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Life Insurance

Consult our expert research, company reviews and round-ups to ensure you make an educated decision when it comes to finding the right life insurance for your needs.

Comprehensive Reviews for Life Insurance

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Using primary research methods like surveys and focus groups, our process is centered on understanding customer concerns around shopping for life insurance.

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We conduct extensive analysis before writing each article, poring through provider websites, requesting quotes, reading third-party reviews, consulting industry experts and more.

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Our comprehensive rating methodologies allow us to present complete information and recommend multiple reliable life insurance companies, empowering you to choose the right brand.

Life Insurance Basics

It’s important to carefully consider a life insurance policy and ensure it is a good fit before purchasing it. There’s a wide variety of plans ranging from simple to complex, and it can be costly to cancel a policy in its early years or replace it with another policy. It’s important to do your research and find the right policy for your financial needs. Here’s what to know first:

Types of Life Insurance

There are two major buckets for life insurance—term life insurance and permanent—or cash value—life insurance. Term life insurance covers the policyholder for a period of one or more years, while permanent life insurance provides lifelong coverage.

Term Life Insurance: Term life insurance covers the policyholder at a fixed premium for the duration of its term, which is usually between 10 and 30 years. When the term ends, the coverage expires. Term policies are a good fit for people who want affordable coverage for a specific financial concern, like income replacement during their working years.

Permanent Life Insurance: This is a catch-all category for a variety of policy types that offer lifelong coverage and a cash value component that acts as a tax-deferred investment opportunity for the policyholder, helping them plan for the future. Permanent life policies are much more expensive than term life, but the company invests a portion of the premium, building up cash value that the insured can access and use in various ways.

Common types of permanent life insurance include whole, variable and universal life insurance. The policy structure, including premiums and cash value investment options, differ for each type.

No-Exam Life Insurance: No-exam life insurance allows you to skip the medical exam, which can benefit people in poor health who are worried about the rates they would receive for a term or permanent life policy that requires an exam. These plans are typically more expensive and coverage amounts can be limited.

Types of no-exam life insurance include guaranteed issue, simplified issue, instant approval term, and group life insurance.

Life Insurance Riders

It’s important to note that you can purchase add-ons to a life insurance policy to fit your unique financial goals better. These additional coverage options are known as riders. Life insurance riders fall into one of five main categories and augment your policy in various ways, such as providing more coverage, expanding access to your death benefit, and more.

Some riders may be automatically included in a life insurance policy, while others may come with a bump in premium depending on your health, location, carrier and other factors.

What To Consider Before Purchasing a Plan

Life insurance needs are very personal, often hinging on your income, health status, and who might suffer financially upon your death. Because of this and the plethora of policy styles available, the best life insurance policy looks different for each individual.

Consider these factors before choosing a policy:

  • Policy type/length: A term policy is ideal for covering a specific financial obligation or period of time. Permanent policies appeal to those looking for lifelong coverage and often include a cash value component that can integrate with a larger retirement savings plan.
  • Amount of coverage: Consider the percentage of your family’s income you provide, whether you’ll leave behind outstanding debt, how your family will pay for end-of-life services and other assets you have that your family could use.
  • Cost: Life insurance costs primarily depend on the insured’s health, age and sex, although providers consider a series of other factors, too. Term life premiums are also far cheaper than permanent life premiums, and the cost of similar plans can vary between insurers.
  • Customer satisfaction: Choose an insurer that other customers have had positive experiences with. Read customer reviews on aggregator sites and look at the number of complaints filed with the company and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
  • Financial strength: Life insurance providers are rated on their financial strength by agencies like AM Best. Strong financials suggest a company won’t go out of business or raise policy costs during hard times.

For a more detailed understanding of life insurance, read our life insurance guide.

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