Do You Have A Competitive Life Insurance Rate?
The old saying goes that you should keep you life insurance policy once you purchase it because it costs more as you get older. This saying is only partially true for most and can cost you thousands is you follow it. Many believe that this was simply a ploy by insurance carries to help keep business on the books and prevent people from rate shopping once they had a policy.
Life insurance does become more expensive as you get older but the increase is actually very subtle during many ages with large rate jumps only coming at key age milestones. The reality is that life insurance companies are competing with each other at an unprecedented level. Increased awareness by consumers and transparency brought on by the Internet has created a need for companies to be competitive when they did not need to do so in the past. As a result, life premiums have dropped by almost 40% over the last 10 years.
The other factor is that most people buy a policy based off the companies name or because someone they know is in the business. There are close to 1,000 companies that offer life insurance (B rated or better) and the premiums they charge for similar policies vary tremedously. The odds are that most people bought a policy from a company that offered average rates at best when there was probably a company offering the same plan at 25% to 40% less in premium.
Another big mistake is purchasing a policy from one of the big name companies and assuming the price is competitive. The odds are that it is not. Some of the oldest and well known companies simply sell by name recognition. They do not need to be competitive with pricing because they can count on selling plans simply from their name.
Anyone who has purchased term, Whole Life, Universal Life or a Variable Life Policy in the last 15 years would be wise to shop the rate to see what the same type of plans cost with other companies. 8 out of 10 people who purchased a life policy in the last 15 years could be paying less for the exact same type of plan if they simply looked for lower cost plans. Only 2 out of 10 will ever bother to look and it will cost them dearly.
Call a broker and ask them how many companies they represent. Ask them if they have access to Compulife which is a service that allows them to quote all of the companies doing business in your state. If they do, ask for a print out showing the 15 lowest quotes available for a person with your specifications. If they can not produce this report or are unwilling to do so, look for someone else that will provide it.