Quick Introduction to Term Life Insurance
Since term life insurance provides temporary coverage, it’s generally the cheapest type of life insurance you can find. The term life insurance quotes that you’ll qualify for will depend on several factors, including your desired coverage amount, the type of policy you want and various personal attributes.
Assuming you are a healthy, non-smoker looking for $250,000 of coverage, you can expect term life insurance quotes near the following ranges:
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Age
(yrs)
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Male
($ per month)
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Female
($ per month)
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| 25 - 35 | $37 - $50 | $32 - $44 | ||
| 35 - 45 | $50 - $99 | $44 - $87 | ||
| 45 - 55 | $99 - $230 | $87 - $176 |
Provider |
Annual Payment |
Monthly Payment |
| SelectQuote Life Insurance | ||||
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$210 | $18 | ||
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Term Life Insurance Quotes: Choosing an Insurance Policy
Multiple kinds of life insurance policies fall under the umbrella of term life insurance. In order to choose the right insurance policy, it helps to become more familiar with the different kinds of term life insurance quotes that are available to consumers.
Level term life insurance policies come with insurance premiums that are guaranteed to remain the same during the entire length of the insurance term. Typically, you can find level term life insurance quotes for policies that last for as long as 20 or 30 years. You can also search for level term life insurance quotes that last for just five, 10 or 15 years.
Some level term life insurance plans come with renewable terms. Once the initial term ends, you can have your insurance policy renewed with the understanding that your premiums will increase on an annual basis.
For example, while individuals rarely purchase insurance policies with yearly renewable terms, you could search for annually renewable term life insurance quotes and get insurance coverage that restarts every year. Some annual renewable term life policies are decreasing term life policies, meaning that the premiums don’t change throughout the life of the insurance policy but the death benefit shrinks over time.
In most cases, individuals with term life insurance coverage don’t receive any money back if they outlive their insurance policies. If you don’t want the insurance premiums you pay to go to waste, you can look for return of premium term life insurance quotes. When you buy return of premium term life insurance, you’ll receive a full refund for all of the premiums you pay over the years if you’re still alive when your insurance term ends.
As you compare life insurance products, you might also come across mortgage term life insurance quotes. Mortgage term life insurance makes your mortgage lender rather than your loved ones your beneficiary. The death benefit that your family members would have received instead goes toward paying off your mortgage.
Knowing as much as possible about the types of term life policies that insurance companies offer is important when you’re trying to meet your short- and long-term financial goals.
Term Life Insurance Quotes: Coverage Amounts
As you review term life insurance quotes, you’ll need to figure out how much life insurance you need. That means you’ll have decide how long you want your insurance policy to last and determine how much insurance coverage is sufficient.
The amount of insurance coverage that term life policies provide can vary. At face value, they can range anywhere from $25,000 to $5 million. Generally, the higher the coverage amount and the longer the insurance term, the more expensive the insurance policy will be.
The coverage amount you choose when buying a term life policy (and whether you pay your premiums) affects the benefit amount that will be paid out to your beneficiaries following your death. But in most cases, term life insurance policies don’t pay out death benefits since people tend to outlive their term life policies.
The amount of life insurance coverage you need will depend on the amount of debt you’re carrying, your income and whether you have savings and investments. If your spouse has a job, you might not need as much life insurance as you would if your husband or wife wasn’t working at all. But if you start a family or you need more money to pay for your kids’ college expenses, you might need to purchase additional term life insurance coverage.
Bottom line: Your life insurance needs can change over the course of your lifetime. If you buy a house or take on multiple home improvement projects, it might be a good idea to have enough insurance to cover your mortgage and any renovations you’ve made in the event of your untimely death. If you switch jobs, you might need to look at term life insurance quotes if your new company’s insurance policy doesn’t provide much coverage.
Getting a Term Life Insurance Quote
Many insurance companies and websites offer free term life insurance quotes online. In minutes, you can get an estimate of what a life insurance policy would cost you.
Life insurance quotes sometimes tell you which rating class you fall into. Individuals who qualify for the best insurance rates will fall into the super preferred, select or preferred categories. Those who fall into the standard plus or standard categories can expect to pay more for term life insurance coverage.
In order to receive an insurance quote, you’ll need to provide certain details about yourself. Be prepared to enter your zip code, address, date of birth, gender, height and weight. You’ll likely have to answer questions about your health status and your personal habits (including whether you’re a smoker), as well. Other factors that could affect your term life insurance quotes include your driving record, your hobbies and your occupation.
An insurance company will want to know as much as possible about you and the kind of lifestyle you live. That’s because when an insured person dies, the insurer has to pay up. To mitigate the risk of having to pay out benefits, an insurer can make term life insurance coverage more expensive for individuals who live risky lives.
Average Term Life Insurance Quotes
Wondering how much a term life insurance policy will cost you? It depends, in part, on when you purchase it. By buying life insurance at a younger age, your premiums will likely be cheaper. A 20-year term life policy would cost a 30-year-old female non-smoker as little as $213 per year. In contrast, the average 45-year-old female non-smoker would pay $496 per year for a 20-year term life insurance policy from the same company.
Smokers can generally expect to pay more than non-smokers for term life insurance policies. A 30-year-old female smoker would spend $734 per year, on the lower end, on premiums for a 20-year policy. While a 45-year female smoker would pay $1,960, on the low end.
How to Choose the Best Coverage for You
If you’re looking at term life insurance quotes, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll need to purchase enough coverage to meet your personal financial needs. Shopping around and comparing quotes can improve your chances of getting the best rates. Ideally, you’d be able to get a sufficient amount of term life insurance coverage for the lowest price.
In order to get the best coverage, you’ll need to think about the benefits that you want your policy to include and weigh them against the disadvantages of choosing a particular policy.
For example, if getting a refund for the premiums you’ve paid is important to you, paying a little extra for return of premium term life insurance might make sense. Although your premiums will rise each year, getting a renewable term life insurance policy may work in your favor. When you renew your policy, you won’t have to take another medical exam or go through the process of trying to qualify for insurance again. So even if you develop a serious illness or another health issue in the future, you’ll still have the same insurance coverage.
A life insurance calculator can tell you how much life insurance you need so that you avoid overbuying or getting coverage that doesn’t leave you with enough protection. Planning ahead and thinking about the financial decisions that you intend to make later on can also be helpful if you’re trying to decide whether to buy a policy with a longer or shorter term.
Life Insurance Study: America's Healthiest Places
SmartAsset's interactive map highlights the healthiest counties across the country. Zoom between states and the national map to see data points for each region, or look specifically at one of the three factors driving our analysis: length of life, health behaviors and healthcare access.
1 Years of Potential Life Lost before the age of 75 per 100,000 residents
2 Primary Care Physicians per 100,000 residents
Methodology Our study aims to find the healthiest places in the country. An individual's health is key to assessing life expectancy, which is the ultimate determinant of the price one pays for life insurance. To find America's healthiest places we considered three factors: length of life, health behaviors and healthcare access.
The first factor we considered was the premature death rate in a county, specifically the years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 residents. This number shows the rate at which people die before the age of 75. Places with the lowest rates of premature death generated the highest length of life index values.
Second, we created a health behaviors index for each county. This reflects the counties with the healthiest behaviors, as measured by three data points: the percentage of adults that are current smokers, the percentage of adults that are obese and the percentage of adults that report binge or heavy drinking. We indexed each of these data points on a scale of 0 to 100, took a weighted average, then indexed the final number to generate the health behaviors index.
Third, we considered access to healthcare as a secondary measure of how healthy each county is, given the impact this has on health outcomes. We looked at the rate of primary care physicians per 100,000 residents. We also looked at the uninsured rate, or the percentage of the population under age 65 without health insurance. We indexed each of these data points on a scale of 0 to 100, took a weighted average, then indexed the final number to generate the healthcare access index.
Finally, we used a weighted average of the three indices above to yield an overall healthiest places score. We used a 50% weighting for length of life, a 30% weighting for health behaviors and a 20% weighting for healthcare access. We indexed the final number so higher values reflect the healthiest places
Sources: County Health Rankings
