You’ve started to reach the stage of life where you’ve settled down. You may have a mortgage, maybe a family with some kids.
Hopefully, you have a steady paycheck coming in. Or maybe none of these factors describe you. Each person and family is different.
Long gone are the days of the “nuclear family,” with a dad, mom, one son, and one daughter. Families come in all shapes and sizes, which means life insurance needs to do the same.
If you’re in your 30s or 40s, you have more bills and responsibilities than you did in your 20s, which your insurance should match.
This article is going to show you how to protect your loved ones from being responsible for all your bills. We can help you purchase a life insurance policy you can afford.
Life Insurance In Your 30s
First, let’s look at life insurance for people in their 30s. Most people begin to seriously start looking at buying life insurance in their 30s, but whether or not you need life insurance now depends.
At this point, you have to ask yourself a few questions.
- Would someone suffer financially if you passed away? Yes, there will be a lot of people who are going to have emotional pains, but what about their bank accounts?
- How much debt do you have? If you have a mortgage, student loans, or business loans, then you should hold a life insurance plan.
In your 30s, it’s a good idea to buy a 30-year term life insurance policy. 30-year plans will get you close to retirement, but they are still an affordable option.
In your 30s, your policy could be as low as $30 a month for a $500,000 policy.
Life Insurance In Your 40s
Now, let’s look at applicants who are in their 40s.
The difference between the 30s and 40s is massive when it comes to life insurance.
When you hit your 40s, you reach a lot of significant events. One of those should be purchasing life insurance.
If you don’t already have a plan, it’s not too late; you can still get an affordable policy. We work with a lot of applicants in their 40s who assume their policies are going to be unbearably expensive.
You will be surprised at how affordable your policy can be, but do you need a life insurance plan? How much coverage do you need?
Before you buy life insurance in your 40s, you need to make some decisions. One purpose of life insurance is to give your children enough money to get through school.
If you want to provide tuition coverage, you need to ensure your plan lasts until after they graduate.
How many more years until you retire?
Once you’ve retired, your needs are going to completely change. Depending on your age, you may want to consider a 20-year term plan instead of a 30-year policy.
In your 40s, your policy is going to be a little more expensive, possibly around $50 a month.
Best Companies
To help get you started on your life insurance search, we’ve brought you a list of some of the best insurance carriers for your age group (from our experiences).
AIG Direct
You’ve heard of AIG. They are one of the most prominent insurance carriers in the United States, with over 90 million policyholders across 80 countries.
AIG Direct is the life insurance portion of the company. There is a reason so many people have chosen AIG instead of one of the other companies out there.
AIG has just about every kind of life insurance policy you can imagine:
- Term insurance for coverage between 10 years and 30 years.
- Universal life insurance
- Traditional whole life policy
- Return of premium plan
- Accidental death insurance
One of the benefits of shopping with AIG Direct is being able to compare all of their plans head-to-head.
AIG Direct has an “A” from A.M. Best and from Standard & Poor’s they have a BBB+, as of 2018. These scores show a solid financial foundation you can count on.
Depending on your health or any conditions you’ve been diagnosed with, you might end up with much higher premiums with AIG Direct compared to other carriers, so be sure to check the rates on high-risk plans.
Transamerica
We’ve connected a lot of customers with excellent plans from Transamerica through the years.
Transamerica sells 5 types of life insurance:
- Whole life insurance
- Term life insurance
- Universal life insurance
- Index universal life insurance
- Final expense life insurance
What makes Transamerica so great is their underwriting.
For a lot of customers who would get expensive rates with other companies, Transamerica tends to be more lenient and give cheaper premiums.
Transamerica doesn’t have the brand recognition some of the other carriers do, but you should still give them a chance.
Prudential
You’ll probably recognize the Prudential “Rock” logo. They have spent a lot of money on marketing and advertising their logo.
It’s not their great logo which makes them a good choice for insurance. Some of the areas where Prudential shines are with tobacco users, applicants with DUIs on their record, and people who have been diagnosed with diabetes.
One interesting factor of Prudential is their “non-smoker plus” rate class. This is a rate which is an “in-between” rate.
It bridges the gap between preferred and standard plus. If you’re a high-risk applicant who has had problems getting approved for cheap coverage in the past, then Prudential might be a good alternative.
No Exam Life Insurance
One option is to choose a no exam life insurance plan.
There are a lot of reasons you might prefer a no exam policy, but you need to understand the pros and cons of each option before you buy one of these plans. Let’s look at a few factors involved with no exam life insurance:
- Convenience. Maybe you want coverage fast. You could be buying a plan to satisfy a loan, or you don’t want to wait to be approved. Instead of wasting two months, you could only wait two days.
- Cost. One of the problems with no exam options is the price point. No exam policies are expensive, so you can expect to pay more.
- Ceiling. Another problem with no exam coverage is the protection ceiling. Depending on the company, you could be capped at $350,000 or less, which probably isn’t enough coverage for an applicant in their 40s.
Saving Money On Your Insurance Policy
One factor the insurance agency is going to use to calculate rates is age. The older you are, the more expensive your premiums will be.
You can’t turn back the clock, but there are some ways to improve your application:
- First things first, drop the cigarettes or chewing tobacco. Even the best-priced smoker’s policy is going to be drastically more expensive. Quit smoking for one year, and you’ll get non-smokers rates.
- If you have diabetes or a heart condition, you will want to focus on your health as much as possible. The difference between well-controlled diabetes and a person who doesn’t manage their condition could be hundreds of dollars every year. In extreme cases, not controlling your diabetes could cause you to be rejected.
- Find a company that works with middle-aged applicants. A lot of carriers focus on younger applicants, and they shy away from customers older than 30. If you want to get cheap life insurance, you need to avoid these companies. Find a carrier with a liberal underwriting system for people your age.
How To Get Great Coverage
As we’ve established, you probably need life insurance in your 30s and 40s. If the companies we listed above aren’t a good choice, that’s okay.
We can do the work to help you find your bullseye company.
How?
We’ve built relationships and created algorithms to pinpoint the best carrier for each of our customers. All we need from you is some basic info and what you’re looking for.
After you’ve answered our simple questions, we’ll take all the info and run it through our systems to give you the best options to meet your needs. We represent over 60 carriers and will help you compare all of your options head-to-head.
We want to give you all the information you need to make a wise investment to protect your family. You’re never too old to buy a life insurance policy you can afford.
And you never completely outgrow the need for life insurance; the needs just change. Let us help meet your needs today.
