Most consumers dramatically overestimate what life insurance actually costs, and that misperception is keeping millions of American families unprotected. Dev Gaymes, an independent life insurance broker in Dallas and founder of DG Life Group, argues the solution is not to buy everything at once but to start with term coverage a family can afford and layer on more protection over time.
About three-quarters of consumers overestimate life insurance costs. DG Life Group in Dallas explains why families can start with term and add coverage later.
Start with the coverage you can keep, then add to it.”— Dev Gaymes, DG Life Group
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DALLAS, TX, UNITED STATES, November 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Gaymes, who runs an independent brokerage, says the conventional wisdom that a household must lock in a single, massive policy upfront is flawed. When the primary goal is replacing lost income while children are still at home, he recommends starting with a term policy sized to what the family can comfortably keep paying. Then, as income rises, debts shift, and long-term goals come into focus, additional coverage can be added.
Cost remains the number one barrier. The 2026 Insurance Barometer Study from LIMRA and Life Happens found that 92 million U.S. adults either lack life insurance or need more coverage. Among those who acknowledge a gap, 45% cited cost as the main reason they hadn’t bought. Yet roughly three out of four consumers overestimate the actual price.
“The best policy for a family is one they can keep paying,” Gaymes said. “A term policy that lapses in year five pays nothing. Start with the coverage you can keep, then add to it.”
To illustrate the affordability gap, Gaymes quoted Texas rates as of September 13, 2026. For a 35-year-old man in the Preferred non-tobacco class, $500,000 of 20-year term costs $24.92 a month; for a 35-year-old woman, it is $21.12. The same $500,000 as whole life would run $530.86 and $456.93, respectively. Across ages 35 to 55, whole life premiums were roughly 10 to 22 times higher than term.
Gaymes emphasizes that a family’s insurance need is not a single static number. He sizes the income-replacement piece at five to 10 times annual earnings, then adds the mortgage balance, other debts, and projected college costs, subtracting any existing coverage and savings. In Greater Dallas, full-day infant care at a licensed center had a median cost of $45.80 per day—about $11,900 a year, according to the 2025 Texas Child Care Market Rate Survey—and that expense ends when a child starts school. A 30-year mortgage, by contrast, runs far longer. His approach: separate term policies matched to each specific obligation—a 30-year policy for the mortgage, a 20-year policy for the years children are at home—so coverage steps down naturally as each need disappears.
Later, families can expand their plan in two ways. They can buy more coverage as income grows, subject to new underwriting. Many term policies also include a conversion option that allows part or all of the coverage to be turned into permanent insurance without additional medical underwriting, within a window set by the carrier.
In one client example, a husband and wife first bought term coverage in their 30s, right after their first child was born. About seven years later, they added indexed universal life coverage designed for protection, with accelerated death benefit riders that pay a portion of the death benefit early following a qualifying critical or chronic illness. Their aim was to hedge against the rising cost of care as they aged. Any amount paid early reduces the death benefit, and the riders are not a substitute for long-term care insurance. If the riders are never triggered, the full death benefit passes to the couple’s children.
“Most of my clients who ask for this have watched a parent or family member need care and felt what it cost, financially and emotionally,” Gaymes said. “Having it tied to a life policy means that if they never need it, the money still goes to their children.”
Gaymes recommends permanent coverage only when the need truly lasts a lifetime—final expenses, support for an adult dependent, estate liquidity, or business planning. “I sell permanent coverage too,” he said. “When the need is 20 years, I’ll say so.”
With open enrollment underway at many employers, Gaymes notes that group life through work should be counted as part of a family’s plan, not the whole plan, because it is tied to the job and disappears if the job does.
DG Life Group charges clients no fee. The issuing carrier pays a commission, which varies by carrier and product, and Gaymes discloses it upon request.
DG Life Group publishes term life insurance rates by age, including one carrier’s full rate-class ladder, and a life insurance needs calculator on its website.
Rates are illustrative, not quotes (Texas, Preferred non-tobacco, September 13, 2026); premiums depend on age, health, underwriting class and carrier. Conversion and rider terms vary by carrier. DG Life Group does not provide tax, legal or investment advice.
About DG Life Group
DG Life Group LLC, founded in 2023, is an independent life insurance brokerage in Dallas, Texas. It helps families and business owners compare term, whole life, indexed universal life, final expense, long-term care and annuity options from more than 30 A-rated carriers. Its mission is to show each client how different carriers price their situation, and to say plainly when a product is not the right fit. Founder Dev Gaymes has been a licensed insurance producer since 2012 (NPN 16654074), and the firm is a member of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
Dev Gaymes
DG Life Group
+1 214-989-7704
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Why it matters: With 92 million Americans underinsured and cost perceptions wildly off the mark, the advice to start small and build up could make life insurance accessible to far more households. If families can overcome the sticker shock and begin with an affordable term policy, they create a foundation that can grow with their lives—without the risk of a lapse that leaves them with nothing.
