4 Things To Look Out When Comparing Life Insurance Online

| February 12, 2013

insuranceWhen comparing life insurance, here are some key things to look out for:

1. Type of life insurance: Are you thinking of buying term life? Do you need whole life instead because you need a permanent death benefit to take care of expenses on your estate or a child that will need care even when you’re an adult? How limited or expansive is your budget? How much are you willing to drop on your policy every month/year? Can you afford the bells and whistles attached, or do you just want a no-nonsense policy to do the job for you? How long do you think you would like the coverage for? If you’re buying a whole life or permanent life policy, as it is more correctly known, can you commit to making payments every year for such large amounts without wanting to dig into the accruing cash value or

2. How reputed is your source of information? This is a really important question to ask of yourself when using quote engines or aggregator websites. A lot of times, blogs and financial writers tie up with certain life insurance providers, or they themselves sell these policies because they are also practicing life insurance agents on the side. There are also dubious quote engines that mine your information to sell to spammers and online marketers. Even worse are quote engines that are nefarious; they can steal your identity if you volunteer your social security number. You shouldn’t have to give out more information that vital statistics about yourself and your health. Even personal information like phone number or email address sometimes is unnecessary, unless it is an aggregator website that comes highly reputed. For example, AccuQuote is often referred to on forums and websites like CNNMoney and the Wall Street Journal online. With large companies like AccuQuote, you can trust that your information is in safe hands when you look up life insurance quotes online.

3. Make a list of all the things you want in a life insurance policy. You may have to do a little research on features of a life insurance policy. Some of you may like if the policy offers child and spouse riders. Others will like the option to buy a Return of Premium term policy instead. Understand what your needs are before looking for options. If you don’t know how to find out what you need, use a life insurance needs calculator to help you get started.

4. Apples to Oranges: This is the most important point of them all! I like bringing this up towards the end of the comparison exercise because buyers are closing in to what they’re looking for and narrowing down to their final choices. It’s obviously not going to make sense if you compare one kind of product with another when they’re not the same kinds. How careful do you have to be with this when you’re picking a life insurance policy? Extra careful! Policies vary in major features, like face value amounts, length of the policy and . They also vary in minor features, like the kind of company you’re buying from (mutuals versus non mutuals), riders that can be attached for minimal small amounts or even lapse policies. Life insurance companies don’t have the exact same kind of policies, but matching them up before comparison in features can help! When you use a life insurance aggregator website, it usually tends to match term life policies in face value and length of term when it throws up life insurance quotes online. If you’re looking for extra perks to pick up or in-built features that you can avail of later on (like the conversion of a term life policy to permanent life without a medical examination), you’ll have to do that in a third column of comparison on the side.

Good luck with your search, and remember that even though quote engines can make the comparison easier for you, you still require to do your homework.

Author BioPat Cassidy is an industry expert on life insurance and a regular contributor to articles on various social media platforms in the field of his expertise. Having extensive knowledge of the way life insurance companies work and the underwriting processes used to calculate term life insurance quotes, Pat writes articles to help readers better understand their life insurance options.

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Category: Life Insurance

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