How Much Does Life Insurance Cost? A Detailed Guide
According to a recent report, almost 25% of people don’t have life insurance policies in place. Of these people, nearly 40% of them say that the cost of life insurance is the main reason why they don’t have a policy.
If you don’t have life insurance and it’s because of the cost of it, you should know that you don’t have to let life insurance prices keep you down. You should be able to find low life insurance rates if you look hard enough for them.
So, how much does life insurance cost? Well, it’s going to depend on a bunch of different factors. It’s important for you to consider them before buying life insurance.
We’re going to run through some of the factors that can have an impact on the cost of life insurance below. Learn more about them so that you can estimate what a life insurance policy will run you.
Table of Contents
Type of Life Insurance
When you first go to obtain a life insurance policy, you’ll discover that there are two main types of life insurance for you to choose from. You can go with either term life insurance or whole life insurance.
Generally speaking, term life insurance is going to cost less than whole life insurance for one simple reason. Term life insurance will only cover you for a certain period of time before your life insurance policy expires.
You can pick a term life insurance policy that runs for 10 years, 20 years, or longer. But no matter how long it runs for, you should be able to get a term life insurance for a lot less than a whole life insurance policy. This is because a whole life insurance policy will run until you either decide to cancel it or your life ends.
For this reason, many people like to go with term life insurance policies. They’ll cost you less money while providing you with excellent coverage.
Age
If you’re in your 20s, 30s, or even your 40s and you sign up for a life insurance policy, it shouldn’t cost you too much. There is a very small chance of your life insurance company having to pay out any death benefits on your behalf when you’re on the younger side. So a policy isn’t going to cost you a ton of money.
But if you’re in your 50s, 60s, or 70s, it’ll be a much different story! In this case, a life insurance company is typically going to charge you more for a policy. They’ll do this because there is a much greater chance of them having to pay out your death benefits.
That being said, you should still be able to find affordable life insurance during your golden years. Visit https://shelterbay.ca/seniors-life-insurance/ to get more information on obtaining life insurance as a senior.
Health
As you would probably expect, the answer to the question, “How much does life insurance cost?” will be largely dependent on your health.
If you’re in great health, that should bode well for you when it comes to securing an affordable life insurance policy. But if you’re not in good health, that’s going to be when a life insurance company will charge you an arm and a leg for a policy.
So, how will a life insurance company know about your health? Oftentimes, they’ll request that you take part in either a medical exam or, at the very least, a medical questionnaire so that they can assess your health. It’ll enable them to come up with life insurance prices for you.
Gender
Did you know that women tend to live longer than men on a global level? There are many reasons for this. But no matter what the reason, this is something that can have an impact on the life insurance rates that you receive.
If you’re a man, you’re usually going to be asked to pay at least a little bit more for life insurance than the women out there. You and your spouse might lead the same kind of lifestyle, and both be in good health. But even still, you may have to pay more for life insurance than she does.
There are some life insurance companies that will leave gender out of the equation when they’re calculating life insurance prices for people. But many of them continue to consider gender when they’re putting life insurance quotes together.
Career
The career path that you’ve chosen could play a key part in how much life insurance will cost you. The more dangerous that your job is, the more that you’re going to be asked to pay for a life insurance policy.
If, for example, you work in the construction industry, a life insurance company is going to see your job as a risk. So they’re going to charge you more for a life insurance policy than they would charge someone who works in an office all day.
You might actually want to keep this in mind when you’re first deciding which career path to take. Going with one career over another could make your life insurance prices dramatically lower throughout the course of your life.
Lifestyle
Do you engage in any risky behavior that could put your life at risk? For instance, do you:
- Drink alcohol on a regular basis?
- Go skydiving every weekend?
- Travel to war zones at least a few times each year?
If you just answered “yes” to any of these questions, you shouldn’t be too surprised if a life insurance company asks you to pay more for a policy. Your risky lifestyle is going to cost you more money when you obtain life insurance.
Death Benefits
When you pick out a life insurance policy, you’ll get the opportunity to choose which death benefits your beneficiaries will receive in the event of your untimely death. You can decide how much your life insurance policy will be worth in the end.
Some people pick out a life insurance policy that will only reward their beneficiaries with about $10,000. Others will pick out a policy that will reward their beneficiaries with millions of dollars.
As you might expect, the death benefits that are associated with a life insurance policy will play a huge role in how much it costs. The higher your death benefits are, the more you’ll have to pay for a policy.
Because of this, you should be very intentional about choosing the right death benefits. You want your family to be financially OK in the event of your death. But you don’t want to strap yourself financially now in an effort to leave enough money behind for them.
Your goal should be to sit down and calculate how much money your family would need to survive without you if they had to in the future. It’ll put you in a much better position to choose the appropriate death benefits so that you can figure out how much they’ll cost you.
Company
When you’re in the market for a life insurance policy, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding companies to provide you with one. There are hundreds of life insurance companies scattered throughout North America.
One thing you should keep in mind, though, is that each life insurance company is going to extend different life insurance prices to you. You might be able to save yourself a nice chunk of change by going with one life insurance company versus another one.
It would be worth shopping around for life insurance policies that aren’t going to break the bank. You should be able to locate at least a few life insurance companies that would be willing to provide you with policies you can afford.
Outside of considering the life insurance prices these companies can offer, you should also see what kind of customer service they can set you up with. It’ll ensure that you end up with the best life insurance company possible on your side.
So, How Much Does Life Insurance Cost? Find Out Today
As you can see, it would be difficult for us to sit here and provide a final answer to the question, “How much does life insurance cost?” There are just too many factors that can have an impact on it.
But you can get a better idea as to how much life insurance will cost you by contacting a handful of life insurance companies. You can secure life insurance quotes from them and then compare these quotes so that you can sign up for the best one.
Read more informative insurance-related articles by poking around on the rest of our blog.