Term Life Insurance

With everyone from consumer advocates and political pundits alike shouting lately about the rising and high costs of medical insurance and healthcare, you may not have been able to hear over the din that prices on term life insurance policies have not only stayed low, but have actually dropped in some circumstances. In fact industry experts acknowledge that term life insurance rates have actually dropped almost 40% in the last 10 years. Imagine that a health insurance product whose rates have actually come down!

Financial planners say this is great news for consumers who are finding rising costs in just about every other aspect of their lives, especially insurance. Health insurance, homeowners insurance, of course medical insurance all have risen dramatically in the last decade, it is exceedingly rare to pay less for the same thing today than you did years ago. As one agent put it “it doesn’t get much better than that." One of the reasons for the reduction of rates is that people are actually living longer, and that means insurance companies are going for longer intervals without having to pay out on a death benefit, and therefore they can lower prices. Another reason is competition. In the maze of often confusing insurance products, term life insurance is something consumers are quick to understand, and comfortable shopping for the best price, so there is a very competitive marketplace for term life clients.

Bottom-line, experts say if you need life insurance now is a great time to shop for it. But the point is not everyone does need life insurance. Children for the most part do not need life insurance. If you are young with no dependents you certainly do not need life insurance at this point, financial planers say you would be better off putting the money you would spend on life insurance in a retirement plan. On the other hand if you are the single breadwinner with a dependant spouse, dependant children and have high expenses like a mortgage, which could not be paid in the event of your death, then it is financial Russian Roulette not to have life insurance. With term rates being so low right now, there is no reason to go without that additional piece of mind. Sole Proprietorships or Small Business owners are also reminded of the importance of having life insurance, because if you go so goes you business if there is no life insurance.

While in general the costs of term life insurance go up as you age, because of the lowering of rates over the last ten years a $500,000.00 policy today for non-smoking 40 year old male will actually cost less, maybe even half as much as the same policy had he purchased it 10 years ago when he was 30.