All Life Insurance Tips

Where can I buy level term life insurance directly from the company w/o paying agent fees?...?

...(Co. must be highly rated. I have tried sites like insure.com, but they refer you back to individual agents, much to my dismay.

Public Comments

1. You cannot. Even if you talk to the insurance company directly, you will be talking with one of THEIR AGENTS. State law in every state, requires that an AGENT is the one who talks to you about insurance, and accepts your payment. You cannot avoid the agent. Which means, you cannot avoid the agent fees. Which, by the way, are not SEPERATE, but built into the rate. Even if you COULD buy your insurance from a company without an agent, you don't get a lower RATE.
2. When you buy term life insurance, the fee paid to the agent is paid almost all of the time by the company, not by you. You can tell if you are paying a fee if the premium in the first year is higher than subsequent years. If it is level term insurance, the premium will be level for the life of the contract. Buying term insurance is a good way to get a lot of insurance to protect you and your family in the short run. But, in the long run it is the most expensive insurance you can buy. Example: (the costs listed below are hypothetical for the example only) Male age 45 20 year level term premium $1,000 Face amount $1,000,000 After tax cost of money 6% (this is the after tax average return of all your investment) Conventional wisdom says you will pay $20,000 for the insurance. $1,000/yr for 20 years = $20,000 But, you will really be paying $38,993. $1,000/yr X20 years x 6%. This what your money would have earned had you invested it. Now you are 65 and your insurance expires (20 year level term). You now have no insurance. It is assumed you have accumulated a sum of money and now don’t need the insurance. But, the insurance company still has the premiums you paid not you. You live to age 85. The $38,993 has now grown to $125,055 ($38,993 x 6% for 20 years) So, the lost opportunity cost of you term insurance was not $20,000 it was $125,055 And, since the insurance has expired, your family has lost the $1,000,000 death benefit. So the loss of wealth to the family is $1,125,055 When you retire, we no longer really need life insurance. We need asset insurance. You need to make sure no matter what happens, (subprime mortgage problems, inflation, liability law suit, major medical emergency,etc) your family is protected from factors beyond your control. The life insurance has now become asset insurance. This makes sure that your family has money in case your savings are reduced by outside factors. You also need to protect yourself based on your human life value. This is your financial value to those you love by estimating the future financial contributions you will make to your family ... or, the financial loss that your family would incur if you were to die today. A human life only has economic value in its relation to other lives, specifically a spouse or dependent children. Therefore, if you have neither, then you do not need to do a calculation. As a financial planner, I see 90% of my clients have too little insurance, the wrong kind, and poor planning because they originally decided to do the planning themselves. No insurance coverage is correct in all situations. It pays to sit down with a financial advisor to develop a plan that protects your heirs and provides the lowest out of pocket cost.
3. You don't pay agent fees. You pay the premium. Regardless of whether you go direct or go through a broker you pay the premium. BUT, if you go through a broker you get professional help and they get compensated from the company. If you knew how the system worked, then you'd probably be able to advise yourself. If you're not sure how the system works, then you might want to shy away from giving yourself advice about what products to buy.