Insider's Pop Quiz!

 Q:    When calculating a household's income at an initial certification, you learn that a household member has term life insurance. Should you count the amount of the insurance as an asset?

A: No. If you learn that a household member has term life insurance, don’t count the amount of the insurance as an asset [Handbook 4350.3, exh. 5-2(A)(7), (B)(3)]. You would count whole or universal life insurance. But unlike those types of insurance, term life insurance offers no cash or surrender value before a household member’s death, and therefore shouldn’t be counted as an asset.

For more tips on what to count as an asset for certification purposes, see “Follow Six Dos & Don’ts When Counting Household Assets,” available to subscribers here.