Crunch the numbers to determine your life insurance needs

I know to expect a flood of reader mail whenever I write about hot-button issues such as Social Security. But I wasn't prepared for the avalanche from an October column on the need for life insurance.

Your letters and e-mails, poignant and even angry, came from surviving spouses -- usually women with small children left to struggle financially because the main breadwinner did not have adequate life insurance, or any at all. And many of you, moved to act, wanted to know how much insurance to get and what type of policy is best...

LA Times: Crunch the numbers to determine your life insurance needs