[iron]

i'm looking to get some term life insurance and visited a few of the expedia-like policy search engine sits. i put in my data about a week ago, got some quotes, then came back last night to verify the prices. i had data ranging from 15 year to 30 year and $250k - $500k in $50k increments. across the board, the quote prices went up. low end was 4%; high end was 25%. is this common? do they price differently on random days? or when a president is closer to impeachment? i didn't cross an age threshold that i know of in the last week, so can't really understand.

[boot up]

carefully read the fine print!

[Tom]

You probably entered something wrong / different the first time. Quotes shouldn't change very much.

[Jumble Jowls]

Ever notice how airline tickets go up when you've priced them once or twice online? Probably has something to do with cookies.

[iron]

[Backpacker Joe]

As I understand it, you should look into Ten times your yearly salary for a good starting point.

[Jumble Jowls]

This has been investigated, at least with airline tickets, and it appears that online retailers do use cookies and your purchasing history to jack up prices. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/mcgee/2013/04/03/do-travel-deals-change-based-on-your-browsing-history/2021993/ https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2010/aug/07/computer-cookies-booking-online

[Matt Lemke]

[Navy salad]

I used to work as an actuary (the people who determine pricing) for a life insurance company (Safeco Life) back in the 80's and at that time at least, pricing was all about the interest rate environment (short, mid and long term expectations, mostly based on bond prices). Their pricing was very stable, ie changed very little, except when interest rates changed. I suggest getting at least a couple bids from large, well-established insurance companies for comparison purposes. If you decide to go with a smaller or Internet-only company, be sure to check feedback/ratings very thoroughly. I believe Consumer Reports has a separate publication that rates insurance companies (or at least they did at one time). Also, be wary of "rules of thumb" since everyone's circumstances are different -- especially if the "rule of thumb" is coming from someone who gets a commission. The only time I ever owned life insurance was when my kids were living at home and my savings weren't very high and it would have imposed a financial hardship if anything happened to me. If you read advertising or even articles from AARP, they try to make it sound like everyone needs life insurance. Not true! Lastly, I agree with your decision to look at Term Life insurance. Salesman of life insurance like to pitch Whole Life Insurance, saying "If you die, you get a windfall; if you live, you (eventually) get all your money back with interest" -- but they don't mention the interest rates will fall well below what you could earn on your own with even very conservative investing.

[iron]

thanks for the input. it seemed like lincoln financial consistently came up as the lowest price across most of the quote combinations. from what i can tell, they've been around awhile and have a good rating (if ratings are worth anything). i have yet to clear my cookies, so i will see what happens when i do.

[Navy salad]

I do believe the ratings are meaningful. There are two different types of ratings: financial strength; and service quality. Since life insurance is more "cut and dried" than most other types of insurance, I think the biggest factor is financial strength. Also note that life insurance pricing is very much driven by actuarial (ie probability-based) mathematics, so you pretty much get what you pay for. For example, guaranteed renewable policies (or other special options) are more expensive, because it's like buying a second insurance policy against the risk of your becoming otherwise uninsurable, etc.

[Tom]

I wouldn't worry about financial ratings myself at least not for term life. That would be more important if your policy had some sort of cash value and the insurance company was holding the funds but even in those cases it would be very unlikely that a regulator would allow the company to fail and there are Guaranty funds where the other insurance companies would essentially pick up the cost.

[iron]

well, the prices appear to be what they are. the cookie clearing did nothing. tom is probably right that i entered data incorrectly in the first place. oh well. another question: i know they ask about "do you engage in high risk activities like skydiving, rock climbing, etc?" i seldom rock climb and think the chances of me dying from it are near zero. however, i scramble quite a bit (or used to pre-kids) and while i don't think i'll fall, i know rockfall is always a real risk. do you think an insurance company would classify this as rock climbing? there's no rope, just off-trail hiking.

[Malachai Constant]

If they think they can get out of paying they will. The media constantly mix up rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking. To then climbing K2 with an experienced team is equivalent to a dim teen scrambling up the west side of Si and a family hike up West Tiger. If they denied your payment your heirs might have to institute a bad faith case at substantial cost.

[Tom]

Here's a thread on SP that might help: http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/life-insurance-policies-and-climbing-t67019-15.html