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Life insurance question - term life and term life with return of premium?

Hello, my spouse and I are in the market for life insurance now. After some researching, we have pretty much decided to go with term or term return of premium insurance. I still have following to decide and if you could enlighten me on these I would appreciate it very much. Which company? I found the following list that's supposed to be the best life insurance companies at this website. http://www.lifeinsurancestar.com/lifeinsurance/company-ratings.php * New York Life: A++, stable outlook * Mass Mutual: A++, stable outlook * State Farm: A++, stable outlook * Geico: A++, stable outlook Does this mean I should probably check out these companies? We have State Farm for auto and home insurance. Would State Farm be a good way to go (convenient to have all three in one place)? I also thought Geico didn't offer life insurance. I was led to LifeQuotes page from Geico. Does this mean that this list is not reliable? How much? We are 40-45 years old, just We still have almost 30 years of mortgage, and 20 years of raising our son. I was using some calculator online (Kiplinger, Life Foundation?) to calculate how much coverage I need, and they both returned figures like 1+ million. How can this be? Is 1 million life insurance common these days? We have about 170,000 in remaining mortgage balance (actually I only included half of that in calculation), and I calculated monthly living expense to be 2,000-3,000 (depending on if our child is still with us)/month with my spouse's income to be 2,000/month, and also included college cost. Does this seem reasonable that this will add up to be million dollars in 30 years, with inflation? I was thinking of about 300,000-400,000 before using these calculators. Term or Term ROP? We have almost decided against Term ROP and to go with straight term, but are not final on this decision. What do you all think about ROP? With ROP, do we typically actually receive ALL of the premium, or are there any fees etc. subtracted from the refunded amount? Also, does ROP term insurance give you investment returns in addition to the amount of premium you paid? One of the reasons that we are leaning towards straight term is that with our current age, with 20-30 year policies, the likelihood we’ll actually be using the “death benefit” would be moderately high – then ROP won’t be such a good deal, as well as hearing that if we just get term and invest the difference in the premium, we’d be ahead of term ROP. How long? In this case, should we try to get a 20 year term (for while our son will be with us), or 30 year term, just to cover the full length of the mortgage, although I wouldn’t need that much coverage towards the end of 30 years (our son will be with us for only 20 more years, our mortgage will be paid off except for last 10 years or so)? Or buy 25 year return of premium term policy and pay 5 more years of mortgage using the money we receive from return of premium? Or buy two term policies - a large amount of 20 year policy plus a smaller amount (to cover the remaining mortgage balance in the last 10 years of mortgage)? Thank you for your help! Also, would we be able to buy term insurance online from these companies, and have guaranteed conversion and renewal (are these the two things I need?) (when purchased online)? - without going in to the agent's office or having an agent come to the office? One visit for health assessment is fine. We just can't have that many appointments while comparison shopping. Thanks! InsurancePickle.com, are you referring to State Farm or Geico when you say not to buy life insurance from a auto insurance company? Could you (or someone else) tell me what would be the disadvantage if I did? Thank you! To all respondents: Please give me guidance on how to find an insurance agent (not tied to a specific insurance company). Would an online agent like Lifequotes.com, where I can talk to a live person if I'd like by calling an 800 number, be OK?

Public Comments

1. You are better of with Whole life insurance, not term life insurance. Yes, a million dollars is what you would need with inflation.
2. a) You don't buy life insurance from a car insurance company b) You don't need the highest ratings when buying term life insurance - A-, A, A+ and A++ are all fine. c) Regarding ROP term why not buy ROP term and still invest so you're diversified? Why not get something guaranteed and also give yourself some options when you get to the end of the policy? If it's $20 or $30 more per month, why not do it? Do you really super analyze $20? I'm not looking at the options, I'm just giving you generic info. d) Buy from an insurance broker. They can show you all of the plans and there's no need to meet with anybody to buy term life insurance. It's a phone transaction, but go through a broker that can help you. Do not use a large, online firm as they're not going to be of any assistance in any other areas for you and it doesn't save you money. Find a broker, ask them your questions, have them show you quotes from dozens of companies and buy from the broker.. It's that simple.
3. You can locate an independent agent by typing in your zip code at the agent locator tab, at www.iiaba.net, to answer your last question first. Sorry, I'm hitting them in opposite order! Online life insurance agents are going to deal with many areas of the country, and probably won't be as familiar with LOCAL options, as a LOCAL agent. Plus, you might get shuffled around the call center, to get to an agent licensed in YOUR state. I'm not Pickle, but I can tell you State Farm has some of the HIGHEST life insurance rates around. They JUST aren't very competitive. A million dollars is reasonable. Regarding those four companies that popped up at the top of the list, sure, check them out - but all it means, is that they PAID to be shown at the top of the list. That's pretty much what you're going to run into, with online rate comparison sites - you'll be steered towards the company that pays the webmaster best. When you buy insurance online, you can usually do the entire transaction by mail, except for the paramedical exam. And you won't get that, until you've PICKED an insurance company, submitted an application, along with a deposit amount. THEN they'll "verify" your rate for you. I'm not a fan of ROP term, and I think I explained that in a prior question, in detail. Look, if you want an "online" experience, I had a pretty good one, at Zander Insurance, and they're licensed in all 50 states. But you've got enough questions and concerns, that honestly, wouldn't you like to be able to develop a relationship with ONE agent that has an office near you, where you can drop by if you have questions or problems? Additionally, with young children involved, maybe it might be worth it to spring for a fee based financial planner, instead, who ISN'T going to try to sell you anything, and will give you TRULY unbiased advice.