Tom Brough of Chicago is a financial advisor with more than twenty years of experience. He is also a hedge fund manager, and a licensed life insurance agent.

He has learned during his years as a life insurance agent that many Americans have a lot of uncertainty when it comes to life insurance. Many people don't think they can afford it, while just as many are confused and intimidated by the very idea of life insurance.

For one things, Tom Brough of Chicago knows that life insurance deals with mortality, and that is a subject that a lot of people are uncomfortable with. But according to one survey, twelve percent of those who were asked couldn't decide what kind of life insurance they should buy. Another ten percent were afraid that they would make the wrong decision, and another eight percent simply gave up because they felt they didn't know enough about what they were getting themselves into.

In the first place, says Tom Brough of Chicago, not everyone is going to need life insurance. Young people in particular can safely put off buying life insurance until they get a little older. If, on the other hand, you are young but plan on starting a family, then life insurance is probably a good idea.

If you decide to buy life insurance, then Tom Brough of Chicago says there are a couple of different ways to determine how much you need. One approach is called Income Replacement. It begins with your age and calculates how many years of income you would need in the event of your premature death. A forty-year-old person, for example, might want enough life insurance to pay fifteen or twenty times their annual income. A problem with this approach, he says, is that it is not very individualized.

Alternately, there is the needs-based approach. This approach takes into account your unique situation and determines the effect of your death on your dependents. Tom Brough of Chicago says that you need to consider whether your spouse or partner would continue to work, how many children you have, where there is a mortgage to pay off, and the costs of sending your kids to college.

Tom Brough of Chicago earned a degree in finance from DePaul University. He graduated in 1993.