What is the cheapest term life insurance you can buy?

Two different term life insurance products can be the cheapest to buy. They are either group term life insurance or 10-year term life insurance. 

10-year term life insurance, where you go through the full underwriting process the insurance company requires, will likely be the cheapest life insurance coverage if you are a healthy non-tobacco user. Simplified issue 10-year term life insurance will be a little more expensive but is still an inexpensive option.

Group-term insurance may be the cheapest if you have some health issues and/or you use tobacco.

Since life insurance agents are paid commissions based on premiums, many want to sell you longer-term life insurance policies such as 20-year or even 30-year term life products because the premiums are higher.

You can see how the premiums increase as you extend the term coverage in the graphic below. These prices are based on a 35-year-old male in perfect health for $1,000,000 in term life insurance coverage.

They indeed guarantee premiums for a longer period, but many 10-year term policies can be renewed past the guaranteed premium period up to age 95! These policies become "one-year annual renewable term policies," so each year you keep it past the guaranteed premium period, you will experience a premium increase. Before you buy a term policy, ask an agent about the renewal options of a policy past the guaranteed premium period.

The option to renew a term policy is usually a last resort for a policy owner if they become uninsurable, which could happen. In actuality, the odds of someone becoming uninsurable during the life of a term policy may be higher than someone dying! Crazy, right?!

Let's look deeper at group and 10-year term life insurance policies. Too, anytime you want, you can head over to decisiontree.financial and check out our free life insurance quote tool to compare term life insurance rates without having to provide your contact information. Pretty cool, right.

Group term life vs. 10-year term life insurance?

Group term life

Group-term life insurance is coverage offered by an organization with a financial interest in its members. This includes employer-employee relationships, credit unions, and professional associations with their members. When an insured buys coverage through a group life insurance plan, they aren't buying an actual life insurance policy. Instead, they receive a certificate of coverage from the master insurance policy owned by the plan sponsoring organization. So if you have group life insurance coverage from your job, your employer owns the master life insurance policy, and you have a certificate off of it granting you death benefit protection.

Most group-term life insurance plans won't require the plan participant to undergo the underwriting process to acquire coverage. Group life insurance plans have guaranteed issue provisions up to a certain amount of coverage. If a participant wants any more death benefit coverage above the guaranteed issue amount, they will be required to go through underwriting to get it. Even then, there may be a limit to how much death benefit protection one can buy through a group plan.

Group life insurance is priced as one-year term life insurance. This means each year you continue coverage; your rate will increase as you get older. It also means you will be paying the lowest amount possible for coverage since the premiums you are paying are going straight for coverage right now and not to offset the cost of insurance in later years of life. Even 10-year term life insurance does for the first 5-years of the policy.

The problem with group life insurance is that this coverage is not portable, meaning if you leave the group, you won't be able to continue your term life coverage. The provisions of the master policy state that a plan participant must be offered continual coverage if they leave the group; however, that coverage is usually offered in the form of a permanent life policy which, as I stated earlier, can be 40x more expensive that the group term rates.

The premiums needed to buy group term life insurance depend on the health of the entire group and not just one individual. This can help those with some health issues get coverage, while it may cause those in excellent health to pay more per thousand dollars of coverage than they can buy from a life insurance company directly.

10-year term life insurance

10-year term life insurance is a policy purchased by an individual directly from an insurance company. When someone buys a 10-year term life insurance policy, they own that policy, and coverage will continue for the length of the term as long as the required premiums are paid.

The premiums are based on the health of the insured, their age, sex, and tobacco usage (if any). Some life insurance companies even look at the insured's family history of cancer or heart problems as they consider the risk they would accept when they issue a new life insurance policy.

Since 10-year term life is owned by the individual directly and not by a third party like a group policy is, a 10-year term is 100% portable. Therefore, if a person changes jobs, moves, or experiences other life events, their coverage will continue as long as the required premiums are paid.

One thing to understand with any individual life insurance policy life a 10-year term is there is a 2-year period where the insurance company can challenge a claim. For example, if an insured commits suicide 18 months after taking out a new term policy, the insurance company will deny the claim. After 2-years, all individually owned life insurance is 'non-contestable," meaning the life insurance company will pay claims no matter the circumstances unless there was fraud in obtaining the policy. This includes impersonation or intent to kill an insured to receive the benefit.

Commissions for 10-year term life insurance are lower than those of policies with long-term periods. This means more of your money is going towards your protection and not to the profits of the insurance company or the agent selling you the policy. I am not saying the company shouldn't make money. The last thing you want is to buy a million-dollar-plus life insurance policy from a broke company! No, you want to know they have enough money to pay claims. You also don't want your life insurance agent working for free. They do deserve to make enough to make a living and help you with your purchase though. By buying a 10-year term, you are compensating them the bare minimum, which is OK. A good agent isn't in it for just the money. They are in it to be sure their clients have the coverage they need without going broke getting it.

If you want, head to Decision Tree Financial and see how much term life insurance will cost you. You can click here and run as many term life quotes as you would like. When you are ready to buy a policy, we are here to help you too.

Examples of opportunity costs in personal finance

What is "opportunity cost?

 Opportunity costs represent the potential benefits an individual, investor or business misses out on when choosing one alternative over another. They are typically unseen and are often overlooked because they aren’t a cost that you will see, but opportunity costs exist.

Examples of opportunity costs are:

-        -Taking a Two-Week Vacation to Las Vegas to Gamble instead of investing…

-        - Investing money instead of using it to buy insurance…

-       -  Buying insurance with your money instead of saving it and having it available for emergencies or to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

For example, if you had $10k sitting around and decided to blow it all on that 1-week Vegas vacation – it would probably be gone (of course, when you go, you will convince yourself you "will turn it into $10 Million.)

If the week after you get back (broke probably), and you happened to stumble upon a deal where you needed that $10,000 you just blew to buy something you know you could turn around and sell for $50,000 – you wouldn’t have the money available to do it anymore…

That $40,000 you couldn’t earn because you didn’t have the money available was the opportunity cost of your vacation.

Opportunity Costs Impact on Personal Finance and Investing

When making a choice on using money to either build or protect wealth, you will usually be exposed to opportunity costs as well.

For example, investing in one stock takes away the money you have available to invest in another stock.

Opportunity cost has to do with the fact that we all have limited resources, and the choices we make to do one thing with our money take away from our ability to do other things with it.

Now, let’s talk about INSURANCE…

If you hand over money by paying a premium to an insurance company but never have a claim, you may feel like you wasted all that money.

You should be happy you didn’t have any problems, but that isn’t how people think.

You will likely start imagining what you could have used that money for and how much more you would have if you didn’t “waste your money” on that insurance.

When I am faced with a decision like this, my right-brained analytic self will start to think, “what is the probability that something will happen?”  Those probabilities are likely low, and I think about how much extra money I might have if I don’t buy it.

Do you do this too? If so, I get it, LOL! It is natural. More on that in a minute…

Handing money over to an insurance company drives people nuts. They know insurance companies make a lot of money and the only way they can do that is by NOT paying out too much in claims.

Buying insurance is like making a bet on some event you hope, and don’t think, could ever happen to you…

HOWEVER – If you ever decided to forgo insurance AND the peril that the policy would have covered does happen…

…I am 100% sure that you will wish that you had purchased the coverage.

In fact, the opportunity cost of not having the right coverage could mean YOU END UP LOSING EVERYTHING, and that is too great a risk to leave you, your family, and, if you are a business owner, your business exposed to.

Where to get the best life insurance quotes online instantly

Comparison websites are the best way to get the best life insurance quotes online

One effective way to obtain the best life insurance quotes online without sacrificing your privacy is to use a comparison tool specifically designed for life insurance quotes. These tools allow you to receive quotes from multiple companies simultaneously, without the need to input your personal details on each individual site. This approach not only saves you time but also simplifies the process of comparing prices.

Additionally, you can consider enlisting the services of a life insurance broker. A broker can take on the task of gathering quotes from various companies on your behalf. This means you can review a range of prices and policies to find the one that best suits your needs, without the hassle of navigating multiple websites and forms.

By using these strategies, you can efficiently find the best life insurance quotes online, ensuring you get the coverage you need without unnecessary inconvenience.

Enter basic information once and receive life insurance quotes from a variety of providers

When looking for the best life insurance quotes online, you'll want to find a website asking a few simple questions. 

First, they'll need to know which state you live in. This is because life insurance rates can vary significantly from one state to another. 

Next, they'll need to know how much life insurance death benefit you're looking to purchase. The amount of coverage you need will depend on factors like your age, health, and financial obligations. 

Finally, they'll need to know what type of policy you're interested in. Different types of life insurance policies available, including 10-year term, 20-year term, and ROP term insurance policies, are all the types of policies you could get the best insurance quotes online.

By answering these simple questions, you can get the best life insurance quotes online tailored to your specific needs.

Compare rates and benefits to find the right policy for you

After you enter your basic information, like your age, gender, smoker status, and the amount of coverage you're looking for. you can hit the "get quotes" button and see life insurance quotes from 35+ different highly rated companies in the state you live in. You will find which company has the cheapest rates for what you are looking for.

If you want to change something, like the amount of life insurance coverage or the type of policy, you can easily do that by simply changing the variable and re-submitting the form. That's all there is to it! By following these simple steps, you can be sure you're getting the best life insurance quotes available.

Purchase your policy and receive life insurance coverage

When shopping for life insurance, it's important to get the best quotes. There are only a few websites that will give you quotes from different life insurance companies without having to enter your phone number or email address before you enter your personal information when you are ready to purchase your policy and receive coverage; there are a few things you should know.

First, when you get a quote, you may not be getting the rate YOU WILL RECEIVE from the life insurance company. The quote is an actual quote, but it is based on the information you've provided. To get an actual rate, you'll need to apply for coverage and be underwritten.

Second, when you get a quote online, you're usually not talking to an experienced agent who can help guide you through the process. There are a lot of variables between life insurance policies, and an experienced agent can help you navigate those options.

Finally, be aware that some life insurance policies have additional benefits like critical illness insurance or disability income benefits. These additional benefits may or may not increase the cost of life insurance coverage. So if you're considering adding any of these benefits to your policy, talk to an experienced agent to understand what each life insurance policy offers.

Bottom line: Shopping for life insurance online is a great way to get started, but be sure to understand the limitations of online quotes when entering your personal information. And if you have questions about the different options available, talking to an experienced agent can be very helpful.

Get a free quote today and see how much life insurance coverage could cost you!

Life insurance is one of the most important types of insurance coverage everybody should have, but it can be tough to know how to get the best rates. 

I'm happy to tell you that my company, Decision Tree Financial, has a free life insurance quote tool that can help. You can get the best life insurance quotes online instantly without having to give your name, email or phone number. And you can get as many quotes as you'd like to compare costs. Life insurance is important coverage nobody should go without, especially when somebody depends on the income they generate.

I encourage you to check out our quote tool today. It could make all the difference in protecting your loved ones financially. You can go there right now by visiting: 

https://decisiontree.financial/instant-life-insurance-quotes-online/