Want affordable life insurance? Life insurance is very affordable if you know the right way to compare life insurance policies and where to shop. We'll show you how to get free quotes securely online for cheap life insurance with the best companies today.
In addition, in this article you will learn about the importance of affordable life insurance, when to get affordable life insurance, how long to have it, how much to have, where to get affordable life insurance, and how to buy it.
Now that you're dying to know the best way to get affordable life insurance, we'll tell you. It's with Policygenius, a leading online life insurance marketplace! Policygenius has licensed, unbiased experts who help you get the best, most affordable life insurance policy that most appropriately suits your needs.
Utilize Technology To Get Affordable Life Insurance
Policygenius has the technology and know-how to locate the best policies and prices with dozens of top carriers for your needs. And they do this all for free! You can get all the details in our extensive Policygenius review. We've also summarized the key points below.
It's both efficient and safe to search for affordable life insurance on Policygenius. The nation's top carriers compete for your business all in one place. And your personal information is safe and secure when you use Policygenius to shop for insurance.
Policygenius property vets all of the life insurance carriers they feature to make sure they are the most reputable and financially stable carriers today so you don't have to.
The company was founded in 2014 by Francois de Lame and his partner Jennifer Fitzgerald, ex-Mckinsey Consulting professional who went to Harvard Business School. I've met them both, and they are great.
The Importance Of Affordable Life Insurance
Life insurance is extremely important if you have debt and dependents. It's helpful to know the many benefits of life insurance when you are searching for an affordable policy.
Now let's go through the below questions and we'll further explain the best way to get cheap life insurance.
- When should you get life insurance?
- How long of a life insurance term should you get?
- How much life insurance should you get?
- What's the best way to compare costs of life insurance policies with different amounts and terms?
- Where is the best place to get affordable life insurance?
When To Get Cheap And Reliable Life Insurance
The general recommendation is to get life insurance when you are younger, so you lock in a lower fixed price. But the reality is everything is priced in. Young, healthy adults get the best pricing. But, they may pay for more years than someone who gets life insurance at an older age.
As a result, the best time to get life insurance is once you either take on a lot of debt, plan to start a family, or both.
Here are the main questions you should ask before getting life insurance in the first place.
- Do I have people depending on my income to survive? A non-working spouse, children, and retired parents who need financial support are the most common dependents.
- Will my debt be a burden on those I leave behind? The most common type of debt is mortgage debt. Other important debt to consider is high interest consumer debt. The larger your debt and the smaller your equity, the wiser it is to get life insurance.
- Will I die early or before my dependents have a chance to become independent? Males die earlier than females. Meanwhile, if you have a history of health problems, you may likely die earlier than those dependent who are healthier.
Term Life Is The Most Popular Type Of Life Insurance
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, then you should get affordable term life insurance.
With term life insurance, you purchase a policy for a set timeframe. It's typically in the range of 10 to 30 years. During that term you pay premiums to keep your coverage active. If you die during the term, your beneficiaries receive a death benefit.
If you don't die during the term — the preferred outcome — your coverage ends when your term expires. You don't get any money back at that point, but you're still alive and free!
How Long Should Your Life Insurance Term Be?
Given the largest debt for most people is a mortgage, it's a good idea to match your life insurance term as close as possible to the years remaining on your mortgage.
For example, I had a $960,000 mortgage with 22 years remaining until it gets paid off based on its amortization schedule. As a result, I took out a $1M, 20-year term life insurance policy to cover this debt just in case I die early.
The annual mortgage payment is roughly $53,000 a year ($26,000 goes to principal) along with a whopping $21,000 a year in property taxes and $2,000 a year in home insurance cost.
In other words, if I die, my heir will have to pay $76,000 a year to own the house plus inevitable maintenance expenses. I don't want my death to have a psychological + financial burden on my family.
Another way to think about your duration matching is to think about how long it will take for you to pay off all your debt. If you plan to pay off all debt within 20 years, a 20-year term life insurance policy is a good choice.
Getting affordable life insurance has become so easy thanks to Policygenius. You can easily compare multiple real quotes in one place to make a more informed decision.
How Much Affordable Life Insurance Should I Get?
When you're shopping for affordable life insurance, you have to figure out how much to purchase. You should take out as much life insurance as necessary for your survivors to feel comfortable living their life with you gone. Here are some options to consider in terms of how much life insurance to take out.
Most conservative decision: Take out as much life insurance as possible to completely eliminate all debt plus provide money left over to pay for living expenses for the rest of your dependent's lives. Use a life expectancy of age 100. Take 100 – current age and multiply by annual living expenses e.g. $500,000 debt + 50 years X $100,000 = $5 million term policy.
Conservative decision: Take out as much life insurance to completely eliminate all debt plus provide enough living expenses until the age of 70 when full Social Security benefits get paid e.g. $300,000 debt + 30 years X $80,000 = $2,700,000. Round up and get a $3 million term policy.
Moderate decision: Take out as much life insurance to eliminate all debt and provide for 5-10 years of living expenses, long enough for your dependents to become independent e.g. $500,000 debt + $100,000 X 10 = $1.5 million term policy.
Not Recommended Strategies For Getting Life Insurance
Least conservative decision: Take out just enough life insurance to make sure any assets inherited don't become a burden. The life insurance should give the recipient enough time to decide what is best to do with the receiving assets. This is my case where the recipient of my house can decide to live in the house, rent out the house, or sell the house to extract the equity.
Riskiest decision: Of course, the riskiest decision of all is to not take out any life insurance when you have dependents and debt. Even if you don't have debt, having life insurance is important for income purposes. If you have no debt and no dependents, then getting life insurance is probably a waste of money unless you feel you have a greater chance than normal you'll die before the people you care about and want to provide income for them.
Here's a chart I put together based on how much each life insurance policy would cost by term and amount.
Affordable Life Insurance Through Policygenius
Here is the step-by-step process for getting cheap life insurance on Policygenius, the best platform for finding life insurance today.
1. Click on Policygenius.com to find, compare, and buy several types of insurance. For life insurance, click the “life” box. As you can see from the image below, you can get many different types of insurance policies with Policygenius. If you're satisfied with the affordable life insurance you got from them, consider getting insurance for other needs.
2. There's no commitment required to get quotes for your monthly premium. You won't have to enter your name, email, and phone number until after you've browsed through the policy options. Getting a quote is free.
3. You can choose either “less support” or “more support” from the Policygenius team to navigate the life insurance application. Given you're getting a free quote, it's pretty straight forward.
4. Life insurance premiums are based in part on where you live, so the site immediately wants to know your ZIP code so it can find insurers in your area. You'll also need to provide your gender, date of birth, citizenship status, and relationship status.
If you do have a significant other or spouse, the site will offer to help find quotes for both of you to save some time. During the pandemic, both my wife and I got new affordable life insurance policies with no medical exams.
Input Your Basic Information For Affordable Life Insurance
5. Next you need to provide some basic information about your health: your height, weight, whether you smoke tobacco, whether you have been treated or take medication for depression, high cholesterol, drug abuse, or another serious condition. You'll also need to disclose any serious medical diagnoses of close blood relatives.
Some of you might have the temptation to fudge this information. It's really up to you what you want them to know. Your weight fluctuates by several pounds each day. You might feel that your alcohol issue was only temporary and none of anybody's business.
Just know that if you sought medical treatment for issues, insurance companies will see the records.
Many insurers consider your driving record in determining your risk level, too, so there's a question regarding accidents and tickets.
The more detailed you are in answering these questions, the more accurate your quotes will be.
6. If none of the serious medical conditions listed apply to you, Policygenius says “you're in demand.” You will probably have some low premiums to choose from.
7. If you answered “yes” to the question about your family's health history, you'll be prompted to give more information. This is so your quotes will be as accurate as possible. Though additional details are not required to move to the next step.
Here's another grey area. What if your grandfather had a stroke at age 76. Is that a risk since the median life expectancy is only 78 years old? I don't think so, but that's just me. People get sicker as they get older. I would personally err on the side of privacy here. You and insurance carriers don't have complete information about your family's health history.
Choose An Affordable Life Insurance Plan
8. Next, you need to select a coverage amount and term length. Within each box, Policygenius provides some guidance to help you choose your coverage amount and term length. You'll have the opportunity to adjust these numbers later if you change your mind. You might as well play around with the numbers and see what you can afford.
9. The next page will bring up several policy options, organized by the premium. Policygenius highlights the same features of each policy, including financial strength and customer service of the insurer. Policygenius is sure to remind you that any option it's offering is a good one.
10. From there, you can check the “compare” box on two or more policies. You can see how they stack up against one another. This is great for making sure you get the cheapest life insurance policy possible.
11. Once you choose a policy, you're ready to apply. If you feel comfortable with the offer, this is where you fill in your personal information. Again, you don't pay anything until the policy is approved and goes into effect.
12. Before you can submit the application, you have to provide your address and income for a Policygenius representative to verify.
Once you click “submit,” you'll see your own dashboard with the status of your application.
Final Steps
13. You should get a call from Policygenius within 5-10 minutes to verify your information. From there, your Policygenius representative will schedule your medical exam, if you get a policy larger than $1,000,000 and sometimes larger than $500,000. If you get a policy under $500,000 it is my experience that no medical exam is necessary.
If you do get a medical exam it's free. So at least you can find out more about your health for free. If you're over the age of 40, you should get a physical exam once every two years anyway.
Affordable Life Insurance Is A Must
Getting affordable life insurance is imperative if you have dependents who rely on your income to survive e.g. stay at home spouse, kids, elderly parents. The best age to get life insurance is around age 30. Your life insurance premium is affordable and life tends to get a lot more complicated after 30.
Many families with children smartly get a term policy that lasts at least through when all their children graduate from college. Life insurance is also important if you have debt that will be difficult to cover by someone else or your estate in case of your death.
Unlike the estate tax, where the government gets to take almost half of every dollar you leave after ~$12.92 million after you die (in 2023), beneficiaries of life insurance don't have to pay a cent in taxes.
Life insurance is a gift of love. It doesn't cost much and it goes a long way to taking care of your loved ones after you are gone. If you have dependents who do not have the ability to earn a livable income and cover your debts, please consider getting life insurance.
Policygenius is the best life insurance marketplace today.
Try Policygenius Today
If you're looking for a term life insurance policy because you have depends, bought a home, or simply want reassurance that others will be taken care of in the event of your death, I'd try Policygenius to get a free quote.
They make policy comparisons easy. The other way is to go to each insurance company one by one to fill out an application. Given life insurance policy prices are regulated, you can be assured that Policygenius will provide the best prices for you all in one place.
Both my wife and I got two matching 20-year term life insurance policies during the pandemic through Policygenius. As soon as we got the policies, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. A lot of anxiety went away, which is worth paying the monthy premium itself. We feel good k
About the Author
Sam began investing his own money ever since he opened an online brokerage account in 1995. Sam loved investing so much that he decided to make a career out of investing. He spent the next 13 years after college working at two of the leading financial service firms. During this time, Sam received his MBA from UC Berkeley with a focus on finance and real estate.
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I just self insure for life insurance. It never pays to be worth more dead than alive… Too much incentive for someone to take the money and run.
How does this company make money? Do they collect commissions off any sales or just advertising?
I don’t think it’s always so easy as just looking up online quotes online, wealthy and especially “older” clients like to use a professional.
I do sales part time and my clients call me all the time with questions that they can’t find online. It helps to have a broker…I just met a client on Sunday at 9:30 in the morning and I took calls at 10pm at night.
Especially when you pick the “least expensive” quote online and then it becomes a nightmare when they start refusing claims or they put you on hold for 6 hours a day with a operator in Mumbai…I know this from experience, some companies are cheap on paper but expensive in the long run.
Hi John,
You bring up some great points! We do collect commission but like Financial Samurai wrote, that cost is baked into the policy, so it’s the same price you’d get elsewhere.
You’re definitely right that it isn’t always just about looking up quotes online; we have a pretty robust collection of FAQs and a resource center on our blog where we educate customers. A large portion of our client base as Baby Boomers, so we’re trying to make a platform that’s easy for consumers regardless of their demographic, and we have an in-house service team for people who’d like to call and talk to someone.
And the least expensive policy certainly isn’t always the best! We provide comparisons between different policies and providers and have insurer reviews available so you can make the choice that’s right for you, whether you value price or something else.
Good article. A finer point to consider is your life insurance needs change as your situation changes. I had a fixed term 20 year policy that expired right about the time our kids finished college, so now have have 1x salary free from employer (higher multiples cost too much) and term life from association of CPA’s (good longevity record, so good rates for only this group)
But without too much debt and being close to having F U money at 57, I’ve backed down on my needs the last few years. But while you have kids, you want that cushion for your family in case the unthinkable happens
Here’s a question; at what point in your financial life does life insurance become a pointless thing to payout for?
-Zero debt (no mortgage anymore either)
-Financially sound and able to guarantee both my kids are able to afford a good education, either directly from what their inheritance would leave them, or indirectly because I know my direct family is able to support them if that ever was to happen.
Realistically is there a situation that life insurance is just not really necessary?
In those two situations, yes, life insurance is not necessary.
I, personally, am willing to pay $500 – $600 a year over a 20 year period to get a $1M tax free life insurance policy due to mortgage debt, and the idea that an extra injection of income might make an early death more palatable to the recipient.
I have a mix of term and whole for both my wife and me. I want the piece of mind of having life insurance for life and don’t want to have to worry about whether I will one day be uninsurable. Plus the cash value is earning more in interest than it would if it was sitting in the bank and tax free.
While I’m not anti whole life like most, I do admit it is ripe for this sort of technology disruption to lower sales fees.
With cash paying so little, good point on whole life policies beating cash. So, if you have a lot of excess cash and disposable income, whole life can make more sense.
It’s sad that some people can become uninsurable. I think the ACA has helped ameliorate this situation.
Their website doesn’t have much use to me as a reader from abroad. However it is always fun to read about (fin tech) startups. It must be so exciting to break away from our traditional way of doing things. Please keep them coming.
Having some type of life-insurance is absolutely necessary. Although we don’t like to think about it, bad things can happen to any one of us at any given time. The thought of leaving others behind with a huge financial burden because you failed to see its importance is scary. Luckily my employer pays for health insurance as well.
The amount of disruption ability in the financial industry is endless. One of the many reasons why so many folks left the finance industry was due to massive regulations that were often ties overly tight due to government regulations due to the housing crisis.
Everything is cyclical. Over tighten and over loosen. Boom, bust. I wonder when the fintech industry will start getting their screws tightened as well.
I can’t help but think that for a lot of your readers, life insurance is unnecessary because we have plenty of assets and a thick emergency fund to cover things in case we die unexpectedly. I recently went to an insurance broker who tried to sell me life insurance by saying “Wouldn’t it be helpful if your husband got $100k if something happened to you?” and I didn’t know how to answer without sounding haughty, but no, an extra $100k wouldn’t make a darn bit of difference at all.
I suppose if your debt exceeds your net worth by a lot, it would make sense. I just don’t see the point if you have a lot of assets built up already and not a lot of debt.
I’m glad to hear that 70% of employees have access to life insurance benefits through their jobs. At my last job, we were offered 2.5 times salary and our life insurance premiums were fully paid for by the firm. Guess those benefits were much greater than I thought if the average is 1x salary.
I started paying for my own life insurance policy after I left that job. Looks like I’m overpaying based on PolicyGenius’ quotes. Glad to hear there are companies like theirs that make it much simpler and affordable for people to get access to quotes and apply for life insurance. I definitely appreciate life insurance the older I get!
Here is the thing that has always bothered me about term life insurance: if you’re in your mid 30s, and you get a 30 year term, you will very likely survive until your mid 60s, and never use the benefit of the policy. But you would have paid a significant sum in premiums over the years. I know you have the peace of mind of providing for your dependents if you were to pass away unexpectedly, but do you think you will be bitter at age 65 if you find that you’ve paid the premiums for 30 years and never use the coverage, and then *poof* it’s all gone? I think that would really bother me.
It would make sense to have term life insurance for as long as you feel like your dependent a would be hosed if you died, but then the moment you feel like they would survive okay without you, to abandon the policy even if it’s in the middle of the 30 year term. I wonder if people actually do that, or if they hang in there for the whole term thinking its a good idea financially, because they’ve already sunk so much cost into the policy.
I didn’t know term life insurance was regulated. Good to know! How do individual insurance companies provide a competitive advantage then? Service and track record of not screwing over the customer if there is a claim?