Life insurance is designed to protect against a loss of income if a loved one should die. However, this safeguard isn’t just for traditionally employed adults. The value stay-at-home parents provide should also be part of calculating how much life insurance a family needs.

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In America, 18% of parents don’t work for pay, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. But that doesn’t mean they’re not adding to the household balance sheet. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests the work of stay-at-home parents could be the financial equivalent of an administrative services and facilities manager plus a teacher all rolled into one.

Not just for wage earners

For many years, life insurance focused on replacing the income of breadwinners, says Chris Mouzon, an independent insurance agent based in Pennsylvania and co-founder of financial services firm United Agency. But increasingly, the invaluable support a stay-at-home parent provides is becoming part of life insurance conversations.

“They bring an economic value to the household,” Mouzon says. If a stay-at-home parent dies, “you’re going to need a financial bump to just make sure household things, your children, and your lifestyle still get taken care of.”

It can be uncomfortable to put a dollar value on anyone’s life, but it’s also an important conversation families should have to make certain there’s enough money after a loss. Ensuring life insurance takes into account what a stay-at-home parent provides can protect your family’s financial future.

Considering the value stay-at-home parents provide

Assessing the financial effects of losing a stay-at-home parent can be tricky, says Angela Moore, an Orlando-based certified financial planner and a financial guide at Fruitful. “If you are a stay-at-home parent or primary caregiver and something happens to you, that would cause a ripple effect over many years.”

While much of what a parent provides is hard to quantify, most household responsibilities have a price tag. And depending on where you live, it can be a steep one. Let’s break down what your family might need help with — and how much it would cost — if a stay-at-home parent is no longer there picking up the slack.

Caretaking

Many stay-at-home parents provide care for members of the family, specifically children. And while it is a labor of love, it can be a demanding and expensive job. U.S. Department of Labor data shows families spend from $6,552 to $15,600 per year for full-time child care for just one child.

Household management

Stay-at-home parents wear a lot of hats, and running a household is often one of them. Here are a few tasks that could fall by the wayside without an extra hand to help.

Cleaning

Wiping down surfaces and picking up the toys might be all in a day’s work for a stay-at-home parent, but don’t underestimate how much time these chores occupy and what it might cost to hire help. The rate for housekeeping services hovers around $16 per hour, according to the most recent BLS estimate.

Laundry

Keeping a steady supply of clean clothes is a challenge, but outsourcing that labor also comes at a cost. For instance, weekly wash-and-fold service in New York City costs about $1.99 per pound, with larger items like bedding demanding additional fees.

Cooking

Food preparation for a family is serious business. The average American household already spends $3,933 per year on eating outside the home, according to BLS data, but that bill could quickly balloon without someone to help put dinner on the table.

Shopping

Although most families can get most goods or groceries delivered, shopping is still a mundane but necessary task. Without someone to run those errands, you might need to hire a personal shopper or rack up extra fees for delivery services.

Managing finances and more

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the many household responsibilities parents juggle. Your family might have a stay-at-home parent who also takes charge of yard work, home repairs, pet care or balancing the household budget. Make sure to factor that work into your calculation.

Deciding how much coverage your family needs

When trying to decide how much life insurance stay-at-home parents should have, you should also consider including these additional costs:

Funeral expenses. The median cost of a funeral with a viewing and burial tops $8,300, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
Education costs. Decide what you’d need to cover educational expenses like college or private school tuition.
Temporary income replacement. After the death of a stay-at-home parent, time off from work to grieve and to set up alternative arrangements for care is essential.
Debt payoff. Include any credit card debt or loans the stay-at-home parent holds that might need to be repaid.
Additional financial support for children. Think about how you might like to support children financially not just in childhood but also early adulthood.

If calculating these expenses feels overwhelming, Moore says family life insurance policies usually end up in the same ballpark. “After I ask these questions, I add it all up and it usually falls somewhere between $1.5 million to $2 million for most regular young families.”

Life insurance options for stay-at-home parents

Securing life insurance for a stay-at-home parent doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. In fact, for most families, term life insurance —the most affordable type of life insurance—will be sufficient.

This is especially true if you’re young and healthy. For example, a healthy 30-year-old non-smoker might pay $18 a month, on average, for a 20-year, $500,000 term life policy, according to life insurance brokerage Policygenius.

Mouzon advises stay-at-home parents to consider an individual term policy of 20 to 30 years with living benefits, a policy feature that lets you access your death benefit early if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness. “That living benefit will take care of the sickness side and in the event someone gets cancer, stroke, a heart attack, or some type of chronic or critical illness, this policy will pay out.”

If you have a relatively young family, getting coverage sooner rather than later may also save money in the long run, because young, healthy people qualify for the lowest life insurance rates.

“You’re the youngest and healthiest you’re gonna be,” Mouzon says. “So you might as well just pay attention to it now while it’s the cheapest.”

Kaz Weida writes for NerdWallet. Email: kweida@nerdwallet.com.

The article Why Stay-at-Home Parents Need Life Insurance originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge accelerated slightly in August from a year earlier.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index was up 2.7% in August from a year earlier, a tick higher from a 2.6% year-over-year increase in July and most since February.

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Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation showed a 2.9% increase in prices from August 2024, same as in July. The increases were what forecasters had expected.

Prices rose 0.3% from July, compared to a 0.2% increase the month before. Core prices rose 0.2%, same as in July.

Separately, the report showed that consumer spending rose 0.4% from July, largely on a 0.7% increase in spending for goods; spending on services such as travel and dining out rose just 0.2%.

Incomes rose 0.4%, same as the month before. Income for the self-employed and business owners rose 0.9% for the second straight month. Wages and salaries rose 0.3% from July, dipping from a 0.5% increase the month before.

Inflation has come down since rising prices prompted the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. But annual price gains remain stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target.

Last week, the Fed went ahead and reduced the rate for the first time this year, lowering borrowing costs to help a deteriorating U.S. job market. But it’s been cautious about cutting, waiting to see what impact President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports have on inflation and the broader economy.

For months, Trump has relentlessly pushed the Fed to lower rates more aggressively, calling Fed Chair Jerome Powell “Too Late” and a “moron” and arguing that there is “no inflation.”

Last month, Trump sought to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s governing board, in an effort to gain greater control over the central bank. She has challenged her dismissal in court, and the Supreme Court will decide whether she can stay on the job while the case goes through the judicial system.

The Fed tends to favor the PCE inflation gauge that the government issued Friday over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.

By JENNIFER PELTZ and ADAM GELLER, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Facing international isolation, accusations of war crimes and growing pressure to end a conflict he has continued to escalate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets his chance to push back Friday on the international community’s biggest platform.

Netanyahu’s annual speech to the U.N. General Assembly is always closely watched, often protested, reliably emphatic and sometimes a venue for dramatic allegations. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever for the Israeli leader.

In recent days, Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others announced their recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

The European Union is considering tariffs and sanctions on Israel. The assembly this month passed a nonbinding resolution urging Israel to commit to an independent Palestinian nation, which Netanyahu has said is a non-starter.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant accusing Netanyahu of crimes against humanity, which he denies. And the U.N’s highest court is weighing South Africa’s allegation that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, which it vehemently refutes.

Against that backdrop, Netanyahu sounded resolute Thursday as he boarded a plane in Israel to head for the U.N.’s annual meeting of top-level leaders in New York.

“I will tell our truth,” Netanyahu said. “I will condemn those leaders who, instead of condemning the murderers, rapists and burners of children, want to give them a state in the heart of Israel.”

Opposition to Netanyahu’s approach is growing

At a special session of the assembly this week, nation after nation expressed horror at the 2023 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, saw 251 taken hostage and triggered the war. Many of the representatives went on to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and influx of aid.

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Israel’s sweeping offensive has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced 90 percent of its population, with an increasing number now starving.

While more than 150 countries now recognize a Palestinian state, the United States has not, providing Israel with vociferous support. But President Donald Trump pointedly signaled Thursday there are limits, telling reporters in Washington that he wouldn’t let Israel annex the occupied West Bank.

Israel hasn’t announced such a move, but several leading members in Netanyahu’s government have advocated doing so. And officials recently approved a controversial settlement project that would effectively cut the West Bank in two, a move that critics say could doom chances for a Palestinian state. Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet during his visit.

Back in the Mideast, Israel said Friday it planned to broadcast Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.N. General Assembly speech from southern Israel into Gaza, carrying his remarks across the border to Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

His office “instructed civilian groups in cooperation with the army to place loudspeakers on trucks on the Israeli side of the border,” it said in a statement, noting that the broadcasts would be arranged so they would not endanger soldiers.

Palestinians had their UN say the day before

Netanyahu was preceded Thursday by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the General Assembly via video, since the U.S. denied him a visa. He welcomed the announcements of recognition but said the world needs to do more to make statehood happen.

“The time has come for the international community to do right by the Palestinian people” and help them realize “their legitimate rights to be rid of the occupation and to not remain a hostage to the temperament of Israeli politics,” he said.

Abbas leads the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers portions of the West Bank. Hamas won legislative elections in Gaza in 2006 before seizing control from Abbas’ forces the following year.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, then withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their envisioned state, part of a “two-state solution” that the international community has embraced for decades.

Netanyahu opposes it robustly, maintaining that creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas.

“This will not happen,” he said at the airport Thursday.

Sam Metz contributed to this report from Rabat, Morocco. Geller reported from New York.