by [ Tam Nguyen Photography ]

When people endeavour to buy term life insurance online, they may quickly find themselves lost in a sea of competing websites.  Rational creatures generally don’t relish thoughts of life insurance or death’s other products, so we just don’t know enough about the online life insurance industry to make a quick but informed decision.

Well, I’ve learned a thing or two, so let me put your fears to rest: for 95% of shoppers, only a modicum of preparation is necessary when choosing a website from which to buy term life insurance online.

The requirements

Your average American is looking for life insurance principally for the purpose of protecting his family, and given this circumstance, the best buy is going to be term life insurance.  It’s the cheapest, and unlike permanent life insurance policies, it’s straightforward.  It’s the product people generally imagine when thinking of life insurance.  Its simplicity makes it possible to buy term life insurance online.  Other types of life insurance may be advertised online, but it’s rather rare that you can actually apply for any of them online.

So if you are one of the majority, looking for life insurance for family protection, skip down to the next heading, “Weeding out the rejects,” to read about how to buy term life insurance online.

If you have special needs (such as a need for a permanent policy) or impaired insurability (because of health problems or hazardous habits), you would do well to diligently seek out a life insurance agent (advisor) who has experience with your particular concerns.  This extra work is not necessarily hard to do, but it certainly takes longer than the mere 30 seconds that the rest of the insurance-shopping population needs to invest at this stage.

Weeding out the rejects

There are three kinds of life insurance company that you are likely to encounter in a list of search engine results for “buy term life insurance”:

Life insurance carriers are the companies that create life insurance policies, receive your premiums, and issue your death benefit.
Life insurance providers are agencies, brokerages, and agents.  It is the providers who actually interact with customers.  Some carriers employ “captive” providers, but independent providers are preferable because they have more liberty to shop the market for you.  Websites you find for providers represent independent providers.
Lead generators look like providers, but in fact, they are not licensed to sell insurance.  They sell your information to real providers, who then contact you to sell you insurance.

I recommend choosing a provider’s website.  The quotes you receive there will come from multiple carriers, allowing you to compare prices and pick the most affordable for your age and insurability.  You can recognize providers because they will indicate somewhere on their website the names of the carriers with which they do business.  Look for well-known carrier names like John Hancock, Prudential, ING, American General, etc.

Shopping through a carrier’s website is okay too, but you won’t be able to compare policies from competing companies if you use a carrier’s website.  Also, it won’t save you any money, compared with a provider’s website.  You don’t pay for providers’ services; providers are paid on commission.

I recommend avoiding lead generators, since you don’t really know whom you’ll be working with.  Lead generators may sell your information as a “lead” to multiple life insurance companies.  Would you like to be called by seven different companies with which you’ve never initiated contact?

It scarcely matters which you choose

When looking for websites of life insurance providers, it makes little difference which one you choose, so long as the provider of your choice contracts with a good assortment of life insurance carriers.  The good providers will be working with the best carriers, so the quotes you get from one good provider will be exactly the same as the quotes you get from another (same products, same prices).

There’s scarcely a question of service, either.  You can apply for term life insurance online with any decent provider website, so you will be interacting little or not at all with personnel.  What matters for you is that the website is navigable and understandable.  That’s something you can ascertain in short time, with no life insurance experience needed.

How do you recognize a “good” provider?

As mentioned before, one of the clues that tells you when you’ve found a good provider of online life insurance is when you see on their site that they work with the best carriers.  How do you know which are the best carriers?  If you don’t already know names to look for, check the financial strength ratings and customer service ratings of each carrier you encounter.  WholesaleInsurance.net actually lists these ratings for you when it displays your quotes.

Also check whether there is a large selection of carriers.  If the provider only contracts with fewer than 50, you might get a better price elsewhere.

Tags: Good, Identifying, Insurance, Life, Online, Site, Term