When you retire, you must consider your financial future. You’ll need to maintain your budget, as well as keep a safety net in place to sustain you for the rest of your life. As you think about tightening your belt, you might wonder if you still need life insurance. For many people, it remains a valuable piece of protection. Consider the following factors when deciding whether to keep coverage after retirement.

Household Needs Play a Big Role in Future Needs

You may feel you only needed life insurance during your working years. That’s because during that time, your need for assistance was higher. For example, you likely had a mortgage to pay, children to support and a multitude of every day costs. If you died then, your family would likely need to supplement the income you could no longer provide. Life insurance, therefore, was more critical.

When you retire, however, a lot of these working costs will go away. Children will leave home, your standard expenses will decrease. You likely won't have a house payment. You might have enough in savings pensions and investments to support you for years. You might even have enough left over to settle final expenses after your death. Therefore, the need for an immediate life insurance payout might prove less critical.

In the latter case, you might have options. You could decide to reduce the final payout of your life insurance policy. You might even decide to drop your coverage altogether. Both actions might help you cut costs. Still, cutting coverage, consider why you still might need it.

Needs for Coverage Always Remain

Everyone can benefit from life insurance. Depending on what your survivors will face after your death, you might want to keep coverage in retirement.

• If you want to leave an income stream to a survivor, coverage can supplement those needs. For example, your spouse can use funds from a life insurance account to sustain their income. This is a good idea if you maintain another job or other income stream in retirement.

• Those who owe debt at their deaths might want to keep coverage. Survivors can use the policy to help cut down on this burden.

• Keeping coverage can make finances easier to your survivors immediately after your death. Most people can receive the policy’s funds within weeks of your passing. They might be able to use the money to settle death costs like medical bills, taxes or funeral expenses.

The good news is that life insurance does not go through probate. Therefore, survivors won’t have to pay creditors unless they so choose. They'll get the money first. Thus, if you can still afford life insurance, you’ll often find it beneficial to leave behind.