Life Insurance Quotes 2020: How Much Does Life Insurance Really Cost?

Tanveen Vohra
Written byTanveen Vohra
Tanveen Vohra
Tanveen VohraManager of Content and Communications
  • Property and casualty insurance specialist

  • 4+ years creating insurance content

Tanveen manages Insurify's data insights, annual home and auto insurance reports, and media communications. She’s regularly featured in media interviews on insurance topics.

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John Leach
Edited byJohn Leach
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John LeachInsurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

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Updated April 14, 2021 | Reading time: 4 minutes

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The event of your passing could leave your family in a difficult and uncertain place. But creating a financial safety net for your loved ones could go a long way in helping them navigate such a tough time.

Life insurance policies can help safeguard your family’s financial interests if you’re no longer there to provide for them.

There are plenty of life insurance options depending on your needs and what you can afford. To make sure you find the right fit for you, use a free quotes comparison website like Insurify, which lets you compare policies and prices from top insurance companies within minutes.

What is Life Insurance?

Those of you who aren’t familiar with life insurance may be wondering— what is life insurance?

In the event of your passing, a basic life insurance policy will give your designated beneficiary (your family, a close friend, or even a trusted institution like a charity or museum) a death benefit. This death benefit is usually a lump sum payment that is exempt from taxes.

The death benefit from your life insurance policy could help your family pay off any mortgages or debts you pass on to them. This benefit can also act as a financial safety net for your spouse, help your kids pay for college tuition or any student loans you cosigned on, and even help pay for long-term care for your elderly parents.

Buying a life insurance policy is by far one of the most financially responsible things you can do today, especially if you have a family depending on your income. If you’re thinking of starting a family, have young kids, or have mortgages and other debts, you should definitely consider buying a life insurance policy today.

How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

There are a couple of different types of life insurance policies you should familiarize yourself with to decide how much life insurance coverage you need and what is the best life insurance policy for you:

Whole Life Insurance

A whole life insurance policy, as the name suggests, lasts for the entirety of the policyholders ’ life. It comes under the umbrella of permanent life insurance. In the event of your death, your life insurance company will pay a death benefit to your designated beneficiary as long as you kept up your monthly premium payments while you were alive.

Whole life policies are more expensive than other types of policies because a part of your premium payment goes towards your policy while the rest goes towards a cash value account. You can access this account while you’re alive, either by withdrawing from it or by borrowing against it.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance policies, unlike permanent policies, only last for a predetermined term ranging from two to 30 years. These policies tend to be more affordable than whole life policies since they don’t have a savings component. However, a term policy still provides a death benefit to your beneficiaries if you pass during the term of your policy. This type of policy is best suited to those with growing families and young kids.

Universal Life Insurance

A universal life policy also falls under the umbrella of permanent life insurance, so it lasts the entirety of your life. Similar to a whole life policy, universal life policies also have a cash-value account, but their prices are lower, similar to those for a term life policy.

Unlike a whole life policy, however, a universal life policy is more flexible, and you’re able to adjust your premium and death benefit throughout your life. One drawback of this type of policy is that the minimum premium you must pay begins to increase as you age, making it less flexible as time goes on.

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How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?

Many people believe the cost of buying a life insurance policy is much higher than it really is. Millennial and Gen X consumers overestimate life insurance rates by 213 and 119 percent, respectively, according to an insurance barometer study from Life Happens. On the contrary, life insurance can be surprisingly affordable, with term life policies costing only between $15 and $70 a month.

Here are a couple of factors that impact your monthly life insurance cost:

  • Your policy: There are a couple of different types of life insurance policies, and the longer the term of your policy, the higher the premium. Additionally, term life policies tend to be cheaper than whole life policies.

  • Your age: Younger people usually have cheaper life insurance premiums.

  • Your gender: On average, men have to pay higher life insurance premiums than women do.

  • Your health: The healthier you are, the cheaper your life insurance premium will be. This is why some life insurance companies require a medical exam.

  • Your hobbies: If you partake in dangerous activities like skydiving, airplane flying, scuba diving, and car racing, your life insurance premium will be higher than if you didn’t.

Life Insurance Quotes 2020 | How Much Would You Pay?

To help you better plan how monthly premium payments for a life insurance policy could fit into your budget, Insurify’s data team has put together some quotes.

Here are some average term life insurance quotes based on the policyholder ’s age and the length of the term they chose:

Age10-year term20-year term30-year term
30$24.99$27.45$33.65
40$28.42$35.86$56.21
50$53.35$76.67$125.12
60$148.47$233.98$252.26

Term life insurance premiums don’t increase as you grow older, so buying a life insurance policy is a lot cheaper when you’re younger. If you buy a 30-year life insurance policy as a 40-year-old, you’d have to pay only about $56/month for coverage till you’re 70. But if you were to buy a 30-year life insurance policy as a 50-year-old, you’d have to pay a whopping $125/month.

As you can imagine, life insurance companies differ in how they assess risk. As such, you can expect a broad spectrum of quotes for the same life insurance policy, depending on what company you’re looking at. We’ve compiled a list of average life insurance quotes from a few different companies:

Company NameMonthly Quote
Assurity$27/mo
United Omaha$28/mo
Penn Mutual$42/mo
Vantis Life$44/mo
Mutual of Omaha$51/mo
Ladder$57/mo
Haven Life$60/mo
Legal and General$64/mo
American National Insurance Company$65/mo
Amica$67/mo
SBLI$67/mo
American Family Insurance$72/mo
Protective Life$72/mo
Pacific Life$77/mo
Minnesota Life$78/mo

As you can see, there are many life insurance options for every type of budget. This is why you must compare life insurance quotes and policies before settling on which one you want to buy.

While this sounds like a painstaking process, it actually only takes a couple of minutes. All you have to do is use Insurify, put in some basic information, and you can compare life insurance quotes from over ten different companies all at once!

Life Insurance Quotes: FAQ

  • How much does life insurance cost?

    Contrary to popular belief, life insurance doesn’t cost an exorbitant amount. In fact, most term life policies cost only between $15 and $70 a month. This, of course, depends on many factors, such as your age, the length of your policy, and your health. But it is very easy to find an affordable life insurance policy, especially if you’re using a comparison website like Insurify.

  • How do I compare life insurance policies?

    Comparing life insurance policies is a crucial step in making sure you have the best policy for the lowest price. Your best bet is using a comparison website like Insurify, where you can pick the terms of your desired policy and see a list of companies offering that policy along with prices. This makes comparing and buying a life insurance policy very easy and very fast.

  • How do I get free life insurance quotes online?

    Getting free life insurance quotes online is really easy with Insurify, which lets you compare policies and prices between top life insurance companies within minutes. And don’t worry, Insurify doesn’t sell your information, so you won’t get bombarded with cold calls and emails from desperate companies.

Compare Life Insurance Quotes Instantly

Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 3,806+ reviews
4.8/5
Shopper Approved
ProgressiveLiberty MutualTravelers
Tanveen Vohra
Tanveen VohraManager of Content and Communications

Tanveen Vohra is an editorial manager at Insurify specializing in writing about property and casualty insurance, focusing on market and pricing trends in home and auto insurance. Through her work, she helps consumers better understand the components of their insurance policies so they can make smarter purchase decisions. She received a bachelor's degree from SUNY Buffalo. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

John Leach
Edited byJohn LeachInsurance Copy Editor
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachInsurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

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