You’re considering getting life insurance, but it’s all new to you. You want to know how to buy life insurance, how much coverage you should get, and what the process involves. In this guide, we’ll work to answer your questions including how to buy life insurance online and the factors that will be used by underwriters to calculate your premiums. After reading this article, you’ll know how to buy a life insurance policy, how to determine whether it’s right for you, and more.

Do You Need Life Insurance? If So, How Much do You Need?

There’s no sense in buying life insurance just for the sake of having it. Consider why you’re thinking about buying life insurance.  For example, you might just want to leave a legacy to your family, or you might be concerned that they won’t cope without your financial input.

Current Financial Needs

Before deciding on an answer, assess your financial situation with reference to your family and household obligations. If you’re an important contributor to the family’s finances, you might want life insurance to act as a replacement for the income you’d otherwise earn. If you’re in debt, any amounts you owe will be deducted from your estate and that might mean selling property you own to cover the amounts needed. Will this disadvantage your family?

Future Financial Needs

You should also consider future financial needs. For example, if you have children, you might like to pay their university fees. If you aren’t there to do so, will your family be able to cover the costs?

Determine What You Want Covered, Amounts Needed, and When

While considering these questions, make notes so that you know whether you’ve considered all the most important angles. Jot down the amounts involved and note the possible dates when these financial needs will arise. You’ll need this information to make an informed choice on whether you need cover, the death benefits you’d want an insurer to provide, and what type of insurance to buy. You can use our handy life insurance cover calculator to work out how much cover you need.

Choose a Life Insurance Policy Type

Now that you know what will be needed, when financial needs will arise, and when your obligations will end, you can choose a policy type. Here’s a quick rundown of your options and their pros and cons.

Whole Life Cover

Whole life cover means that a fixed amount will be paid out no matter when you die. If you live to be a hundred, you’ll keep paying premiums until you pass away and your family’s financial needs will have changed. They may not need a death benefit by this time, and you can be very sure that the premiums on whole life cover are higher because your insurers are dealing with an outcome that’s bound to happen sooner or later.

Term Life Cover

With term life cover, you determine how much is needed to help your family and when you expect that need to end. After that time, your policy can be terminated without disadvantaging your family. The big benefit here is that you can get higher death benefits in exchange for lower premiums.

Your insurance company can afford to make a better offer because you might outlive the term of your life insurance policy, and your family won’t need as much help, so not having life insurance won’t be a financial disaster for them. It’s a win-win situation.

Decreasing Term Cover

Let’s suppose that your primary reason for buying life insurance is to cover an outstanding amount on your home’s mortgage. Since you’re paying it every month, the amount owed becomes less over time.  As a result, a lower death benefit will be adequate for your family’s needs as time goes on.

Although the amount you pay in premiums remains fixed for the duration of your term cover, your underwriters can offer even lower premiums because the amount they would have to pay if you were to die decreases with the passage of time. Since your family’s financial needs will also be less, it’s another win-win.

Shop Around

Now that you know what you’re looking for in life insurance, it’s time to shop around. Compare competing insurance companies’ products with reference to your needs and their cost. Yes, we sell insurance, but we still encourage you to look at competing offers. We specialise in term life insurance for people with Type 2 diabetes, our specialist life insurance is built from the ground up for those living with Type 2 diabetes and fully personalised according to your needs.

Since you’re looking at all your options, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t have to do your initial investigation at physical locations around your town. You can do a little “armchair shopping” online. Most insurers provide online calculators and application forms that you can use to assess their products. If you decide to accept an offer, you should be able to do so online.

Remember to tell your beneficiaries once you’ve activated a life insurance policy and keep hard copies of your documentation where they will be found if you were to die unexpectedly.

What Affects Your Life Insurance Rate?

When you apply for life insurance, underwriters will be interested in your likelihood of passing away early. If they think you might die anytime soon, they will either refuse to insure you or will offer you insurance in exchange for higher premiums. To determine their risk, they will want to know your age, your gender, and any factors that they see as health risks.

To get this information, they’ll expect you to complete a questionnaire. It’s essential that you answer this truthfully. If you aren’t completely honest, they could decline a claim against your policy because the information in your application wasn’t entirely true.

When you specify something that they think is of concern, many insurers will ask for access to your medical records or ask you to submit reports from your doctors. Further assessment could take months, and during this time, you don’t have any life cover.

If this is a pain point for you, you aren’t alone! At Bluezone Insurance, we’ve found a good way to eliminate the waiting times that people with Type 2 diabetes are usually subjected to while still offering fair premiums that are tailored to the individual.

Do You Have Type 2 Diabetes? Start Your Search Here

If you have Type 2 diabetes and want to know how to buy life insurance that takes your efforts towards managing your condition into account, Bluezone is the place to start. We offer you a quick, easy way to confirm your health status, provide free interim cover while we process your application, and offer you fair premiums.  Why subject yourself to delays when you can get better insurance for less? Try our easy online application process now.

‍

This is a blog and should not be taken as financial advice.