The rib and I had a good experience with USAA for term life. If you or anyone in you family served, give them a call.

Stive said:

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Be healthy is your first move. Tobacco is the killer on life insurance prices (especially cigarettes). In most cases, if you've had one cigarette in the last 3 years your rate is going up. Most companies will allow the occasional cigar or chew but one cig will put you into full blown smoker status.

Paying annually will usually get you a slightly cheaper option than semi-annually. Semi-annually will usually get you a slightly cheaper rate than quarterly or monthly. (This doesn't hold true with all companies, but does with many)

If you go with a shorter window of coverage (10 year as opposed to 20 year, or 20 compared to 30) you'll pay less. You'll end up paying more down the line because you will re-up your coverage in the future at an older age and probably slightly less healthy, but that will make it cheaper in the short run. There are also other term structures that could save you money on the front end, but to keep from muddying the waters I'll leave those out of this discussion.

Leave all bells and whistles off. No waiver of premium, no accidental death riders, inflation riders, etc.

You can't really buy a product that doesn't get someone paid. All insurance policies have a commission built into their pricing model. You may not know who gets the commission, but someone is going to get it. So with that in mind, you won't be able to ask for that to be taken out of your pricing. There are financial advisors that will look at a slate of options for you and recommend the one they think fits the best but in this case, you're paying someone for their opinion, and that time is going to cost you.....possibly as much as the term insurance will.....and the wholesaler or agent that sent the quotes to the advisor for his expert examination, is still going to get paid. That option can be helpful for someone with a complex insurance situation or need....but people buying term insurance don't typically fit into the "complex insurance situation".


Those are the primary factors and short cuts. Let me know if that makes sense, or if you have any other questions.

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Strive,

Going to have to disagree with you on a couple of statements. Like you I'm in the business, but for the most part, never really post here because everyone here seems to have the do it yourself attitude. I also purchase my policies from other agents.. In my opinion it's foolish to be your own agent.

Forget all the riders blanket statement. It's foolish to take that position. If you were looking across the desk from someone that you sold a policy to and they were heaven forbid disabled, you'd feel terrible that you didn't offer the coverage. You might even have an e&o claim.
It's true that 90+% of all term insurance expires without being paid out, it's something everyone who loves someone or something needs.

As far as everyone who worries how much commission the agent who sells you the policy makes, think about this. Are they a professional? Will they battle to get you the best rating possible? Do they know which companies offer the best rates if you dip, smoke cigars, use marijuana have diabetes or you just another person on their website? If you've never had to bring a widow a life insurance check and hear her ask you is that all there is? It's a question you will ever forget.

To the engineers, cpa, attorney's in the thread do you have everyone worry about what you make? It's said Price is only an issue in the absence of value,
I'll say this. If I sell a client an insurance policy it's after we do a complete analysis. As an agent we earn a fair price, but I assure you long after I've spent whatever commission I earn, my client still has the benefits of the policy. I'll close with this....I'm grateful the agent who sold me my wife's policy put the disability rider on her policy. She had to retire early and now I'm sure that we won't have to lapse the policy when the term expires, it will be able to remain in force.

Maybe you missed it. The OP asked for tips on paying the cheapest rate. He didn't ask what he should do, or what should be considered.....he said cheapest.

My comments answered that question. My response was not a recommendation, nor was it made after considering the facts of the OP's personal situation (none had been given).

Hopefully I'm not too late here, but personally, I don't like term life. It's very situational. I'm sure it's been explained somewhere in the thread, but buying term life is like renting a house, whereas whole life is like buying. If OP is willing to give a few more details about his personal situation (family, tobacco use, etc.), it would be easier to answer the question.

IMO, go with term life with Northwestern Mutual if you can, then switch it to whole life ASAP so it will start giving you dividends and cash value. This is an area where I strongly disagree with Dave Ramsey.

Most of the financial world I believe agrees with Dave Ramsey on this one.

That's a very bold, broad claim to make. The people I've been around don't.

It's not that bold of a statement...

Read what I said again. Most of the people around me don't agree.

We all have our own little bubbles.

DadAG10 said:

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We all have our own little bubbles.

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That's my point. It's shortsighted to day "a majority of people think ______".

The majority of people I talk to have said, use whole life as the last stop after you have your whole financial life in order and there's money left. I appreciate the discussion.

I understand the hesitant sentiment towards whole life, at least with a stock company. I would highly recommend looking into whole life policies with mutual firm because of the dividends you'll be paid each year. Northwestern Mutual is the leader in that, but there are other great mutual companies as well.

Everybody has their bubbles and experiences and somebody is always trying to sell you something too.

Someone got a job with Northwestern Mutual at Career Night....

Old Buffalo said:

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Someone got a job with Northwestern Mutual at Career Night....

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I actually don't work for them, but I've seen their stuff and I like it.