Do-It-Yourself DIY Life Insurance

Life insurance is incredibly important for families, but some people have mixed feelings about it. Here at Quotacy, you can practice do-it-yourself life insurance so you feel confident you’re buying the right product for you and your family.

Choose Your Type of Life Insurance

Term life insurance is the best option for most individuals and it’s the most affordable. It’s designed to last a specific amount of time (the term length) typically anywhere between 10 to 40 years depending on your age.

Permanent life insurance comes in many different kinds but overall is designed to last your entire lifetime and accumulate cash value. It’s also much more expensive because of these features.

Read for yourself the differences and benefits of each here: Term versus Whole Life Insurance

You don’t need to be sold a product you may or may not need. You can decide for yourself, but if you have any questions, a Quotacy agent is more than happy to discuss which type of life insurance policy is best for you based on your specific needs.

Quotacy agents are paid on salary, not commission. If you don’t need an expensive product, they aren’t going to try and sell you an expensive product. If your circumstances would benefit from a permanent product, they can explain your options.

Choose Your Coverage Amount

The amount of life insurance you need varies based on your income and other assets, your family, your mortgage and debt, your funeral wishes, etc. Whether you buy term or permanent life insurance, face amounts range from $50,000 to millions of dollars. The more coverage you choose, the higher the premium amount.

Everyone has an insurability limit. This is the total amount an individual can be insured for at one time. This limit is determined based on your current income, assets, and earning potential. For example, someone who makes $40,000 per year, doesn’t own a home or have any children, won’t have enough financial justification to buy a $5,000,000 life insurance policy. The life insurance companies don’t want someone worth more dead than alive, as grim as that sounds. But it makes sense.

Not sure how much life insurance coverage you need for your family? Use our life insurance calculator here: Life Insurance Calculator

Sometimes one policy won’t meet your needs in the most effective (or affordable) way. Laddering policies with different coverage amounts or term lengths can be the best way to make sure all your financial responsibilities are covered.

Learn more about laddering life insurance policies here: Purchasing Multiple Life Insurance Policies

Choose Your Term Length

Step One: Do you need lifelong coverage (a permanent plan) or just need income replacement for your family for a specific period of time (a term plan)?

If you determine term life insurance is best for your family (it often is), the next step is to choose how long you want to be insured for. Depending on your age, you can choose a term length between 10 and 40 years.

When you choose a term, your premiums are fixed this entire period. Meaning as you age or even if you are diagnosed with a serious medical condition, your premiums won’t increase the entirety of the term.

Here are some examples of instances where different terms may make sense:

10-Year Term

• If you’re providing for your children during their college years and you want to protect them from having to take on student loan debt if you pass away.
• If you are a few years from retirement and you want to provide security for your partner’s retirement years.

20-Year Term

• If you are a young family and you wish to safeguard your children’s financial future until they become independent.
• If you want to protect your family’s estate from long-term business debt that you personally guaranteed.

30-Year Term

• If you don’t yet have children but plan to.
• If you have a relatively new mortgage and want it to be able to be paid off if you pass away.

40-Year Term

• If you’re young and want coverage to last until you’re in your retirement years.
• If you’ve been thinking about permanent life insurance but it’s out of your budget.
• If you have debt that may take a while to pay off and don’t want to leave any behind to your family.

Play around with our term life insurance quoting tool to see how adjusting the term length and coverage amount affects the estimated price. When you find an amount and length of coverage that fits in your budget, you can apply online in just a few short minutes.

DIY online life insurance is very convenient for these modern, busy times. But having an agent on your side is a great benefit. Quotacy is a life insurance broker which means we’re independent from any one particular insurance company. Our duty is to you, the customer. We’re here to help you find the best policy for your unique situation.

Applying for the life insurance policy may have an easy DIY option, but finding the best price needs an experienced agent—especially if you have any health issues. Your dedicated Quotacy agent will shop your case across all the insurance companies we’re contracted with to make sure you get the best price possible.

It would take a very long time to comparison shop yourself; needing to contact agent after agent after agent for quotes. Here at Quotacy, we do that for you behind the scenes.

We understand when do-it-yourself is convenient and we also understand when it’s not.

So, whether you want to do your own life insurance research and apply online single-handledly or contact us for advice, we’re happy to help you in whatever way works best for you.