Life Insurance Made Easy

Life insurance is one of those topics that is important to both financial planners and estate planners.  In my work, I ask about life insurance so that I can figure a rough value for the client's estate -- I may also need to help the client determine the appropriate beneficiaries of the policy.  However, because I'm not an expert on life insurance matters, I try to avoid the question of how to calculate whether you have enough life insurance in the first place.  I'm also wary of having an insurance broker answer this question because of the inherent conflict of interest.  ("How much insurance should you have?  How about $20 million!")  Are there other resources that can be of assistance in this calculation?  One resource that I would recommend is an article that appeared in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal.  The article is available online to Wall Street Journal  Online subscribers only, but it was adapted from Mr. Opdyke's just-released book entitled The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guide Book.