As someone who has life insurance and at one-time use to sell life insurance, you might be wondering what is the average cost of life insurance is for you.
A $100,000 term life insurance death benefit for men can run between $12.64 at age 20 to $92.38 at age 60. A $100,000 term life insurance death benefit for women can run between $10.44 at age 20 to $54.87 at age 60. Life insurance cost very for a lot of reasons from age, current health condition, the type of policy you decide to get, to the amount of coverage you get.
As you can see the rates vary a lot and in order to find the true cost you need to take several these several considerations in mind. However to give you an idea of what you might pay I ran a few quotes with an insurance broker just to help you see what’s possible.
Keep reading to see how much a life insurance policy could cost you.
What is the Average Life Insurance Cost Per Month?
If you’re looking to buy life insurance you may be wondering just how much all of this will cost you. In this article, I’m going to share with you the actual rates I got from insurance companies.
This would include companies like Pacific Life, American General, Transamerica, Banner Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Prudential, and a whole lot more.
Before I share the rates there are a few things I want to cover.
First, rates can vary for a bunch of different reasons. The rates I’m sharing here are going to be for a term life insurance with a death benefit of $100,000.
These rates are also based on a healthy person who does not smoke or has any kind of health condition.
There are two charts. One for men and one for women. I did this to show you how rates between men and women vary.
Finally, none of these rates guarantee that you can or will get the rates that I share below. Afterall this is designed to show you what you could possibly pay if you were to get a quote yourself.
All rates vary on a wide variety of things which I also cover further down in this article.
Men’s Term Life Insurance Premiums Chart
| Age | Policy Type | Premiums/Monthly | Death Benefit |
| 20 | 30 Year Term | $12.64 – $18.77 | $100,000 |
| 30 | 30 Year Term | $12.98 – $19.72 | $100,000 |
| 40 | 30 Year Term | $18.12 – $28.83 | $100,000 |
| 50 | 30 Year Term | $38.50 – $61.70 | $100,000 |
| 60 | 20 Year Term | $54.65 – $92.38 | $100,000 |
| 70 | 20 Year Term | $206.23 – $397.06 | $100,000 |
| 80 | 10 Year Term | $289.63 – $753.02 | $100,000 |
*Rates are subject to change, as this is only an example.
Women’s Term Life Insurance Premiums Chart
| Age | Policy Type | Premiums/Monthly | Death Benefit |
| 20 | 30 Year Term | $10.44 – $13.51 | $100,000 |
| 30 | 30 Year Term | $10.75 – $14.15 | $100,000 |
| 40 | 30 Year Term | $15.11 – $19.60 | $100,000 |
| 50 | 30 Year Term | $27.57 – $38.42 | $100,000 |
| 60 | 20 Year Term | $36.37 – $54.87 | $100,000 |
| 70 | 20 Year Term | $171.48 – $323.79 | $100,000 |
| 80 | 10 Year Term | $198.11 – $496.77 | $100,000 |
*Rates are subject to change, as this is only an example.
Obviously this is just the tip of the iceberg. These rates can go up or down for a lot of different reasons which I will cover more in the next section.
However, there are a few things I want to point out from the rates I ran above that I noticed.
#1 Rates Generally Stay Lower From Age 20 to age 40. For a healthy man or woman buying life insurance between the ages of 20 to 40 can expect to see lower rates. This is because younger people statistically have less of a chance of dying.
According to finder.com at age 20 you only have 5.96% of dying within 30 years. At age 40 that jumps to a 23.41% chance of dying over the next 30 years.
#2 Rates After 50 Go Up Substantially. Obviously the older you get the higher your chances are that you’ll develop health issues, or even die. As result rates will go up. This means the earlier you buy your coverage the better deal you will get. This is because once you buy your policy the rate or the amount you pay on a monthly basis will stay the same.
This includes all types of policies from term, universal, whole life, to variable universal life insurance. The only way rates will change is the policy lapses, cancels, and start a new one, or add something to your policy like a rider.
#3 Policy Types Change as You Get Older. Another thing you may notices is that the type of policy you can get differs as you get older. The reason for this is because insurance companies don’t like to hand out a 30-year term policy to an 80-year-old person.
The chances of that person making it to the age of 110 are very unlikely. But there is a good chance an 80-year-old person may be able to live to be 90. This is why the term limits went down as they got older.
#4 Women Pay Less than Men. Finally, one thing I’ve noticed from just a few quotes I’ve pulled is that rates for women tend to be less than men.
This gets more noticeable the older you get. At a young age, the cost is only a few dollars different. However at an older age, say 80, the difference is huge.
In the example above an 80-year-old man in good health can get a 10-year term policy for roughly $289.63 while an 80-year-old healthy woman could get the same policy for $198.11.
This is a difference of $91.52 a month or $1098.24 a year more!
These Aren’t the Only Differences
Now this isn’t the only place you’ll see a difference with rates as I mentioned at the beginning of this article there are a lot of ways the rate of life insurance policy can differ and that is what I want to share with you in the rest of this article.
What Determines How Much Life Insurance Will Cost
There are actually 10 major things that can affect life insurance rates. In each way, I will give you examples of what these costs might be.
#1 Age
The first factor that’s obviously going to play a big role in the rates you get on your life insurance policy is your age. As I pointed out earlier the older you get the more you will pay for life insurance.
However just to give you an idea of how much let’s run a few numbers. Based on the quote above here are some rough numbers you could see when you quote a life insurance plan for yourself.
Men Term Life Insurance Rates
| Age | Policy Type | Premiums/Monthly | Death Benefit |
| 20 | 30 Year Term | $12.64 | $100,000 |
| 80 | 10 Year Term | $289.63 | $100,000 |
*Rates are subject to change, as this is only an example.
As you can see rates grew by nearly $276.99 over the course of 60 years. This means every year you wait to buy life insurance it will cost you an average additional $4.62 per month or $55.44 per year more.
Now let’s see how much more it might cost for a woman if they decide to wait to buy life insurance.
| Age | Policy Type | Premiums/Monthly | Death Benefit |
| 20 | 30 Year Term | $10.44 | $100,000 |
| 80 | 10 Year Term | $198.11 | $100,000 |
*Rates are subject to change, as this is only an example.
For woman rates grew by $187.67 over a 60 year period. This means every year you wait to buy life insurance it will cost you on average an additional $3.13 per month or $37.56 per year more.
#2 Gender
As I covered earlier gender also plays a big role in cost. To give you an idea of the cost difference I put together this side by side comparison to show you the difference.
| Age | Men’s Premiums/Monthly | Women’s Premiums/Monthly | Difference |
| 20 | $12.64 | $10.44 | $2.20 |
| 30 | $12.98 | $10.75 | $2.23 |
| 40 | $18.12 | $15.11 | $3.01 |
| 50 | $38.58 | $27.57 | $11.01 |
| 60 | $54.65 | $36.37 | $18.28 |
| 70 | $206.23 | $171.48 | $34.75 |
| 80 | $289.63 | $198.11 | $91.52 |
*Rates are subject to change, as this is only an example.
Mortality charts show that men are more likely to die earlier than women which is why the rates for men are so much higher at older ages.
#3 Your Current Health
Your current health also plays a role in how much you’ll pay for your life insurance. If you have diabetes, heart problems, or even high cholesteral it can raise your rates.
It can even determine if you’ll get life insurance in the first place. I’ve had clients who seemed perfectly fine and after an extensive underwriting process found the insurance company declined their coverage.
So what should you do if you’re in this situation? If you are still recovering from the situation you’re in, you may want to wait to purchase coverage till you’re in a healthier state.
At the very worse you can at least apply for coverage to see if you can get it. The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll be declined.
#4 Smoking
Smoking also plays a big role in how much you’ll pay for coverage as well.
| Age | Term | NonSmoking Male | Smoking Male | Difference |
| 20 | 30 Years | $12.64 | $33.32 | $20.68 |
| 30 | 30 Years | $12.98 | $38.33 | $25.35 |
| 40 | 30 Years | $18.12 | $69.02 | $50.90 |
| 50 | 30 Years | $38.50 | $152.25 | $113.75 |
| 60 | 20 Years | $54.65 | $234.05 | $179.40 |
| 70 | 15 Years | $206.23 | $445.46 | $239.23 |
| 80 | 10 Years | $289.63 | N/A | – |
If you can’t figure out after reading the chart above, smoking is going to cost you big time. If you take out a term life policy at age 20 as a smoker you’ll pay $20.68 more a month.
If you pay that over a 30-year policy you’ll pay around $7,444.80 not to mention all of those cigarettes literally burning a hole in your pocket.
That’s just at the age of 20. By the age of 50, it jumps up to almost $114 a month extra and it only goes up from there. After 30 years you’ll have paid an extra $40,950. Ouch!
The bottom line is doesn’t pay to smoke, it’ll save you thousands of dollars in the long run.
#5 High-Risk Occupations
High-risk occupations may also drive up the cost of your life insurance as well. In fact, if you do certain activities you may have to waive your right to be covered while doing it.
If you fly airplanes, skydive, rock climb, or a myriad of other things you’ll likely have to sign a waiver that will allow you to claim any of the death benefits if you do these activities.
So if you do any of these activities you will have to disclose them when you are applying for coverage.
#6 Type of Life Insurance
The type of life insurance you get can also affect how much you’ll pay as well. If you have a term life policy you’ll pay a different premium than if you get a universal life policy.
Below are some example rates I pulled for a $100,000 death benefit between a term life policy and and a universal life policy.
| Age | Term Life | Universal Life | Coverage | Difference |
| 20 | $12.64 | $38.11 | $100,000 | $25.47 |
| 30 | $12.98 | $55.13 | $100,000 | $42.15 |
| 40 | $18.12 | $84.57 | $100,000 | $66.42 |
| 50 | $38.50 | $122.40 | $100,000 | $83.90 |
| 60 | $54.65 | $186.70 | $100,000 | $132.05 |
| 70 | $206.23 | $335.70 | $100,000 | $129.47 |
| 80 | $289.63 | $788.30 | $100,000 | $498.67 |
As you can see going with permanent type policy such as whole life or universal life policy will be way more costly in the long term.
A term policy will be your cheapest option. At age 20 a universal life policy will already cost 3 times more than a term life policy. Instead, why not just get 3 times the coverage for the same amount of money.
I did this several years ago when I got rid of my variable universal life policy which had $250,000 of coverage and switched to a term life policy and doubled my coverage for the same money.
#7 Amount of Life Insurance
The amount of life insurance you get can also play a big role in the amount you’ll pay.
You might think a $100,000 in coverage would be enough, but what about your mortgage, car loans, kids’ college funds, not to mention the funeral expenses.
Here is a few quotes I ran on how price can range for a 40 year old male.
| Coverage | Policy | Monthly Premium |
| $100,000 | 30 Year Term | $30.63 |
| $200,000 | 30 Year Term | $46.73 |
| $300,000 | 30 Year Term | $66.87 |
| $400,000 | 30 Year Term | $87.00 |
| $500,000 | 30 Year Term | $104.52 |
One of the great things I’ve found with term life insurance is that the first $100,000 of a policy will cost the most. In this example of some rate I ran I found that for a 40 year old male it would cost $30.63.
You would think for an additional $30 you would get only $200,000 in coverage but you’ll actually get $300,000 in coverage.
Important: If you have to get more coverage, add it to your existing policy as that will likely be much cheaper than getting a new policy.
Also, think about the amount of coverage you’ll actually need. According to ThinkAdvisor, 40% of Americans are underinsured. Adding more coverage probably won’t cost as much as you think.
#8 Insurance Riders
Insurance riders can also add cost to your life insurance policy. One of the most common riders is the return on the premium rider. This rider does basically as it says, it returns the premiums you’ve paid over the life of the policy.
When I switched to term policy several years ago I added this rider to my policy. What I like about this option is that I can elect to get all of my money back after my policy ends.
I also have the option to convert it to a paid up policy as well if I choose to.
The question is how much does it cost? Riders are charged by basis points. A basis point is a percentage of 1%. So if a rider cost 25 basis points the cost of the rider will cost a quarter of a percent.
For example, if your policy cost $30 and the cost of the rider is 25 basis points then the rider might cost 7.5 cents a month.
The price of a rider varies by company but you’ll have to talk to your insurance agent to see what it will cost.
#9 Where You Live
Where you live can also raise or lower your premiums. However this obviously will depend on the company also go with as well.
Insurance companies are regulated by the state in which they reside not by the federal government. As result rates may vary in price.
However their is a movement to change this and have the federal government oversee the insurance industry. This has been going on for years but I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
#10 Weight
Finally, your height and weight can make a difference in the amount you pay. A 200 pound male will pay vastly different rates than a 350 male.
Below is a chart to give an example of a $100,000 term life policy.
| Age | 200 lb Male | 350 lb Male | Difference |
| 20 | $12.64 | $19.47 | $6.83 |
| 30 | $12.98 | $19.75 | $6.77 |
| 40 | $18.12 | $32.63 | $14.51 |
| 50 | $38.50 | $72.61 | $34.11 |
| 60 | $54.65 | N/A | – |
| 70 | $206.23 | N/A | – |
| 80 | $289.63 | N/A | – |
Like all other things being overweight is going to cost you. What’s worse is that if you decide to buy life insurance late in life there is a pretty good chance you won’t get coverage.
If you plan to buy coverage in your early 60’s and you’re overweight then you may not be able to qualify for coverage.
In the end being young and healthy will give you the best rates. So consider getting life insurance sooner rather than later.
