The goal of life insurance is to provide a measure of financial security to your loved ones should you die. In its simplest form, it’s a tool to protect against the loss of income.
Before purchasing a life insurance policy, you’ll want to carefully consider your financial situation and the standard of living you want to maintain for your surviving loved ones.
Buying term life insurance has never been easier because now you can get coverage from the comfort of your own home. Getting quotes and applying can be done from anywhere at any time.
In This Article
Who needs life insurance?
How much life insurance do I need?
What company do I apply to?
How do I get life insurance online?
Who needs life insurance?
Not everyone needs life insurance and maybe you are trying to decide if you should purchase or not. To help you determine if you need it, let’s run through a few scenarios.
Are there people in your life that would be negatively impacted financially if you died? This could be a significant other, children, or family members who depend on your income to live.
If you are young and single with no children or independently wealthy, you probably don’t need term life insurance.
Are you a stay-at-home parent? Stay-at-home parents do the job of multiple people combined. If you were to suddenly die, your spouse would quickly be in over their head trying to make up for everything you did at home. Having life insurance can afford the surviving spouse to take time off work to get everything situated and help pay for services the stay-at-home parent provided.
» Learn more: Life Insurance for a Stay-at-Home Parent
Are you a small-business owner? If you died, would the business crumble? A life insurance policy can work to fund a buy-sell agreement. This is a contract among the owners to buy a deceased owner’s share of the business at an agreed upon price in the event of death, disability, or retirement. With this agreement, your partners won’t be scrambling to figure out a way to keep the business afloat and your beneficiaries will still be compensated as well.
» Learn more: The Best Term Life Insurance for Business Owners
Do you have any debt? Did you co-sign a loan with anyone? Do you have any shared credit card accounts? If you answered yes to any of these and don’t want to saddle your loved ones with your remaining balance, then life insurance could help you.
Example: If your parents helped you through college by co-signing your student loans, then anything you didn’t pay off goes to them if you died. Benefits from a life insurance policy would go toward your debt, paying it off so your mom doesn’t have to.
» Learn more: How to Use Life Insurance to Cover Your Debt
Are you young and healthy? Your age and health play a large role in determining policy premiums. Essentially, the younger you are, the cheaper it is so you may consider getting life insurance sooner rather than later.
Example: If you are a newlywed 29-year-old and plan on starting a family soon now may be the perfect time to get life insurance. It would cost less than one dollar a day and it would ensure your spouse and future children are protected.
Example: Maybe your heart belongs to the charity you volunteer at every weekend. Purchasing life insurance now can help you leave a legacy in an inexpensive way.
How much and for how long?
The rule of thumb is that you should have enough life insurance to cover 10 times your annual income, but this is an estimate and is not right for everyone.
Example: A single, childless man with an annual income of $75,000 does not need the same amount of coverage as a married father of three with the same income.
If you have loved ones who depend on your income you’ll want to get enough coverage to allow them to live their lives as planned despite your death, you also want enough to cover your final expenses (funeral/burial) and cover your debt.
Determining the term length can seem like guesswork, but it’s easy to narrow down.
If you’re getting term insurance to make sure your loved ones are protected from your debt then get enough to cover the amount of years it will take to pay off the debt.
Example: If you have a mortgage but believe it will be paid off in 10 years then a 30-year term policy would be unnecessary.
Example: If you are getting term insurance to ensure your four-year-old child can go to college, set the term length for 20 years so their education would still be covered if something happened to you.
If you’re getting term life insurance to make sure your family will have a source of income replacement should you die before your children are independent adults, then get enough to cover the amount of years until your youngest is an adult.
Example: You have a 16-year-old, 10-year-old, and 4-year old child. Get a term life insurance policy with a 25-year term so your family has financial protection until all children are through college and have jobs.
» Learn more: How Long Should Term Life Insurance Last?
See what you’d pay for life insurance
Which life insurance company do I apply to?
The right life insurance company will depend on your risk factors. For example, if you take a prescription to treat anxiety, you may pay $50 per month at one company but only $35 per month at a different one.
To get the best price on life insurance, you need to comparison shop. However, applying over and over at different companies is time-consuming and unnecessary because Quotacy will do it for you.
Quotacy is a life insurance broker. This means we have contracts with many different life insurance companies and can shop your case to find which company will offer you the best price.
All the life insurance companies we work with are A-rated or better so it doesn’t matter too much which one you end up going with. They are all financially-stable and have excellent financial products.
When you go through Quotacy’s quoting tool, you’ll be shown many different options to choose from. If you’re unsure which to go with, we recommend that you choose the least expensive one. Your agent will double-check behind the scenes that you’re paired with the company that will give you the best offer.
How do I get life insurance?
Here at Quotacy we make the process of getting life insurance as easy as possible.
We don’t want you to have to give up your first born and a phone number just to get a term life insurance quote and we don’t want you to worry that your personal information will be sold to third parties.
Simply enter your zip code, gender, birthdate, and smoking status and we’ll instantly show you an estimate for how much your term insurance policy would cost.
» Compare: Term life insurance quotes
After getting your quote you can play around with our slider features. You can adjust your coverage amount, this is how much your beneficiaries would receive, and also how long you want coverage for. As you adjust these sliders your estimated cost is adjusted right along with you so you know exactly what you’re paying for (no hidden fees here!)
Once you are happy with the amount and length of coverage, continue on in the quoting tool to customize your quote further.
Answer a few more questions such as height, weight, and family health history and then see a list of insurance carrier choices and plan options. We only work with the top rated carriers so you don’t need to worry about poor business practices when it comes to your finances.
Once you select the insurance carrier you’d like to apply with, and complete your online application, your dedicated team of agents and application coordinators at Quotacy will take it from there. We make sure you get the best coverage at the price you deserve and we’ll keep you informed every step of the way in whichever method of communication you prefer whether that be phone calls, texts, or e-mails.
» Learn more: 10 Tips to Ensure You Get the Best Term Life Insurance
No one ever anticipates needing to use life insurance, but the unexpected happens. Be prepared and get a free and anonymous term life insurance quote today.
About the writer
Natasha Cornelius, CLU
Senior Editor and Licensed Life Insurance Expert
Natasha Cornelius, CLU, is a writer, editor, and life insurance researcher for Quotacy.com where her goal is to make life insurance more transparent and easier to understand. She has been in the life insurance industry since 2010 and has been writing about life insurance since 2014. Natasha earned her Chartered Life Underwriter designation in 2022. She is also co-host of Quotacy’s YouTube series. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
I am a single mom with a 9 yo daughter Resha. As I am planning to buy a term life insurance policy for her, I needed to know some details, especially the how much question. I used to think it could be any random amount in big size. But I see I was wrong. Thanks, Natasha.
Regards
Cherryl
Hi Cherryl,
Good for you for looking into buying life insurance to protect Resha’s financial future. How much life insurance you can buy will depend on your needs and income. Have you tried playing around with our needs analysis calculator? It’s an easy way to narrow down how much life insurance coverage you need. Try it out here: Life Insurance Needs Calculator. Please feel free to contact us directly if you have more questions.
Question. I was married to my husband 1994-2011 when he was murdered in our home town. I was a stay at home mom. I worked very little and no hs diploma. I did not know that my husband had life ins till after he died and I was told by his work and best friend that the life ins was not mine because my husband left it all (2 checks of 65,000.00) to our older daughter 19 at the time. She took that check and moved herself/our 7 month old grandson out of our home. My husband and I never talked about life ins. Our son 14 at the time got nothing. I received my husbands 401k in the amount of 80 sum thousand and I paid off our house and down payment on reliable car. He was the breadwinner and I was the stay at home parent with no income. I know I never signed my rights away. Family, his work and friends paid for funeral expenses. His best friend and his wife did not like me before and after my husband death. His best friend had a lot of say , respect and knew who to talk to about my husbands life ins. I asked if j could go with my daughter to sign papers at my husband work and I was NOT allowed. I have no income now do to long term mental issues , fibromyalgia , two fail back surgeries and much more. I live alone. My son is 19 now with no hs diploma he dropped out do to the murder of his dad and my daughter owns a big beautiful house and doesn’t talk to me. When I told her that I think fail play happened here or someone forged my name on the life ins papers she ran to my husband place of work in a hurry. To this day they won’t let me see the signature where I signed my right away as a wife over to our daughter. No one will talk to me. His place of work will not talk to me. His best friend that still works there will not talk to me. It’s been four yrs since my husband was murdered. He was my hs sweet heart we were soul mates. I would never guess my husband would not want me his wife to have his life ins knowing I did not have an income. I know in my heart that his best friend and place of work talked my daughter into forging my name so that she can get all of his life ins. My husband and our daughter never got alone. You can ask all family member and city and her friends and our son. She hated him since she was old enough to know what the word hate meant. He wasn’t even allowed to see our first grandson but three times in 7 months. I know my husband would not leave her all of our money. I had to sell thing ours to pay bills. We even paid her braces off at 18. Plz can h help me. I trying asking lawyers and no one will help me. The life ins company will not show me where I signed a waiver with them or his job. I didn’t not know he had life ins till after he died. It’s been 4 yr 8 months. I know they robbed me of my husband life ins. I live in Washington. Common law state. I now live on walfare something we never lived on when my husband was alive. I get free ins and only 197$ cash and food stamps. I’m so ashamed but I can not work. I’m applying for disability but that has taken over a year now. I can’t not get widows benefits till 67. I’m only 43. I know my husband would not leave me this way. Then I tried going after the man that took my husband from me he was only 36 🙁 at the time for wrongful death in 2014. No one told me I had three yrs to do so. I’m not a lawyer or know the law. If I knew I had only three yrs I would of got him for wrongful death. The man that killed my husband is a native and get monthly native checks even while in prison. How is that fair that I’m living on less then the monster who took my husband s life. My husband and I were not perfect but I know he wouldn’t want me living on welfare or without his money he meant to leave to me to carry on paying bills and support both of our children at the time. Something happened I know it. That monster gets more income the the wife of the man he murdered over a stupid bar fight. Can u help me or am I really out of luck and I really did get robbed of my life savings and my husbands money n
Reina,
We just realized that we didn’t post this response back in December.
Thank you for sharing your story. You have been through a lot of painful experiences over the past 5 years or so. My heart and prayers go out to you and your family.
From what I can tell, your husband had a life insurance policy from work that had an accidental death clause on it which doubled the death benefit of $65k, and he named your daughter as a beneficiary on that policy. When someone chooses a beneficiary (which can be changed at any time), this choice is recorded at the insurance company. To name a beneficiary requires the name of the individual and the social security number of them as well.
I understand you feel that his work and best friend forged his signature for a beneficiary change after his death. I don’t know of an insurance company that would accept a beneficiary change after someone has already died as it is the applicant’s (your husband’s) right to name a beneficiary and no one else’s right. Also, I have never heard of any lawsuit that has ever overturned a beneficiary designation after the death of an insured who was in a healthy frame of mind at the time of designation. So my best guess is that your husband did put your daughter down as the beneficiary of his life insurance proceeds prior to his murder.
For the life insurance policy, you would not have had to sign anything for your husband to name someone else as the beneficiary. A life insurance applicant has the right to name whomever they want as the beneficiary and no one else ever even needs to know their decision. The only caveat to this is that at the time of policy inception, there must be something called an insurable interest, but a daughter would be fine for an employer sponsored life insurance plan. Even though you were husband and wife, there wouldn’t have been any signature for you to sign away any rights if he chose to name your daughter as his beneficiary.
Since Washington state is a community property state, both of you own equally all the income you earned during your marriage and any property purchased with that income including the life insurance policy. Most likely his work policy was a term insurance policy and if that’s the case then the entire policy is community property. This does give you a right to 50% of the proceeds with the other 50% going to your daughter. I am not an attorney. It makes sense to get counsel around this as I am speaking from the experience of being an insurance advisor, not as an attorney who knows the specific common law clauses in Washington including the details of the law. I am surprised that attorneys have been unwilling to help you with this ordeal.
I would contact Office of the Insurance commissioner at http://www.insurance.wa.gov/. Their phone number to speak with an insurance expert is 800-562-6900. Someone there should be able to help you find a local attorney who may take your case.
I wish you the best and pray that time will heal these wounds.