Monday, March 02, 2009

Life Insurance. . .

As of late, I've been getting lots of questions about life insurance. First things first. It's really death insurance. An insurance company is paying your loved ones upon your death not your life. I guess its a better marking tool to call it life insurance.

Anyway, the best rule of thumb is to purchase a 20 or 30 year level term life insurance policy and stay away from "permanent" (whole life or universal life) life insurance. The somewhat short answer is this. You should have 8 to 10 times your annual income in life insurance up until your kids are grown and your house is paid for. At that time, you can lower or in most cases, eliminate your life insurance.

The biggest problem I have with permanent life insurance is most people with kids and a mortgage can't afford the premiums to get the 8 to 10 times their earnings in coverage. (There are other reasons to stay away but that should be enough incentive.)

So, where are some good places to shop / search for term life insurance?

  1. Zander as recommended by Dave Ramsey
  2. Insure.com
  3. Select Quote
  4. Matrix Direct
So, take your pick and get a free quote.

2 comments:

bob said...

After quite a bit of discussion on my blog, I decided to get some insurance and I went with Zander... I just finished my exam and am waiting for the next steps... we shall see how it goes...

The Life Insurer said...

Todd, I like your comment about death insurance vs. life insurance. However, life insurance is insuring a life, just as car insurance is insuring a car and homeowner's insurance is insuring the home. You don't call them careless or homeless insurance.