Life Insurance

1. BUY Term with conversion privilege (depends on company). Term is essential for protecting your family. Whole is good, but depends on what you want it to do. Do you want a death benefit or do you want to accumulate cash? I only suggest WL if you plan on really funding it! There are multiple variations of Whole life. I personally have one for Cash accumulation. If its cash acc, look at New York Life, Mass Mutual, Northwestern. Companies with great dividends.

2. How many years do you want to replace your income? I took 70% of my gross income and multiplied it by X amount of years I wanted to replace.

3. Most companies will require a Blood/urine sample

4. New York Life, Mass Mutual, Northwestern, State Farm, there's around 800 life companies. I personally stick with the big dogs. Most companies will be within a few $$ of each other.

at the down vote

I bought a Northwestern Mutual policy for $500k for me and my wife. I bought the term 75 so it stays in place with increasing premium until I am 75 and has whole life conversion opportunities. To me it would pay off my rental and pay off our house so in my mind that saves us $2,000 a month forever.

If you smoke or have a health issue, it's going to cost you a lot more. Smoking almost doubles it I believe.

Remember that life insurance is simply insurance, it's meant to cover what you can't afford yourself. Insurance companies love to add emotions, 'investments', etc. into it so they can make more money off of you.

But you simply need to buy enough 'insurance' to cover your family for the period of time they would need it. So if you have a stable retirement plan with an established time line to get out of debt, there's no reason to keep insurance once you have the wealth accumulated for your family to survive without your income.

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If you smoke

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The occasional cigar once a week?

Alcohol?

Anything I should cut out before shopping around for policies? Should I try and get in better shape?

Oh I was definitely table-rated for a prior health issue but those prices reflect being rated at each company. My personal opinion is that going with a "big name" in the age of easy internet shopping is like going with State Farm for car insurance and never shopping around. Though your two rates look great.

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GaryMyMan

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Any websites or databases that you'd recommend to shop around?

I do not think they checked for alcohol use, just wanted to make sure it wasn't in my system. They did ask the standard questions, do you drink, how often, how many per week...

I wouldn't go crazy, but if you have bad cholesterol or blood pressure issues, I would try to diet/exercise as best you an between now and whenever you sign up. Also, try to avoid high sugary foods/drinks a few days before; especially the day you do your blood work. The reality is, unless you push it off for several months, you most likely won't be able to make drastic changes without medication (which will show up in blood screen).

Most of the reputable companies send a nurse to your house/job that will take a urine/blood sample, have you get on a scale and check your height. Then you have a series of questions to go through.

Term life, get enough to replace your income, or at least provide an amount for your wife (kids?) to take care of them for an extended period of time. 10X your annual salary is a nice ball park figure. If you are still young and in good health you can get a 10-15 year term life policy very cheap. Whole life costs much more, and does provide more - but if you invest the difference in premiums you will come out ahead with term, especially at a young age. I did have to take a minor physical, blood test I know when I bought term. I will reluctantly tell you about Select Quote (LINK ) You provide some basic information about yourself and multiple companies provide estimates on what they can give and how much. I say reluctantly, because your phone number could be obtained by dozens of lists and you start receiving robocalls, which I find very annoying. This may or may not happen with Select Quote, so I wanted to give you that heads up. You might also contact your agent who covers your home/auto insurance, you might get a discount if multiple policies, including term life, are bundled together. Your agent will try to talk you into whole life over term life, they get a much better commission on those.

One other note -- I highly recommend sitting down with your wife and making a detailed plan of what she needs to do with the money, should you pass away unexpectedly. Losing a loved one is very traumatic, especially a spouse, and no one should have to make major financial decisions during a period of extreme stress. It can be as simple as putting the money in a basic savings account, and transferring X amount of $ each month to pay all the bills, with a list of each bill and the date it is due. In time she can make bigger decisions about where to invest the money for a better return.

You didn't mention your age but I am guessing you are in your 20's? I commend you for being proactive and thinking about this early, a lot of people don't do that.

Here's your schooling. Depending on your age you can buy approximately 25 times your annual gross income in coverage. Buy as much permanent coverage as you can and term insurance to cover the difference. Leverage your death benefit and spend your tax free dividends in retirement. That's all I'm telling you.