If someone else depends on you for financial support, then you need to see agent.

Many consumers usually don't think about life insurance until an important event takes place. For example, a marriage, the birth of a child, the purchase of a home, or the death of a friend or relative.

So this brings up the question of when, exactly, do you need life insurance. The answer is the minute someone else depends on you.

The problem is people all too often neglect to act on that need even though most don't carry enough life insurance.

Half of U.S. households now have at least one person with an individual life insurance policy, down from 55 percent in 1992.

Many employers provide workers with some, limited level of life insurance, usually two to three times an employee's annual income. But that coverage falls far below what most people would typically need.

There are ways to figure out how much additional insurance you need. They vary depending on who you talk to, and needs also differ by a consumers' personal circumstances. The usual rules of thumb suggest that people have total coverage of between 5 and 10 times their annual income. For someone who earns $40,000 each year, that means taking out a policy valued at between $200,000 and $400,000.

But some brokers say that is often not enough for many people, particularly those with younger families who expected to depend on their earnings for many years to come.

Consumers need to figure out how many years their survivors would need to replace their income and what percentage of it would need to replaced, allowing for inflation and interest income.

The goods news for consumers is that life insurance has gotten much cheaper in recent years. As recently as 10 years ago, a healthy 40-year-old man who has never smoked would've paid nearly $1,000 annually for a $500,000 term life insurance policy, a rate to be held steady for 20 years.

Use our Needs Estimator to determine how much life insurance you need.