Life insurance?

Vinny

Vinny

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Anyone have any recommendations on life insurance or what to look for? Or if there's a good comparison/shopping site for life insurance. 

 
Depending on your insurance companies for other things, such as your car, you may want to check with them first to see if they have some sort of a bundle available for you to upgrade to.  That will generally save you some money in comparison to buying a separate one, but not always.

If you really want to get the information you need it's actually fairly easy to just call up one of the bigger companies and ask them for a quote for what you need.

Definitely less pressure than it used to be in asking for this kind of stuff, and not as telemarkety just to get a quote, and some information you'll need to understand what you need, and also compare a bit with some of the other places.

 
Vinny said:
Anyone have any recommendations on life insurance or what to look for? Or if there's a good comparison/shopping site for life insurance.
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Sqaurehard's info is solid. Beyond that, first place to look is through the employer of you, spouse, or parents. Often times companies get good rates/plans for their employees and their families. I still have 150k life insurance for $9 a month from my dad's employer he's been retired from for 10 years now.

 
Squarehard said:
Depending on your insurance companies for other things, such as your car, you may want to check with them first to see if they have some sort of a bundle available for you to upgrade to. That will generally save you some money in comparison to buying a separate one, but not always.

If you really want to get the information you need it's actually fairly easy to just call up one of the bigger companies and ask them for a quote for what you need.

Definitely less pressure than it used to be in asking for this kind of stuff, and not as telemarkety just to get a quote, and some information you'll need to understand what you need, and also compare a bit with some of the other places.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I got one from State Farm who has my condo/car insured... I just don't know if there's any sleezy companies out there since I don't know anyone with much life insurance expertise (my dad has it but he never shopped around- just got one when he was younger).

 
If you need life insurance (wife, kids, etc)  20-30 year Term life will be the best way to go and the cheapest.  Dont get sucked into Whole life or Universal.

I used a broker that got me a very nice deal from William Penn a few years ago.

 
I just got Life Insurance though my job... $150K coverage (on top of the $60K work provides) for like $12 more per month. I don't have wife/kids so I don't think I need more at the moment. If something happens to me though, that should be plenty for my parents/brother for my funeral costs and then some. 

 
Assuming you're young (20s or 30s) and don't smoke, a whole life policy is way better than term life. With term life you're paying for something you hope to never use, so you're giving away your money. Whole life gives the company time to invest your payments before they have to pay out (which is how they make their money). Younger = more time for them to make money = lower payments, once you get into your 40s or 50s life insurance rates go up exponentially, both term AND whole life. God forbid you ever get some sort of chronic disease or cancer, you will basically be uninsurable, so it's best to get it while you're, presumably, young and healthy. Another advantage to a whole life policy (since it is a guaranteed payout) is that you can borrow against it for something like a home, education, etc. The only time a term policy is advantageous is if you get a "return of premium" rider. That means if you outlive your policy, you get your premiums back (without interest, again they need to make money to stay solvent somehow). It is more expensive per month, but just think of it as a forced savings account. Insurance companies love term policies, and push them like crazy, because they get your money and almost never have to pay out. That's also why they're so cheap. Funerals are expensive as hell, so you want to make sure you have something that's a guaranteed payout, like whole life, otherwise your parents/siblings/spouse/kids will be stuck footing the bill if you outlive a term policy. I saw you got it from your employer, just make sure that the policy is transferrable so that if you ever go somewhere else or get fired you get to keep the policy, and find out if you will still keep the company rate, because it could go up. Sorry for the wall of text. Source: I used to sell life insurance.

 
AnonAcorn said:
Assuming you're young (20s or 30s) and don't smoke, a whole life policy is way better than term life. With term life you're paying for something you hope to never use, so you're giving away your money. Whole life gives the company time to invest your payments before they have to pay out (which is how they make their money). Younger = more time for them to make money = lower payments, once you get into your 40s or 50s life insurance rates go up exponentially, both term AND whole life. God forbid you ever get some sort of chronic disease or cancer, you will basically be uninsurable, so it's best to get it while you're, presumably, young and healthy. Another advantage to a whole life policy (since it is a guaranteed payout) is that you can borrow against it for something like a home, education, etc. The only time a term policy is advantageous is if you get a "return of premium" rider. That means if you outlive your policy, you get your premiums back (without interest, again they need to make money to stay solvent somehow). It is more expensive per month, but just think of it as a forced savings account. Insurance companies love term policies, and push them like crazy, because they get your money and almost never have to pay out. That's also why they're so cheap. Funerals are expensive as hell, so you want to make sure you have something that's a guaranteed payout, like whole life, otherwise your parents/siblings/spouse/kids will be stuck footing the bill if you outlive a term policy. I saw you got it from your employer, just make sure that the policy is transferrable so that if you ever go somewhere else or get fired you get to keep the policy, and find out if you will still keep the company rate, because it could go up. Sorry for the wall of text. Source: I used to sell life insurance.
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Wow... thank you for that write up. Every informative. I just turned 31 and will be looking into whole life insurance this summer when work winds down.

 
Vinny said:
Wow... thank you for that write up. Every informative. I just turned 31 and will be looking into whole life insurance this summer when work winds down.
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Everything I've ever read about whole life advises that it's not worth it except in specific instances. For most people, it's a bad investment. Most people would be better off going with term life and then putting the difference in cost (whole life is way more expensive) between term life and whole life into a different investment like T-bonds, or just contributing more money into their 401k or an IRA or something. It's not necessarily a scam, but it's definitely sold all the time to people who don't really have a need for it by salespeople who just want that sweet commission.

 
Whole life is not worth it.
If your broker advises buying it ask what fees they receive for advising it.
Term life is the best and the argument that you get nothing for it is not accurate; you have the peace of mind your dependents will be taken care of you're no longer around.
 
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