- Should physicians buy life insurance during residency or wait until they become attendings?
Residency or attending status alone does not determine when you need life insurance. The better question is whether someone would be financially affected if you died today. - Why might a medical resident consider life insurance before becoming an attending?
Marriage, children, homeownership, shared debt, family support, and other financial obligations can create a life insurance need before attending income begins. - Is there a downside to waiting to apply for physician life insurance?
Waiting means your health and insurability will be evaluated later, and future medical changes could potentially affect life insurance underwriting. - Do residents need to purchase all of their future life insurance coverage now?
No. Physician life insurance planning can evolve as your career, income, family, homeownership, and financial responsibilities change.
For medical residents and fellows, deciding when to buy life insurance can feel complicated. Your income today may look nothing like your future attending income, which can make waiting seem logical. But the timing of life insurance for physicians should be based on more than your graduation date or salary.
Should You Buy Life Insurance During Medical Residency?
Maybe. Becoming a resident does not automatically mean you need life insurance, just as becoming an attending does not automatically create a need.
Instead, consider who depends on you financially today. If you are married, have children, are starting a family, own a home with a partner, support family members, or have financial obligations someone else would inherit or need to manage, it may be appropriate to evaluate life insurance during residency.
Your training status is not the trigger. Your financial responsibilities are.
Why Does Life Insurance Underwriting Matter for Residents?
Life insurance is not based only on how much coverage you want. You also have to qualify for coverage through life insurance underwriting.
Your health today may be different several years from now. A new diagnosis, prescription, procedure, mental health history, change in build, or another medical development could potentially affect underwriting.
This does not mean every young physician should purchase life insurance simply because their health could change. It means that waiting to buy life insurance is also a decision because you are choosing to have your insurability evaluated later.
Should Physicians Wait Until They Earn an Attending Salary?
Higher attending income can make physicians think they should postpone life insurance until after residency or fellowship. However, your life insurance need is not necessarily about replacing one year of salary.
Instead, consider the financial obligations and goals that would continue without you. Your family may not simply need your current resident salary replaced. They may need financial resources to support the future you were planning to build together.
That makes life insurance planning for physicians a broader conversation about family, financial obligations, and long-term goals.
Do Residents Need to Buy All Their Life Insurance at Once?
No. Life insurance planning does not have to be one giant decision.
You may have a meaningful financial need during residency and purchase coverage to address that need. Later, you may finish training, earn a higher income, purchase a home, grow your family, or become a practice owner. Each of those changes can provide an opportunity to revisit your physician life insurance strategy.
Additional coverage would generally require new underwriting, which is another reason to treat life insurance as an ongoing planning decision rather than something you address once and forget.
How Can Residents Decide Whether to Buy Life Insurance Now or Wait?
Before deciding, ask yourself four questions:
- Who depends on me financially today?
- What financial responsibilities would continue without me?
- What major life changes are likely over the next few years?
- Am I comfortable having my health and insurability evaluated later rather than today?
These questions can tell you more about your potential life insurance needs as a physician than whether your badge currently says resident, fellow, or attending.
From Scott & Amber’s Desk
The right time for a physician to consider life insurance is not automatically during residency, and it is not automatically after becoming an attending. The right time to evaluate coverage is when your financial responsibilities, future plans, and the people depending on you make life insurance relevant.
You do not have to solve every future insurance need today. Start by understanding the need you have now, consider the implications of future underwriting, and allow your life insurance planning to evolve alongside your medical career and your life.
Every article in the MD Disability Quotes Knowledge Center is written with one purpose: to help physicians understand insurance contracts before they ever need to rely on them.
To take the next step and build a strategy that supports your career and financial future, download the FREE Medical Professionals Blueprint here.
About MD Disability Quotes
MD Disability Quotes is a nationwide disability insurance advisory firm specializing in income protection for physicians, dentists, business owners, and other high-income professionals.
Founded by Scott Nelson-Archer and Amber Stitt, the firm brings more than 45 years of combined experience helping clients evaluate disability insurance contracts, navigate underwriting, and design income protection strategies tailored to specialized careers.
Scott and Amber are the longest-tenured disability insurance experts featured by White Coat Investor. Their education-first approach has helped thousands of physicians better understand disability insurance throughout medical school, residency, fellowship, and practice.
Whether you’re reviewing an existing policy or exploring coverage for the first time, MD Disability Quotes is committed to helping you make informed decisions that protect your ability to earn an income.
If you would like to schedule a disability insurance strategy session, click here.
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Episode transcript
Published 10 September 2026. Transcript generated automatically from the episode audio; it may contain errors.
Read the full transcript (960 words)
Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Welcome to The Responsible Resident. I'm Amber Stitt. This podcast takes a common sense approach to financial decisions for physicians, breaking down complex topics into something clear, practical, and usable. Because you shouldn't have to have a finance degree to build financial freedom. Here's a question I hear frequently from physicians in training. Should I buy life insurance during residency, or should I just wait until I'm an attending? It's a reasonable question. You're earning a resident salary today, but you know your income could look very different a few years from now. So why not wait? The answer depends less on your job title and more on what's happening in your life. Residency isn't really the trigger.
Amber Stitt [00:00:39]:
You don't automatically need life insurance because you're a resident, and you don't suddenly need it because you become an attending. Instead, start with a different question: "If I died tomorrow, would someone else be financially affected?" Maybe you're married. Maybe you have children, or you're starting a family. Maybe you own a home with a partner. Maybe someone has cosigned private debt. Maybe you provide financial support to parents, or other family members. Or maybe you've already started building financial commitments around the future income your household expects you to earn.
Amber Stitt [00:01:09]:
Those are reasons to evaluate life insurance. Your graduation date is not. But why not just wait? This is where the conversation gets more interesting. Life insurance isn't based only on how much coverage you want. You also have to qualify for it. Your health today isn't guaranteed to be your health 3 years from now. A new diagnosis, prescription, procedure, mental health history, change in build, or another medical development could potentially affect underwriting. That doesn't mean you should buy life insurance simply because something might happen.
Amber Stitt [00:01:42]:
It means you should understand that waiting is also a decision. You're choosing to have your insurability evaluated later. What about the attending income? This is another reason physicians sometimes wait. You may think, "I'll make significantly more as an attending, so I'll just buy all of my coverage then." But your life insurance need isn't necessarily based on replacing one year's salary. As we discussed earlier in this series, you're trying to identify the financial obligations and goals that would continue without you. Your spouse doesn't necessarily need your resident salary replaced. Your family may need a plan for the financial future you were building together.
Amber Stitt [00:02:18]:
At the same time, you don't necessarily need to solve your entire lifetime insurance need during residency. Your career and family are going to evolve. Your coverage can evolve, too. You can revisit the decision. This is the part I think residents sometimes miss. Life insurance planning doesn't have to be one giant decision. Maybe you have a meaningful need today and you address that need, then you finish training, your income changes, you buy a house, your family grows, you become a practice owner. At those points, you can revisit whether your existing coverage still fits.
Amber Stitt [00:02:52]:
Additional coverage would generally require new underwriting, but that's exactly why life insurance should be viewed as an ongoing planning decision rather than something you think about once. I'd like to take a second to tell you about a FREE Medical Professionals Blueprint that I created with you in mind. At some point in your career, you realize it's not just about making more money. It's about making decisions that actually support your life. That's exactly why I created "The Pathways Perspective for Physicians." It's a simple, non-technical framework to help you think through your career, your money, your risk, and how everything connects as your life evolves. You shouldn't have to have a finance degree to build financial freedom. You don't need to have everything figured out.
Amber Stitt [00:03:38]:
You just need a place to start. You can download the FREE Medical Professionals Blueprint at: StittStrategies.com/Blueprint. So, should you buy during residency? Maybe. And I know that's not the dramatic answer people want, but it's the responsible one. Don't buy life insurance just because someone tells you physicians should lock it in while they're young. And don't automatically postpone the conversation because you haven't reached attending income. Instead, evaluate what's true today. Do you have someone depending on you? Do you have financial obligations that would continue? Are you building a family? Would your absence create a meaningful financial problem for someone else? If so, residency may be exactly the right time to evaluate your options.
Amber Stitt [00:04:27]:
If not, you may decide the need isn't there, yet. So here's your Responsible Resident prescription for Episode 6. Before deciding to buy now, or wait, answer these 4 questions: "Who depends on me financially today? What financial responsibilities would continue without me? What major life changes are likely over the next few years? Am I comfortable having my health and insurability evaluated later rather than today?" Those answers will tell you far more than your training status ever will. Because the right time to think about life insurance isn't automatically residency, and it isn't automatically when you become an attending. It's when your financial responsibilities, your future plans, and the people depending on you make the conversation relevant. If this episode helped you think a little more clearly about your next step, that's the goal. You don't need to have everything figured out, but you do need to take ownership and take a meaningful step forward today.
Amber Stitt [00:05:25]:
Thanks for listening to The Responsible Resident. As a reminder, this podcast is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, tax, or individualized financial advice, and coverage options will vary based on your personal situation.
