Today's Best Life Insurance Rates

About These Rates: The insurers whose rates are displayed on this page are advertising partners of BestMoney.com. This information may be different from what you see when you visit these insurers’ sites. The terms advertised here are not final and do not bind our insurance partners. The rates shown here are retrieved via BestMoney’s quote rate engine and are subject to change. Your actual monthly payment plan will be determined by a full assessment of your health and lifestyle as well as various other factors.

Choosing a coverage amount for life insurance

When calculating how much coverage to purchase, ask yourself these questions:

How long do I need coverage? If you just got married and are starting a family, you will need at least 20 years of coverage to ensure that your children are provided for until graduation.

How much can I afford? Find the balance between buying enough coverage and having a monthly premium that fits in your budget. The more coverage you purchase, the more expensive your premium (the amount you pay) will be.

What will my family need if I pass away today? If something were to happen to you today, there would be a lot of financial expenses placed on your family's shoulders. 

Whether you choose term or whole life insurance depends on your current and future financial needs. Either one is essential to have, especially if you have loved ones who rely on you for financial stability. 

When is the right time to buy term life insurance?

The time to buy term life insurance is generally when the individual seeking a policy is young, and needs real coverage for the first time in their life. This kind of policy is inexpensive for young singles or couples because providers entertain smaller odds that the policyholder will pass on before their time, and accordingly offer term life plans to a maximum age – usually to about age 50. It is possible to get term life after this age with some providers, but the premiums will likely be higher. 

Young couples who have financial obligations like a mortgage are well-suited for term life insurance.  The smaller premiums are easy to budget and the death benefit can be matched to the amount remaining on the mortgage, adequately covering these kinds of large debts should the policyholder die. Someone in the early stages of their career may also expect their salary and coverage needs to grow in a short span of time, and for these individuals, renewable term life plans can be readjusted yearly without breaking coverage. 

Return of premiums riders allow those who outlive their term to receive their premiums back when the policy expires, but pay additionally each month for the privilege. Additionally, there are riders that can go along with term plans that allow the owner to convert to a whole life policy when they feel it is necessary – sometimes even without a medical exam.

How much life insurance do you actually need?

How much life insurance you need really depends on your personal situation, which includes your health, age, finances, and other factors. That said, there are two “rules of thumb” that you can use as a starting point to decide how much you actually need.

10 Times Your Income

The most common advice given is to buy a life insurance policy that covers 10 times your annual income. So for instance, if you’re using Policygenius and you make $90,000 per year, you’d buy a policy with a $900,000 limit. Fees and fine print aside, your dependents would then get $900,000 if you died.

A variation of this is to add an additional $100,000 for every child you have. So in that same situation, if you also had three children, you’d add another $300,000 in coverage - making your total policy have a $1.2 million limit.

There are limits to this thinking, however. If you have significant savings or live well below your means, for instance, you may not need as much. Your employer may also give you a portion of this at a low cost.

DIME

This strategy looks at your DIME (debt, income, mortgage, and education) to help come up with a figure that’ll cover your family completely with life insurance if you die. Basically, you add all of these things up to get a rough estimate. 

Debt is your total debt minus any mortgage balance. Income is your annual income, multiplied by the number of years your family would need to be covered (which varies greatly). Mortgage is the balance to pay off your mortgage in full. Education is the cost of paying for higher education for your kids (i.e., college).

So for example, if you have $20,000 in debt, you make $90,000 a year and your family will need that for 10 years, you owe $250,000 on your mortgage, and you estimate needing $100,00 to send your kids to college, your DIME number would be:

20,000 + (90,000 x 10) + 250,000 + 100,000 = $1,270,000

Using this formula, you’d need just under $1.3 million in life insurance coverage. It sounds like a lot, but providers such as Sproutt actually give coverage up to $1.5 million. For a more detailed analysis of this, you can use a form like the one Securian Financial put together to get a more accurate figure.

Compare providers to get the best coverage for your needs

At the end of the day, the best way to balance your life insurance needs with financial savings is to compare multiple providers at once. Use our calculator at the top of this page to get real-time quotes from top rated providers, or compare more life insurance companies.