Keep in mind, I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything. I agree that most people will need less, but for few people does the need go away completely.

Here's one example: a family I met with is in their early 60s. Their kids are grown and gone. They anticipate they will need to work until they're 70 before they retire. No matter what happens, they'd like to live in their modest home, and they still have a mortgage on it. He's the main breadwinner, but she works too, and they'll really need both their incomes to meet their retirement goals.

This past summer (long after I met with them) he was diagnosed with ALS. Simply looking at their financial situation, they're now in serious trouble. As his disease progresses, they will have significant medical bills. Plus, he's not working anymore. So, they now have a mortgage they can't afford, they're not going to be able to afford their retirement goals (even though they'll be less since he won't be around), and they'll have a mountain of medical bills.

Also, a lot of times couples would say that if the husband dies, the wife will just go find a job. And that very well may be the case, but it may not always go as planned. She may need more education. It may take a long time to find a job or it may not pay as well as hoped.

Some people want to use their life insurance to leave an inheritance for their grandchildren. Very few people I met with want to do that, but some did.

You very well will only need 20% of your current policy for your situation once your kids are out of the house. I'm not sure how you reached that number, but you've obviously put a lot of thought into it.

Most of the "older" people I met with (those over age 50 but not yet retired) wished that they had more life insurance than they did, for one reason or another. But at that age and with the health problems they'd accumulated, they couldn't get it at an affordable rate.