Self Quote: Life Insurance

See some rates…

This is a great way to look at term life quotes.  It includes a tool to help determine the amount of insurance you may need.

Enter your age, sex, and zip code to calculate the premium associated with different products and different companies.

Please note that the prices reflected on this quoting software are NOT necessarily the amount that you would have to pay.  You are encouraged to use the “health analyzer” to help you get more a more accurate determination of your potential health rating and prices.

(Read about health rating categories below)

Read this First!

Secrets and Tips about selecting Life Insurance

Use an independent agency like the HIQS Group!

Be aware that many life insurance quoting websites are not all the same. Most are specifically created by agencies that sell insurance online. They are a good resource, but they often only show the companies that they sell.

When you apply online, you are NOT applying directly to the insurance companies. You still have an “agent” assigned to you. When dealing with major companies, it is common that the agent may not be a resident of the state. As specific rules and regulations differ from state to state, it is best to work with an agent who is familiar with the peculiarities of your home state.

Prices of life insurance are submitted to state departments of insurance and cannot vary by agent or agency. The insurance company, even if they sell it directly, cannot legally give you a better price. If you find a different price for what appears to be the same product there is some difference in the product itself, perhaps different riders or different conversion options (more about that later). We can help you understand the differences.

Find out how you will be rated. Your health “rating” can more accurately determine your acceptance and real pricing that the insurance companies will charge you. Life insurance companies offer insurance at different price levels based on a number of health factors, which, when considered together, help them predict how good a risk you are. No matter what rate you are quoted, the insurance company is not bound by it, sometimes they even offer a better rate than quoted.

Literally, the insurance companies are experts at predicting what the average life span would be for someone with your health profile. Factors such as height and weight, blood pressure, smoking history, driving history, family history, even your age and sex are all used. We help you with this, which is especially vital if you have an atypical health history.

For some companies only 2% to 5% of the applicants get that “super-preferred” fantastic rate. They are trying to attract your application with a very attractive price. The next rate category down might be much worse. Many people who apply without the advice of an agent feel like they are the victim of a “bait and switch.”

Price is not the only factor. When you get quotes we do not always recommend the least expensive plan. Health rating categories are different from one company to the next. Note that similar sounding names such as preferred plus, ultra preferred, or preferred non-smoker are grouped together in quoting software but this does NOT mean that they are equivalent.
Some companies have tighter standards for factors like height and weight, for instance. So, you may qualify for a certain rating level and get the quoted rate with some companies but not others.

Convertibility & Term Life Insurance Policies

Convertibility is a very important issue involved with term life insurance.

A conversion option means that you can purchase a permanent life insurance plan based on your original rate category. This is true even if you have serious health problems now. You pay a rate based on the age you are when you convert.

Convertibility is crucial if your health deteriorates and future purchases of insurance would be too expensive.

The big benefit to this is that you can do so without any evidence of insurability. With no required medical exam you could complete the conversion, even if diagnosed with a terminal illness. Nearly 99% of all life insurance owned in the United States is Term Insurance. There are situations, however, where permanent insurance makes financial sense.

The potential drawbacks of many of the more competitively priced term products is that they allow you to convert only to very expensive permanent products or limit the conversion option to only a few years. We can recommend term plans that have longer conversion options to reasonably priced permanent plans.

We recently had a case where a client had decided to purchase a life insurance plan, which had a ten year rate guarantee because it was less expensive. He had a need that was more than 10 years, having 3 young children, but assumed he could buy another inexpensive term policy when that one expired. He survived 2 cancers in one year in the 9th year of the policy. He was only 49. Thankfully, he exercised his option to “convert” the term to permanent coverage before the 10th year and kept his coverage in force. Had he let it lapse he would have been uninsurable.