Insurance is the bet you never want to win. But woe to you if you end up needing it and don't have enough — or any at all.

Yet most of us can't afford all the coverage we might like to have. So we must prioritize.

Consider Jana and John Schuster of Rochester, N.Y., a one-income family with four children 10 and younger. They get their health insurance and a death benefit for John from a wage package negotiated by his union, Local 86 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

For a family of six, health insurance should be a top, if not the top, priority, experts agree.

"They have very good insurance, thank goodness," said Jana, 38. "When I got the hospital bills from having the last baby, I almost fell over. I said, 'Thank goodness for insurance.' "

About three years ago, the Schusters took out term life insurance on John equal to three times his annual income, Jana said. Since she left the work force five years ago after the birth of their second child, partly because the cost of child care was prohibitive, the decision to take out a term policy was nearly as important as health insurance.

The Schusters have automobile insurance on their two vehicles and homeowners insurance on their dwelling.

"And we have (a personal liability) umbrella through our homeowners policy," said John, 44, an electrician. The umbrella policies cover liabilities, typically for at least $1 million, which exceed the limits of the other policies.

Next on their list of potential buys: some life insurance for Jana.

Likely much further down the line: long-term care insurance, a newer — and expensive — form of insurance that pays for nursing home care and, in some cases, home care, thus protecting the assets of the insured's family.

But insurance choices are not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

"Life insurance is sort of a bell curve," said Nannette Nocon, a financial planner with American Express Financial Services. "When we are younger, we don't need as much. But as we have more dependents, the need becomes higher. And as we grow older and accumulate more wealth, we don't need as much."

Or some people may not need any.

"I think it is hard to think of the usefulness of life insurance for someone who is single, who never plans to marry or have dependents," Nocon said. "Say a guy is 45 or 50 years old with no plans of having any dependents. Perhaps he's a good saver and has enough money to leave to his parents or siblings."

For someone like that, any insurance may be a case of overinsuring. But people who need some insurance often overinsure as well.

"You look at the cash flow and you say, 'You're going into debt just to pay your life insurance.' So it's really a fine balance," she said.

To his clients, Keith Maier of the Maier Group in Perinton, N.Y., always lays out the pros and cons of any insurance product, then lets them make the decision as to what kind and how much.

"I don't like rules of thumb," he says. "You can go through the formula, which gives you a dollar amount. Past that, it's a personal decision."

THEY'VE GOT YOU COVERED

Tips on insurance from certified financial planners Keith Maier and Nannette Nocon:

Don't settle for the minimum liability required by law for auto insurance. "Most of the policies I see are way too low," Maier said." I recommend a minimum of $300,000 per occurrence."

To pay for it, increase deductibles to $500 or even higher. "If your cash reserve is a couple thousand dollars, I think a $500 deductible is OK," Nocon said.

If you buy long-term disability, the earlier the better. "It's best to get it in your 20s or 30s," Nocon said. "If you wait until your 50s, it gets too outrageously expensive."

Be sure your homeowners insurance covers replacement costs if your home is destroyed. "If you have a 2,000-square-foot home that was built in 1970 and you haven't done much to it, it may be assessed at $150,000," Maier said. "But to rebuild it, it probably is going to cost $100 a foot, or $200,000."