How much does life insurance cost per month?
Everyone eventually passes away, but if you have life insurance, your passing might be somewhat easier for your family to handle from a financial perspective.
If you pass away at a relatively young age, for example, your spouse, kids or other loved ones might struggle without the help of your income to pay the bills. But a life insurance payout can help fill that gap.
If you're in the market for life insurance then start by getting a free price estimate so you know exactly what to expect.
How much does life insurance cost per month?
Depending on factors such as your age, gender, smoking history and more, life insurance monthly costs can vary significantly. Life insurance costs also vary quite a bit based on the type of policy you're looking for.
Life insurance premiums for whole life insurance policies, for example, which can provide lifelong coverage, tend to cost significantly more than term life insurance policies that have expiration dates.
If you outlive a term policy, you generally wouldn't collect anything, though there are some exceptions like if you developed a critical illness during the term and had a critical illness rider for the policy. With whole life insurance and other types of permanent life insurance policies, you pay more each month but can also get benefits like building up a cash value for your policy.
Because whole life insurance policy decisions can be tied to investment considerations (i.e., you might be more comfortable building up assets via a whole life insurance policy vs. investing on your own), here we'll take a closer look at term life insurance policy costs to give you a better sense of what the core life insurance benefit — payouts in the event of your death — could cost.
You can get your own free price quote for a term life insurance policy from Haven Life now.
Sample Life Insurance Quotes
The following monthly quotes are based on $250,000 in coverage for a no-exam, 20-year term policy from Haven Life (using the Haven Simple offering) for a policyholder in California in excellent health, who does not use tobacco, e-cigarettes, or other nicotine-containing products. Rates are for illustrative purposes only and may vary based on your circumstances.
Male | Female | |
A 30-year-old policyholder | $17.31 | $12.78 |
A 40-year-old policyholder | $22.82 | $17.90 |
A 50-year-old policyholder | $54.48 | $41.55 |
Keep in mind that no-exam life insurance policies like these tend to cost more than ones that require a medical exam, though the specifics also differ based on factors such as your age and the insurance provider you're getting a quote from.
The reason for the higher cost of a no-exam policy is that the insurer essentially takes on more risk if they don't verify your health first. But the simplicity of getting a life insurance policy online, without getting a medical exam, might make extra costs worth it to you.
As you get older, you might not be able to find no-exam policies quite as easily. Haven Simple, for example, has a maximum age of 55.5. Another no-exam policy provider, Ladder, has a maximum age of 60.
A 60-year-old male, at favorable terms, could get a 10-year, $250,000 term life insurance policy from Ladder for roughly $70 per month, while a 60-year-old woman with the same factors would pay approximately $50 per month.
As you can see, rates go up significantly as you get older, and your options can shrink. If you're already a senior, though, that doesn't mean you're locked out of the life insurance market.
One option is final expense insurance to help your family pay for things like a funeral after you pass away. These policies tend to have more limited coverage, and thus the monthly premiums often remain affordable for seniors. If you're younger, though, you might decide to buy a larger insurance policy while you can still lock in favorable rates.
That said, rates can vary significantly from person to person and among different life insurance providers. So, it's tough to generalize. To get a better sense of what your life insurance options look like and to see customized rates, consider completing applications with a few different providers to obtain life insurance quotes. You can get a free price estimate from Ladder now or you can use the table below to start comparing some top providers currently on the market.
