I don't disagree with what you'd said other than to point out that it varies a lot from employer to employer and government employees (at least IMO) tend to have better benefits than the private sector (offset by salaries that might not be competitive). I just checked my employer to see what our options were. The employer has what they call basic life which everyone who is full time gets 1X their salary paid by the employer and can pay extra to get up to 3x salary (limited to 500,000, but you'd have to make 160K+ per year to max out). Then they have supplemental life which can be any multiple of 10,000 to a max of 5 times salary, but in no case more than 500,000. So ultimately this would be 8 times salary. If Tammy had the same limit and made slightly more than 50K a year it would get her to the 430,000. So I don't think we can rule it out, but also agree that this seems to be pushing the norm, but I would also say that Tammy having that much life insurance is pushing the norms regardless.