a very challenging life to live. No matter how financially set you are or not, and no matter whether or not your child’s other parent is in the picture, one thing is certain. Your child depends on your income to help pay for his or her needs. As a result, there is a direct reason to protect him or her through life insurance. This type of insurance policy will provide your named beneficiaries with money that can be used to help cover your child’s specific needs even if you are not there to do so.

The payout received at the time of the death of a covered individual is called a death benefit. Most life insurance policies will pay out these funds within a short amount of time after the policy owner dies. As a result, they provide a rather fast source of income to the family that may be counting on your income on a daily basis. It is possible, and often quite common, for a life insurance policy to name a child, defined as someone who is under the age of 18, as a beneficiary. However, there are a few key things to keep in mind.

One of the ways you can safeguard these funds for your child is to create a trust that holds the life insurance policy. You’ll need a person that is over the age of 18 to work as a guardian of sorts over the policy. The funds from within the trust, including the funds from the life insurance, are still used only for the sole benefit of your named beneficiary, but there is a legal guardian with access to the funds to manage it for the child.

A life insurance policy can be critically important to your children if they are dependent on your income. Naming someone to work as his or her guardian isn’t just important for the sake of managing the death benefit but also to provide a home and other needs as well. Often times, this can be a hard decision to make, but knowing a life insurance policy is there to safeguard his or her financial future can give you peace of mind.