It’s one of those things that you think will never happen to you.

To walk into the kitchen and find the love of your life lying lifeless on the floor; dead on the cold kitchen tile.

It’s been over three years since I heard this story. A fresh widow sitting in my office clenching the box of tissues that I offered her, sharing her sad story with me.

She had been married to her husband for over twenty years. They had two wonderful kids and loved spending each day with each other.

The Family Man

The husband was a hard worker. He loved his family and gave each day his all. He had no preexisting conditions. As a doctor himself, he was very conscious of his health and took care of himself.

Stories like this happen more often than we want to believe. You see it in the news, you see it in blogs, you even hear about it on Oprah.

Some of us are lucky, we never have to experience the heartache of losing a loved one before it was time for them to go, in our minds.

I can only imagine how hard it is for someone to go through that, and there is no hiding the pain that I saw in her eyes – but as I mentioned, the husband loved his wife and loved his family and made sure that they were protected.

He did this by taking out a very large life insurance policy.

Having to deal with the pain of losing her husband was hard enough. If she would have had to worry about where her next paycheck was going to come from to take care of her family now that her husband, who was the clear bread winner of the two, was gone, I think it would have broke her – but she didn’t have to worry.

She didn’t have to worry at all.

With the amount of life insurance that her husband had thoughtfully taken out on himself, her and the kids were set. She wouldn’t have to work again.

Her kids could continue to go to the colleges that they wanted. The family, even without their dad and husband, would be okay financially.

It’s been three years since that unfortunate day, and having a review meeting with that client, she reinforced how thankful she was that her husband had the foresight to buy the life insurance. She sat in my office and said,

“Had he not bought that (life insurance), I have no idea what I would have done.”

So many people don’t feel the need to buy life insurance.

In fact, over one-third of the U.S. population has no life insurance in their households whatsoever.

Life insurance is cheap. Life insurance is easy; it literally takes you less than 3 minutes to get a quote and get it processed.  I know because I did it myself.

Don’t you want to leave your loved ones with the financial means to continue without worry if you should leave them before you expect to go?

“One million dollars…..baawaahahahahah!”

One million dollars...

I can’t help but chuckle when I think of Dr. Evil saying that in the classic series Austin Powers.

For many people, one million dollars sounds like a lot of money – and it is!

But a common misconception is that one million dollars of term life insurance is very expense.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

To demonstrate, I attained quotes from the top insurance carriers using my new handy dandy free life insurance quoter.

Yes, I realize you could have entered the info yourself and found it on your own. I thought I would be a nice guy and find out for you.

About The Term Life Quotes

As you’ll notice, each table has a wide array of information.  Knowing that everybody is in a different situation, I wanted to make sure that I offered quotes for almost situation.  I’ve included quotes for 30 year term, 20 year term, and 10 year term.   If you’re a tobacco user, I’ve also included some quotes on life insurance for smokers.

30 Year Term Life Quote One Million Dollars

For those that think that a million dollar term policy is expensive, you’ll quickly notice that for a 25 year old male in good health only costs $645 per year with a 35 year old costing $795.   On a monthly basis that’s almost next to nothing!

20 Year Term Life Quote One Million Dollars

10 Year Term Life Quote One Million Dollars

Smoker Term Life Quote One Million Dollars

For all you smokers out there – beware!  The cost of of your life insurance balloons and you’ll see here.  If you’re considering kicking the habit, now is as good time as any.

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Simply enter your information below and you’ll have the best insurance rates at your fingerprints with no obligation to buy.

If your job offers a group life insurance plan, then it makes sense to just take a policy through them, right?

It’s easy.

It’s cheap.

But is it really the right thing to do?

Here’s my thoughts……

Transcription follows below…..

Hey, this is Jeff Rose, goodfinancialcents.com with another good financial tip. A common question I get from working individuals is,

“Jeff, do I need to buy my life insurance outside of my employer or should I just use the insurance that is provided through my company?”

It’s a very, very good question because most likely if you have life insurance through your employer most likely it is really easy to sign up, it’s very, very, very inexpensive and it just doesn’t take a lot of work. It’s a group plan.

Group Plans Make Sense for pre-existing Conditions

Most likely if you have any pre-existing conditions you just sign up and you’re good to go. It is deducted out of your pay check. You don’t think twice about it.

Let me give you a few considerations of why you would want to purchase that life insurance through a third party provider.

Number one: What happens if you leave your job? What happens if your company goes under or if you have to relocate or another better opportunity comes around. Now you have to hope that your new employer offers life insurance.

You have to hope they have a group plan that you can easily get into, and you have to hope that it’s going to be affordable. If you don’t have those options available that’s why you would want to consider having life insurance through a third party provider. That way if you do change jobs you’re already locked in. You don’t have to worry about it. If cost is an issue, most likely if you do a third party provider it’s not going to be that much more expensive to have life insurance through them.

How Much Life Insurance Does Your Job Allow?

Another thing to consider, a lot of employers don’t allow you to have a lot of life insurance. Sometimes it is maybe twice your salary, three times your salary. I’ve seen every single variation so it just really depends on your company. Typically what I see is a lot of people have the minimum amount of life insurance possible, say $50,000 or $100,000. It’s not anywhere close to what they actually need for their family.

That’s another reason why you want to go to a third party provider. Hopefully you’re going to have a life insurance specialist, whether that be an agent or financial planner that can offer life insurance, and they can sit down with you and truly try to figure out how much life insurance you really need.

Those are just some considerations of why I think you need to purchase life insurance not through your employer or your company plan, but through a third party provider. If you have any more questions on that you know where to find me, goodfinancialcents.com. This is Jeff Rose, and we’ll see you soon.

How much?

How much life insurance coverage I need to buy was something that really wasn’t important to me until I got married.

My first policy was a $250,000 30 year term life insurance policy and I thought that was plenty.  It was not until we had our first son that I quickly realized that was not nearly enough.

After his birth, I decided to increase it substantially.   That was over two years ago.  With us in the process of building our first home and a second son on the way, I’m left wondering even with that increase if I really have bought enough life insurance.

Update: We now have our third son and I have increased the amount of life insurance I have on myself.  Check the end of the post to find what I’ve increased my term life insurance to and my rationale.

I know many struggle with this same decision so I wanted to shed some light how much life insurance is enough.

First things first, life insurance is for one purpose: income replacement.  While there are times where life insurance can aid in more complex estate planning strategies, a majority of the time it’s purchased to take care of your family once you’re gone.  My reasoning for purchasing life insurance is that I want to leave my wife and kids without any debt and the ability for my wife to not worry about finances in the event of my unexpected passing.

Life Insurance Coverage to Buy Rule of Thumb

As you can imagine, how much life insurance you need to buy will differ for each person.   As a general rule of thumb, it will be a multiplier of your current income based on your age.  To illustrate here’s an example that you can use:

Life Insurance Table

Life Insurance Needs Analysis

To determine how much term life insurance you need, you need to perform a needs analysis.  Here’s a step by step guide to calculate how much insurance you might need.

Life Insurance Coverage Example

To help illustrate how much life insurance you might need to buy, looks look at an example.  First, let’s consider some assumptions.  We’re looking at a 30 year old male who makes $100,000 a year.  He wishes to give his wife a $75,000 a year income for 30 years if he were to die unexpectedly.  We’re also assuming that the wife works and makes a $35,000 a year income.  The final assumptions is that there is $400,000 of outstanding debt to pay off (for example, a mortgage and student loan debt), $10,000 for burial expenses and a 6% growth rate on the proceeds.

Life Insurance Example

Term Life Insurance Amount Needed

Based on the above assumptions, the husband would need to buy $993, 629 of term life insurance.   The calculations are as follows:

Life Insurance Needed

Shop Around

When buying life insurance, be sure to shop around rates.  I’ve seen life insurance companies differ greatly in their premium amounts.  To give you a gauge of what to expect to pay, the $250,000 policy that I mentioned that I took out when I was 28 cost me around $220 a year.   That’s it!  A couple reasons that it was so cheap was:

1. I was young (why does that seem so long ago?)
2. I was (and still am) in good health.

Nonetheless, that’s a small price to pay to ensure that your family is taken care of after you’ve gone.

More Kids = More Life Insurance (Update)

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, our second son was on the way and I was left wondering if I had bought enough term life insurance to cover my family. Now writing this post, we have welcomed our third son and once again, I’m left wondering if I have enough. Here’s what I’ve done to this point.

After returning from Iraq and losing the SGLI (military insurance), I purchased a 30 term policy with a face amount of $250,000 (mentioned above). When our first son arrived, I purchased a separate 30 year policy with a face amount of $500,000. In case you can’t add, that brings the sum total to $750,000.

Do You Really Need More Insurance?

To most people that seems like a lot of insurance – and it is. But the Rose household wasn’t done producing babies

Our second son soon arrived and I knew that I needed to up the insurance amount. At this point, I was done going through life insurance medical exams and was ready to really up the ante. This time I had decided that I buy another 30 year term policy, this time for a lump sum of $1,500,000. That’s a lot of zeros, huh? Trust me, it felt weird for me, too.

So now I have a total of $2,225,000 of term life insurance. Cha-ching.

My rationale. Somewhat going against the calculation above, I went for a more simpler approach. I thought to myself how much of an income would my wife need to take care of herself and the kids in case I wasn’t around. We decided that $100k would be adequate.

Secondly, I concluded that 5% was an attainable rate of return (or withdrawal rate) that she could get on the money if she invested it. Really simple math says that $2,225,000 x 5% will get her $112,500 a year. Should be more than enough to take care of mama and the kiddos.

Life insurance is a must. If you don’t have any yet, see how cheap it is by using the quote engine below. Or you can get a free life insurance quote here.

photo credit: karmablue

Having to file a claim against an insurance policy can be stressful. Whether it’s your homeowners insurance, car insurance, or health insurance, filing a claim means that something went wrong.

You hope that your claim will be handled quickly and professionally and you’ll get the desired outcome, compensation related to your claim. When our area was hit by an inland hurricane a few years back, our house took on a lot of damage.   Our entire area was hit, so we made sure to call our insurance company immediately to make sure we were first on the list.   Luckily, our insurance company was quick to respond and we got everything taken care of promptly.

Note:  You can see my post on the storm that hit our area: How to be Ready for an Emergency.

However, sometimes things go wrong and your agent or insurance agency mishandles your claim or you don’t get the fair result you expected. In this case you don’t have to just settle for what you get, you can report a bad insurance agent or agency through a claim with your state.

The first step when you get a decision that you don’t agree with is to try to negotiate a better settlement amount or claim amount with the agent. If you can reach a satisfactory agreement that is often better then the time and energy that will be invested in filing a claim against the agent. However, if your case was just handled poorly or you just can’t reach an agreement, then filing a claim with the state is necessary.

Where to Start

Search the state department of insurance website to locate the name and address of who to contact in your state. Some states like NY and CT have consumer complaint forms available for you to use in conjunction with their formal insurance department claim center. You can print and complete these forms to get started. If your state doesn’t have forms available online, you can print one from a state that does and use it as a template for your complaint.

If you are having trouble figuring out who to contact in your state you can look up the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and their site will direct you to the appropriate contact in your state.

Filing the Claim

You will want to complete the claim against your agent thoroughly and accurately. This means thinking with a clear head and detailing facts only. It is important to list all events and contacts in chronological order. Include any contact you had with the agent, police, insurance company, doctors or anyone pertinent to your case.

Attach any necessary documents. This could be health records in terms of a health care claim or an accident report if it was a vehicle claim. It’s important to hold on to the original documents and just send in photo copies in case they get misplaced and you need to furnish additional copies.

Remember to sign and date your claim before you send it in. Then you will want to send it to your state department of insurance claims.

Follow Up

If you want to achieve satisfactory results, it is important to follow up. Usually two weeks after you submit your claim is sufficient time for follow up. Keep following up ever week until your claim is handled.

Follow Up, Follow Up

A friend of mine who is industry read my post and wanted to add their two cents.  I thought it was a good perspective, so I wanted to share…..

Saw you post a few days ago about insurance claims. Being in the business, it struck a chord with me. I could ramble on with many things but a few that stuck out to me about your article/post/whatever was that it assumed everyone who has an issue with the way their claim is handled had a covered loss? Admittedly, I didn’t research the context of your article but am assuming you’re trying to educate the public. Just wanted to ensure that it was objective! Naturally, email/written text doesn’t allow me to provide non-verbals and context to this message. It is all in good fun and nothing that I am losing any sleep over – or you either for that matter. Just some food for thought.

If you didn’t receive remarkable customer service or were denied coverage for a covered loss, then there are grounds to file complaints. If the top insurance companies mess up, although I know that with respect to the people I work with and what I believe in my company, it isn’t malicious. More so, human error or misinterpretations. I wouldn’t bat an eye to file a complaint myself as a consumer if I thought I was treated unjustly or unfairly, especially when I’ve entered into a contract. But, if you expect insurance to cover general maintenance on your property when your roofer uncovered rotted roof decking once they take hail damaged shingles off your roof – there may not be anything a judge or the department of insurance can do to help you – maintenance isn’t covered. Also, there are areas in most insurance policies that outline alternative dispute resolutions – be it appraisal, arbitration, or filing suit. Often times, these are measures sought outside of asking the DOI to step in which is often viewed as the final option when others didn’t suffice (I think often times the DOI would agree).

One other thing I thought was interesting was that you filed your claim quickly to get to the top of the list. Certainly can’t speak for all insurance companies, but can say based on my experience, this is a general misconception. Most companies assign claims based on severity. The people with more damage generally get inspected first. But there are a lot of subjective items that go into it as well – namely the schedule/location of the assigned adjuster. There are other factors but but just because you file a claim quickly doesn’t mean you’re going to get inspected quicker – relatively speaking.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents – or a quarter based on the amount I’ve typed out here! I just sort of felt like reading it, that you were maybe supporting filing a compliant when you didn’t get what you thought you deserved when the general concept of insurance is confusing for many. I am by no means saying all insurance companies have unwavering ethics or morals. Since USAA is giving you some props – check out there article about myths in insurance. They list some common ones that any insurance company would agree are out there. Wow – I thought this would be a few sentences and this turned into a book. Now I need to go back and read it again and make sure I’ve covered everything! Anyway, I seriously wanted to more so give you props for what you’re doing and jab at you a little and this turned heavy on the jab (in good fun) and less on the props.

 Have you had a bad experience with an insurance agent?  If so, share your experience in the comments below.

photo credit: BP America

One of the biggest challenges for small business owners and the self-employed is finding affordable health insurance. Being able to take care of your health is important, and health insurance is a big part of that ability, since it can help shield you from big health care costs. On top of that, offering health coverage to your employees can be vital in your efforts to recruit top people. By offering health insurance as a benefit, you can improve the quality of your business by attracting competent and productive workers.

Group Health Insurance

One of your best options is to look into group health insurance. Group plans use the power of numbers to help keep costs contained. If you purchase health coverage for your employees, you can get group rates, which can be lower than individual rates. It is also possible for the self-employed to take advantage of group rates. Many online aggregators allow families, individuals and the self-employed to find insurance plans as part of a group. When you are added to the group, you have access to these lower rates.

The same concept is true of group health plans for small businesses. If you want to provide this benefit to your employees, you can usually find group rates that will make it a little more affordable for you to provide benefits to your employees.

Looking Online for Health Insurance

You can look online for group health insurance. Group rates can be less expensive. When I was looking for health insurance, as someone self-employed, for my family, I used eHealthInsurance. The site also has options for business group insurance. There are plenty of other aggregate web sites that can help you find group plans for your business, or help you find health insurance as someone who is self-employed. Many companies offer quotes, and you can choose to offer different options that can help your cost. Offering a high deductible plan that is compatible with a Health Savings Account can be one way to reduce your costs.

Tax Benefits for Providing Health Coverage to Employees

Small businesses can benefit from offering health plans to their employees. If you are a small business paying for at least half of your employees’ health insurance, you may be eligible for a tax break. If you are a business with 10 employees or less, who earn average wages of $25,000 annually, and phasing out as companies approach 25 employees and an average salary of $50,000 a year.

Until 2013, you can receive a tax credit of up to 35% of what your business spends on health insurance. In 2014, the maximum credit for small businesses will increase to 50% of what you pay for insurance premiums. Of course, there are tax deductions available for what you pay in insurance premiums as someone who is self-employed.

You might also want to look into the options for state tax benefits. Check your state tax code for information about what tax breaks are available, as well as the requirements for qualifying. You should also consider speaking with a trusted tax professional, who can help you find out what advantages you have when offering health coverage to your employees.

Whether you are self-employed and need health care coverage, have several insurance plan options through your employer, or are entering retirement but need something until medicare kicks in, comparing and choosing the best health plan can be a daunting task. By determining what you can afford, and what best matches your health care needs you can find the best insurance plan for you and your family.

Our family found this out first hand when I became self-employed.   At the time, my broker/dealer offered a group insurance plan and my wife also had health insurance with her job.   We…or should I say…she dove into the numbers trying to analyze what was best for us.

Since then, our health insurance provider has changed at least three times, and each time faces the challenge of figuring out how the new plan compares with the old.   Although a frustrating process, it truly does pay to understand what type of coverage you have.

Costs and Fees

The terms related to health insurance fees can be confusing and make comparing plans difficult. Understanding the terms and what they mean can help you compare and select the best and most affordable plan for you.

• Premium – The premium is the amount that you will pay for your insurance plan. You can break this down into yearly, quarterly or monthly payments with most insurance plans.

When selecting a plan, knowing how much you can afford to pay for your premium is probably the most important factor to look at. If you only have a certain amount of money budgeted for health care, then look for plans with options that fall in that range.

• Deductible – The deductible is the amount, out of pocket, that you are responsible for paying before your insurance will begin paying for covered expenses. For example, if you have a $200 deductible, you will have to incur and pay for $200 worth of medical expenses before your insurance will pay. Exceptions are made for certain types of conditions that don’t need to meet the deductible within most policies, such as for well child visits. Meaning if you haven’t met your yearly deductible yet, but your child is scheduled for a check-up, the check up costs would be covered by insurance.

When selecting a plan you may want to compare deductibles. Often if you have a lower deductible, your premiums can be a bit higher. If you choose a plan with a higher deductible, then the premium is probably lower. Determining how much you can afford to pay out of pocket and how often you tend to use your insurance coverage can help you select the plan that has deductibles that fit your budget.

• Co-Pay – The copay is the amount you have to pay for each type of office visit or emergency room visit.

The copay is usually expected to be paid at the time of the visit. Co-pay’s are usually as little as $5 per office visit, but can run as much as $50 for emergency room visits. Usually the cheaper the insurance premium and deductible is, the higher the co-pay amounts are. With some flexible plans with higher premiums, there are often no co-payments required.

Providers

When comparing health insurance plans, you want to be sure to select one that your physicians participate in. Having continuous quality care from your doctor is important so selecting a plan they participate in is often better then choosing a plan that will require you to switch doctors. Take this into consideration when comparing plans.

photo credit: leoncillo sabino

Most Americans have some form of life insurance. Knowing that ones loved ones will be take care of should sudden tragedy strike, or natural death occur, gives peace of mind to individuals. Others want to know they have money saved should they need it for an emergency in later years, regardless of the payout to beneficiaries. Many people get confused when trying to decide what type of life insurance to purchase.  But is whole life insurance really a good investment?

First, what is it…

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a permanent life insurance policy. It lasts throughout the policy holders life or until the policy holder decides to end or cash in the policy. As long a premiums are paid, whole life insurance continues. Payments are made monthly and the rate always stays the same.

Benefits

With whole life insurance, policy holders can just leave the policy alone, keeping it active and collecting interest until they pass away. Upon the policy holders death, whomever was named as the beneficiary of the policy, will collect the pay out benefits.

However, there are other options and benefits to having a whole life insurance policy. Policy holders of whole life insurance, can cash in parts or all of the value of their policy at any time. Because whole life policies earn interest, policy holders often cash in on the interest alone. Thus they essentially leave the original value of the policy the same, only collecting the interest payments to help supplement their income or help pay expenses.

Policy holders can also choose to cash in all or part of their policy if they wish. Should an individual face a financial emergency or just want to go on a fun vacation, they may take out some of the money from their policy. The policy would remain active but would just have a lower pay out value. If one chooses to cash out the whole value of the policy, the policy would be closed and there would be no benefit payout upon death.

Another benefit is that policy holders can borrow from their whole life insurance policy. They can use the money that they take from the policy as they wish, temporarily reducing the pay out amount. However, once they pay the money back, the benefit amount would return to what it was before the money was borrowed.

Drawbacks

Because whole life insurance policies are meant to be paid on for a long period of time, they do not typically benefit the elderly. The premiums would be very high on a whole life policy for someone of retirement age and this is where a term policy might be better.

Another drawback to a whole life policy is that if one chooses to withdraw money from the policy, they reduce the payout amount to the beneficiary. One may borrow money from the policy, with the intention of paying it back, but never get the chance, thus leaving the beneficiary with less of a pay out.

My Experience With Whole Life Insurance

First, let me say that I have never owned whole life insurance.  I’m more the firm believer that term life insurance makes more sense for me and my family.  Hence, why I have 3 individual term life policies on myself.

How I have experienced whole life insurance is through my clients.   I have several clients that took out a whole life insurance policy many years ago (ranging from 5 years to 20 years).  They were sold on the idea of having some life insurance with an underlying investment attached to it.   Heck, it’s a good story for anyone to consider.

What has actually happened is this:   They have paid on this policy for an extended period of time and while the life insurance is there, the investment portion is not.   At least it’s not as much as the illustrations that were run by the insurance agent that sold them the policy.

The funny thing is that most of these clients continue to pay on their policies even though they really don’t need the insurance.   If this is you, I strongly encourage to review your whole life insurance policy and see if it still makes sense in your overall financial plan.

Get your free life insurance quote here.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Most people want to know their families will have a secure financial future. When you start planning for how you’ll care for your family years from now, it’s likely that you will consider a variety of options. Life insurance should be among the possibilities you study.

Life insurance protects your assets and offers you a chance to help keep your family in a comfortable lifestyle after you’re gone, or even assist a grandchild with paying for a college education. Depending on the life insurance you choose, you could even draw cash from the policy in the event of an emergency or a promising opportunity.

There are two basic types of life insurance: term life and whole life. People value the two for different reasons, and they offer diverse benefits. Here’s a little more about the differences.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is life insurance for a set amount of time, or term (10, 20 or 30 years). If you die before this time is up, your beneficiaries will be paid the face value of your policy. This investment option comes at a lower premium cost because the cash value of the policy does not increase with time, and is often more in tune with a person’s budgetary restrictions.

Whole Life Insurance

A whole life policy lasts for as long as you live. Your beneficiaries will receive a payout equivalent to the value of the policy you purchased, plus interest and other cash-deferred amounts. Life insurance rates are more expensive for whole life policies, but the returns can be much greater if you have the time and financial resources to devote to building this resource. You can also use the savings you build here for other purposes if you choose, and while you are still alive.

What should you choose?

The right form of life insurance depends on your needs and goals for your future. Those with money available to spend might benefit from a whole life policy and the effects it can have on their estate planning. Term life policies are a little more flexible if your budget changes, or if you have other changes you encounter with the passing of time.

Ultimately, you may find that a financial advisor or other professional will be best suited to help you choose the right policy to help fulfill your goals. A trained individual will know how to look at your needs, assets, and other factors to appropriately counsel you as you map out your future.

photo credit: LuieRRe

You know that having insurance is important, but it can be pricey sometimes. If you want to save money on insurance, one of the best things you can do is shop around, getting different quotes. As you might expect, one of the best ways to shop around is to use the Internet to your advantage. There are a number of web sites that will provide you with an insurance quote for free. However, before you begin, you should know what you will need to get your free insurance quote online.

Information You Need for a Free Insurance Quote Online

Because insurance rates vary by ZIP code, you will need to enter your location before you begin. Each type of insurance requires different information to complete your quote. If you are looking for auto insurance quotes, you will need to provide information about your car, and how it is used. You will also need to offer information about drivers, including ages and accidents.

Other types of insurance quotes require other pieces of information that can help the quote generator get a better idea of what sort of risk you represent. For life insurance, your age and general state of health will be asked for, for homeowner’s insurance, companies want to know about your home and claims made on previous insurance. Health insurance quotes usually include a questionnaire about past health problems, as well as current health habits (such as tobacco use).

You might also be asked for your Social Security number. Realize that some insurance companies run a credit check before offering you a quote. Your credit score can influence how much you pay in insurance premiums.

Contact from a Representative

In some cases, you might be contacted by a representative. Some online insurance quote web sites are little more than lead generators for insurance agents. As a result, you will get an email or a call about your quote. Before submitting all of your information, it can be a good idea to double check to see what the policy is for the site with regard to contacting you. You want to receive the quote immediately — not have the quote delivered to you by an insurance salesperson.

Editor’s Note: I experimented with this when I was doing research with my mortgage protection life insurance post.  Within minutes of submitting my request, my phone rang with a local insurance agent attempting to make sale.

If possible, try to use an aggregator. These web sites offer quotes from multiple web sites. This way, you can compare prices and coverages before making your decision. Eventually, though, there is a good change you will have to connect with an agent to finalize the policy, and the payment method.

Your Final Premium

Of course, it is important to realize that the free quote you receive online may not be the premium you end up paying. In many cases, your free online insurance quote will be followed up by a verification of information you have already given, as well as more questions. In the case of life insurance or health insurance, you might be required to provide a blood sample and a urine sample for testing. Some companies will send a nurse to your home to take your samples, and to record your blood pressure and weight. Only after all of this extra information is gathered will your final premium be set, and payment set up.