<prompt> Human: hello pf! my mother-in-law lives with me and my wife. she has no assets to her name other than a checking account with less than 1000 and the cash we give her monthly to watch our child during the week basically just an allowance, but she otherwise has no house, pension, annuity, retirement savings, etc., and no other job. shes just under retirement age.my wife and i know little about life insurance, especially how it would apply to my MIL. given her stats, can anyone provide any resources or general advice on whether or not it makes sense to seek out some form of life insurance for her? TIA  <response>: Life insurance is for people who are supporting others, to replace that lost income in the event of sudden death. Your MILs death would be a net improvement on your financial situation as you would no longer be supporting her. Thus, it would cause you no financial hardship except for the funeral costs. There is no particular need for life insurance here and as people age, it becomes quite expensive to insure them.I would not purchase life insurance in this situation. If you want, take the money you would have spent on life insurance, and stick it in a piggy bank labelled MILs Funeral Expenses. A small monthly allotment will turn into a large sum to cover any expenses over a few years. 