I believe between the work payouts and $500k in my brokerage account there would be enough to raise 2 kids until 18. I'm figuring it would cost $250k to raise a child to 18. That would deplete that account (not factoring in retirement accounts). I guess I could look into a 20 year term life policy and that should cover me for that time frame.
What happens after the kids turn 18. It sounds like your plan would including spending down your entire savings and not contributing any more to it. So when the kids turn 18, they have no additional support (which is fine for some people's plans, but make sure it's what you actually want for your kids). And your spouse has $0 to her name.
Survivor social security would help somewhat, but you'd still be leaving your kids and spouse in a pretty crap situation, IMO. And your spouse will likely need to go find a job, though probably making far, far less than you make now. That means her expenses will increase as she has to pay for things like daycare.
And if your spouse dies, think of all the things they are currently doing that you'd have to find a way to cover, while also grieving and dealing with kids who are likely to be very high-needs after the death of a parent. You won't be able to take time off to grieve, so a few weeks or less after the death, you are probably back to work. You'll have to pay for day care and likely before/after/late care. Where does that money come from? Are you going to be up for doing 100% of your employment, plus shopping, meal planning, tracking doctor's appointments, shopping for birthday parties, driving to and from baseball or ballet or karate, and all the other things your spouse does or will do? Or are you going to need to outsource some things so you can get the basics covered? Perhaps hiring a weekly housekeeper, paying for daycare, hiring a lawn service, and paying a parent of a kid in your kids' activities to do some of the driving? That's $25k policy would likely be gone in less than a year, unless you have solid reason to believe that grandparents would move in with you (and you want that life) or similar.
In your shoes, I would want far more insurance than what your work offers. Term insurance is cheap, so I'd likely get policies for both you and your spouse, to last at least until both kids are about 22 (assuming they go to college or otherwise take a few years to launch and that you want to be able to help support, at least somewhat during that time; a minimum would be until they are 18). How much depends on things like your current expenses, how much family support you might reasonably expect if one of you dies, etc. But as a ballpark figure, I'd probably want at least $300k each.
This is such an individual question, and you provided very little information so you aren't going to get any good, specific answers. But my answer is "waay more than those tiny work policies".
A friend of mine died with 2 younger kids (7 and 10). Her husband didn't want to go back to work the week after she was buried, or the month after she was buried. The kids needed mental health care. He got a lot of support from both sets of parents as far as child-minding, but expenses still went up, and that was despite them being a 2 income household. Of course, that means their income decreased significantly as well. Eventually, it was clear they needed to move for a clean slate for all, so add buying and selling a home. And all of that with a backdrop of grief and confusion and anger. Thankfully, she had a large policy that helped erase at least one component of The Suck.
