r/LifeInsurance

My wife is changing jobs and the one thing the new company doesn't offer is life insurance.

I'm looking for a 10-yr $500k term life policy, simple straight forward nothing fancy.

Everything I'm seeing is like $600-$900/yr. Is this the current normal??? For comparison I got a policy for myself when I became self employed back in 2019. A 15 yr term policy for $500k, annual premium is around $320.

We are the same age, similar health, and the policies (if we go with the 10 yr) will expire around the same time.

I'm just surprised that the rates we are looking at are 2 to 3 times what I'm currently paying for myself.

looking at getting an iul policy before i turn 38 (june 15) and am hoping to get the best iul policy for me. what im looking for is a great cash value, low death benefit, and a great living benefit

1. does the ratio of pua/base determine how much of the premium goes to cash value accumulation versus death benefit?
2. How would you determine the ideal pua/base ratio?
3. What is your opinion of these ratios: 50/50, 60/40, 80/20, 90/10

Im 22 years old and today i finally got life insurance. My mom always told me to get whole life cause its the best. But its way more expensive than I realized.

I got a 55k plan for 58.55 a month. Is that too low? Or just a bad deal all around?

I don’t really make that much at the moment and this was the best affordable option for me. But my mom always made it sound like I could be paying like $30 for a 300k policy or something

My father owned life insurance policy on my brother who is a drug addict. When he passed away my mother became the owner of the policy. She had prepaid the policy for 5 years so I didn't know about the policy right away. I was the executor of my mother's estate. 5 years after her death I found out about the policy when they contacted me looking for payment to continue the policy.

At this point I had provided all the documentation and death certificates and filled out all the appropriate forms and had the policy transferred into my name and received an endorsement stating that fact.

In my mother's will she left money for my brother under my control due to him being an addict (special funds for him buthe had to ask me to access it).. I paid a couple years worth of the insurance out of that money.

When he ran out of money, I continued the policy and I'm paying it for my personal funds.

His drug damaged brain believes that I stole money from him to the tune of about $30,000. I have provided him with an accounting of everything that he received from the inheritance and everything that was spent from his inheritance, copy of the will, and all the documents from the lawyer. I believe he's desperate and wants to try to come up with money. Every time he gets desperate he starts blaming me for taking $30,000 that I didn't take. I can't make it any more plain to him than written proof that I didn't take anything. But that's a whole another story...

Now he wants a copy of the policy to review. I don't believe that I owe him a copy because he doesn't own the policy. I'm afraid if he gets a copy of the policy and the policy numbers he'll try to cancel the policy and get the cash.

So do I owe him a copy of the policy because he paid for it out of his funds for a couple years?

EDIT I failed to mention that this is not a huge policy $25k. I expect it to cover his funeral maybe some final expenses and anything remaining would be given to his 17 year old son. I don't want a penny from it.

As a small business owner, how are you affording life insurance for yourself to protect your family?

I run a consulting firm. It's just me and one part-time contractor. S corp LLC, and both of us are paid via W2.

My household is my wife and our 3 kids. We're a single income family. Emergency savings are minimal, student debt is substantial, but income is sufficient now that we're no longer on subsidized healthcare as of a few months ago.

I was quoted $8,400 annually for a $2M term life policy for myself and a $1M policy for my wife. The business cannot afford an additional $700/month payment right now. In the future, with expanded client base and additional revenue, I'm hopeful that situation improves.

But in the short term, what am I realistically supposed to do? I can't justify spending that much when cash flow is already tight. Even if I explore options through my state's programs, I'm looking at $450/month minimum just for basic term coverage. My wife and kids are currently uninsured from a life insurance perspective, but that will shift next year when we can potentially afford $400/month for family coverage when that becomes available.

Again, how are you managing this? Any others in similar circumstances?

Hello everyone. I am 35 and starting my actual career with decent income. I have a child and am the only parent in my child’s life. I am considering taking a whole life insurance out. I don’t know much about life insurances but I understand that when properly structured it can accumulate cash value. This is really what I am after. I want to make sure that my child doesn’t have to worry about my afterlife expenses but I also want to be able to accumulate funds without the worries of the market fluctuations. I’ve heard about 10/90 whole life policy and I’ve also considered IUL policy. Can I please get some insight into the best way to reach my goals? Is whole life even something I should be looking into? I would really appreciate your advice and even explanations on policies and benefits. Thank you in advance.

Whole Life Insurance Paid up at 96
Opened in 1994
Death Benefit - 34k
Cash Value - 6.7K
Cost Basis - 5.5k
Taxable Gain on Surrender - 1.2k

I am 33, my dad opened this a little after I was born and transferred it to me. The premiums are very cheap quarterly payments.

Single, No Kids. I’m in a very bad financial spot right now, including a banking scam that cleaned me out. The cash value amount would be a godsend right now.

However, I am unfamiliar with the loan option. Is there interest on the loan if taken? Or do I just continue paying my current premium?

I make about 50k a year so am unsure how affected I would be when filing the taxes for the surrender. I keep seeing conflicting advice in the personal finance sub and what not and would like to share my story on here for some much needed advice.

I am close to cashing out just so I can stay above water and pay my rent

Please, any insight would be greatly appreciated

After a full underwriting that took over 30 days I finally got approved for a Symetra 30 year term 600k policy at standard non nicotine- 37 y/o 115 lb female non smoker, but h/o thyroid cancer, psuedoaneurysm & benign brain tumor, and I take a benzo for sleep. I'm also having some chronic pain they are trying to figure out. I was terrified I was going to get denied. I accepted the policy, but would really like a higher coverage amount. How do I best go about this? Can I apply for the amount I want with them, hopefully they will use the same info they got from underwriting they just completed, then cancel the 600k policy? I don't want to layer a second policy as it will be too expensive for me that way.

Hi! I am 42 with 5 kids. I am unfamiliar with life insurance but I have been paying $60 a month for about 3 years. Mine is term life of 15 years with 350,000. My question is, how does it work if I pass away? I am looking for something that would cover me no matter my age at time of death. Please help.

Taking the test tmr and im kinda don't think im ready.
XCEL simulated tests I don't get higher than 58%. I study and know a lot of stuff but world problems is where it gets me. Any tips. I have the outline for my state and know just having trouble getting things in my head

As a member of my credit union, I "automatically apply for this policy that is completely paid for by the credit union and issued by CMFG Life Insurance Company."

But later on in the letter: "With Additional Coverage, $100,000 grows to $150,000 over 10 years*

*Why is "A" capitalized, and how did my $1,000 get to $100,000? Does the capital A represent the proper name of [another type of Coverage, of which I'd be paying for eventually]? Why did that statement not end with punctuation.

Is this a phishing attempt? It does not ask for my SSN. TIA.

I have been thinking about this for a little while now, maybe about a month. With my current job I'm an agent that is forced to an hourly schedule and paid as a W2 employee, but with the "commission" they pay us for getting sales feels so unmotivating.

I remember seeing a post mentioning how with their job, they pool all the commission pay from everyone's sales and pay you out based on how many sales you made from the last month. I think this is likely the same situation I'm in, because for example I recently had 3 sales that totaled to a 5k ANP. If I was an independent that would've paid me at least several thousand, but based on the employment, only counting those 3 sales, I'd be paid like $9 each.

Some of the pros of working here is that I don't pay for any leads and that all the calls done are on an automated system, also since it's hourly it's completely stable income.
Some of the cons are the constant QA reviews, being forced to an uncomfortable schedule, no extension so people I worked hard on can't call me back directly and there's no agent to agent transfer except for spanish. The "coachings" and lectures, the company can't stop changing scripts and processes.

But with going independent, I worry about leads, buying good leads might be too expensive for me, but I'll have my own schedule to control, bigger payouts when I do make a sale, and a direct line. If I go independent and start selling for the insurance company directly instead of through the agency I work at I worry about the whole list of pros and cons.

What advice would you guys have on staying as a captive or going independent? And to clarify, the field I'm in at the moment is life insurance.

looking for advice here.

I've had a whole life policy for about 22 years

the Death benefit is $131,964.00 the premiums are $1217.00 /Yr

the policy generates $2,135.92 in dividends. This is used to pay the yearly cost and the balance goes towards the death benefit.

Any thoughts as to a change for the better or is my time in good to make back the higher cost in fees over the years.

Option B............. ??

One of my family members is able to sponsor me for union discounted rates through Globe Life/ American Income Life because he is in the IBEW. Has anyone had experience with this company? I have a call with them later this evening to go over options

I’m hoping to get some perspective from the experts in this group regarding pension max plans.

I am planning on retiring in 7 years at age 62. I will have 2 pensions that pay as follows…

Pension 1: $55k/yr with 100% survivor benefit

Pension 2: $140k/yr single life annuity or
$105/yr w/ 100% survivor benefit

It seems I should take the larger pension amount in pension 2 and use the “extra” income to buy life insurance. The two things I want to accomplish with the life insurance are…

1. Provide for my surviving spouse and “replace” the pension income that will go away when I pass.

2. Provide an inheritance for my 3 kids. I am thankful to have these pensions, but their weakness is that if my wife and I both pass, the pension benefits go away. The pension max seems like a great way to solve this weakness and provide some legacy money for the kids.

Some important things to consider are my wife is 11 years younger than I am and my kids are ages 11, 9, and 6. Also, I would likely need to prichase the insurance now and pay premiums for the 7 years until the the “extra” income is available. We are in a position to afford this but it is a consideration. We would break even in about 8 years after retirement and this whole plan would essentially be funded with “house money”.

My financial advisor has looked at a number of products and has suggested an IUL policy with a death benefit of $1.725m with a monthly premium of $1,500/month. I’ve read many negative comments here regarding IUL. My advisor says this policy is one of the more affordable options, surprisingly less than a GUL policy of the same size.

So, please give me some opinions on this. Is an IUL appropriate in this scenario? Are there some other products and structures that you have used in this scenario?

Thanks if you’ve read this whole thing and thanks in advance if you offer some insight.

I left a job at the end of February where I had term life insurance with Prudential. I was told both by Prudential and my prior employer that I could port the policy and keep the current amount, with just possible premium differences based on a health questionnaire.

After calling when leaving my job to find out when I should expect the paperwork to port it, and then calling repeated throughout March and April when I didn't receive it, the one form I was sent a couple of weeks ago said it was for "converting my group policy into an individual one", but after talking to a representative, they confirmed that even though the form didn't say "whole" or "permanent" life anywhere, it was for converting my group term policy into an individual whole life policy. I asked for the paperwork to be sent again, and I just received a bundle of paperwork that says "convert group term to individual" in most places, but looking through is really talking about whole life only.

I was directly told by Prudential reps that I could choose to port as term life only and given quotes for that (even if they heavily pushed converting to whole life on each call), but at this point I am getting nearly 3 months out from leaving my job, and I don't want to miss my window of opportunity to port this

Does anyone have any experience dealing with situations like this with porting term life insurance or have any recommendations both on how I can actually get the correct paperwork to port to individual term life and on how I can prevent myself from losing my opportunity to port the policy given all the delays on Prudential's side? I must have called them at least every other week for the past three months at this point and am hitting a wall each time it feels

My Grandfather started a Northwestern Mutual Whole Life Policy for me when I was born. The premium is $2000 a year, paid for by the policy and the death benefit is around 765,000 with a cash value of 195,000. I’ll be 40 in a few years. At this point I think I should keep it, but I know some people are not fans of whole life. It is paid up at 65 and the cash value is projected to be 800,000 then.

Hi everyone,
My wife and I are in the process of purchasing term life insurance and wanted to get a sanity check from the community on our strategy and the premium quotes we received.
Our Profile:
Ages: Both in our mid-thirties.
Income: We earn approximately $270,000 each ($540,000 combined).
Net Worth: ~$1M combined.
Family: One daughter (14 months old), and we are actively planning to have a second daughter soon.
The Policies We Are Looking At:
Coverage Amount: $3,000,000 individual term policy for each of us.
Term Length: 30 years fixed.
Annual Premium Quotes:
Male policy: $2,100 / year (~$175/month)
Female policy: $1,600 / year (~$133/month)
Our Questions for the Sub:
1 Coverage Amount: Does $3M each make sense for our income and family size, or should we consider laddering our policies?
2 Term Length: Is a 30-year term overkill since our kids will be independent and we will likely be self-insured via investments within 20–25 years?
3 Pricing: Do these premium numbers look competitive for this level of coverage in the current market, assuming excellent health classifications?
Would love to hear any feedback or advice from folks who have structured policies with similar dynamics.

Also any other place we should get a quote from.

Thanks in advance!

I'm in my early 40s and female. I'm working with an agent and filled out an application for a reputable company known for regularly waiving and exam and offering accelerated underwriting for high amounts of coverage (higher than I'm seeking) for people under 60.

Unfortunately, I didn't qualify and the company wants to come to my house and do some type of medical exam and get detailed info about my doctors. I've never applied for life insurance and want to know if this is a red flag. Am I likely to get only really high rates or a decline?