Everyone wants the best life insurance
rate. That goes without saying.
As a licensed
term life
insurance agent, I'm going to
go the extra distance. I actually
need some more life insurance and of
course, term makes the most sense on
many levels so I will walk though my
actual decision process in order to get
the best life insurance rates.
This is not a drill. Here we go.
First, why am I so confident that term
life will work better than whole or
variable. Well...because I'm in
the business. I have two sons (age
6 and 8) and my wife. We have a
house about 7 years into a mortgage (out
of 30 years). We also have two
obnoxious dogs but that irrelevant.
I really don't want life insurance for
when I hopefully turn 85 (I'm 39 now in
2009). I also don't want to pay so
much each month that I a) regret the
coverage or worst yet b) decide to
cancel later on when the government
decides to offer universal term life
insurance and I no longer have a
profession :). Whole life is going
to be very expensive and we explain in
detail why in our
term versus whole
life article. I know
better. I want to cover probably
20-30 years depending on the rate
difference spread. This should get
my children to the point of college
after which, they better be able to be
self-sufficient...if I did my job
correctly. That should also cover
most of the mortgage which is probably
25% of our monthly income. That's
really the big unchanging expense that
can't be reduced in the event of a
catastrophic financial situation (like
my passing). Okay...so it's
term life and I'm completely serious
about this...this would be the choice
for my family.
Secondly, I feel confident that with a
wide breadth of carriers and plans
offered by our
term life
insurance quoting engine, I
have a comprehensive view of the market
that's available. Most of the
biggest names and strongest life
carriers are right there next to each
other. That's a good start.
I can run the quote knowing that I'm not
missing some key offering on the market.
That's a big deal...the "what if" that
usually occurs when we're looking at
purchasing any item. "What if I
can find this cheaper or better?"
I know there may be some strange little
plan somewhere out there that's a few
dollars cheaper but term life is such a
commodity these days that the spread of
rates is pretty narrow. I feel
confident in getting the best term life
insurance rate. Let's run the
quote.
I
first put in my vital information...age,
gender, State, etc. I come down to
how much term? This is a big
question (in fact, one of two "big"
questions). I can click on the
Term Life Planner
to get some guidance but I know this
business so I have a sense of how much
is needed. I go with $1M to start.
I can always adjust it. $1M at 20
years. In a few seconds, 6
plans pop up with a range of monthly
life insurance rates from $47 to $55;
average around $50. That's not
bad. I feel confident about the
amount but maybe a longer term might be
good. I'll adjust it up top to 25
years. It jumps from $80 to $112
with an average around $95. So to
add 5 years of coverage, it will almost
double the monthly premium. Hmmm.
20 years will take my youngest son to 25
so I think that's more important to me
than the extra 5 years.
$50/monthly also feels like it meets the
"gut feel" meter that says I can pay
that monthly and not feel too bad about
it. I wish I would have bought
more at 35 when it would have been
cheaper but that's life (insurance).
Back
to the 20 years (just hit the backspace
button browser takes me right back).
I know
Banner life
has been easy to deal with...especially
on the application side and their rating
is AA- (4th best rating) with S&P.
I feel comfortable with that. I
could save a few bucks with Ohio
National but I've dealt with Banner and
haven't had any problems. That's
probably worth a few bucks. I
decide to proceed. I click on the
button to request the application kit.
In all, it took about 2-3 minutes (and
longer to write about it). I
found a solid carrier with an
affordable term
life rate. Success!
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