Free Insurance Quotes for Term Life
Independent Website Compares Lowest Premium Rates Online
Oct 19, 2009
A Google search on the keywords “free insurance quotes” quickly returns a long list of websites that claim to offer free online insurance quotes.
However, many of these websites are owned by large insurance companies that limit rate proposals to their own life insurance products. Other sites belong to insurance agents and brokers who only provide premium rate comparisons for the limited number of insurance underwriters that they represent.
Far too often, consumers who submit their email addresses and telephone numbers for free rate comparisons are immediately inundated with rapid-response email and voice-mail sales pitches.
This article reviews an online rate comparison calculator maintained by a third-party systems provider that specializes in rate comparison software and receives no insurance sales remuneration.
Third-Party Online Life Insurance Rate Comparisons
A software developer named Compulife Software Inc. has implemented an online rate comparison system specifically for Canadian consumers. The Canadian-domain Term4Sale website does seem to have a constraint: the returned list of rates and corresponding insurance companies remains the same regardless of the first 3 characters of the postal code that users are required to enter. It would seem more logical to expect that term life insurance rates for a farming community in northern Québec would be different from those quoted for the more heavily populated and industrialized southern Ontario. Otherwise, what is the point of having to enter 3 digits of one’s postal code in the first place?
Another constraint appears to be the fact that some of Canada’s major life insurers are missing from the term life insurance comparison results. Two of Canada’s largest life insurance companies, Great-West Life and Sun Life Financial do not show on the online rate comparison tables. This may be due to lack of participation or uncompetitive high rates.
For its part, Compulife explains in a note on the Terms4Sale portal that rates are based on the rate cards and rate manuals that life insurance companies provide to their sales representatives. Given that the software developer is a relatively new company, chances are that the Kitchener-based firm has not yet collected a large enough set of term life insurance rates from agents and brokers doing business across Canada.
Comparing Lowest Term Life Insurance Premiums
Notwithstanding the potential lack of comprehensiveness, using the free online rate comparison software is both fast and easy to use.
To benchmark the term life insurance premiums for a $200,000 policy, the Toronto postal code prefix M5E and desired coverage amount were entered into the Compulife system. Also input were basic factors that describe a 53-year-old male non-smoker in excellent health, as well as the minimum financial strength required of the providing insurance companies.
Best 10-Year Term Life Premiums
According to Compulife software, Industrial-Alliance Life Insurance has the least expensive annual rates among insurers selling 10-year term policies to Canadian males age 56. Industrial-Alliance’s yearly premium is 17.2% less than what Transamerica charges for one of its 10-year term life insurance policies.
- Industrial-Alliance Life Insurance … Cdn$550 annual rate for 10 years
- Bank of Montreal (BMO) Life Assurance Company … $554
- Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada … $595
- Wawanesa Life Insurance Company … $613
- Industrial- Alliance Life Insurance … $614
- Industrial Alliance Pacific Life … $616
- Primerica Life Insurance Company … $617
- L'Excellence Life Insurance Company … $642
- Manulife Financial … $643.44
- Unity Life of Canada … $645
- Wawanesa Life Insurance Company … $649
- CUMIS Life Insurance Company … $658
- Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada … $658
- Empire Life Insurance Company … $664
- Transamerica Life Canada … $664.
Cheapest 20-Year Term Life Premiums
Primerica Life’s 20-year term life premium of $949 is the lowest annual premium on the Compulife comparison, 16.9% lower than third-place Industrial-Alliance’s yearly rate and 25.9% less than AXA Insurance’s highest rate of $1,281. A Canadian bank owns the life assurance company offering the second-lowest life insurance rates for 20-year term policies.
- Primerica Life Insurance Company … Cdn$949 annual rate for 20 years
- Bank of Montreal (BMO) Life Assurance Company … $1,126
- Industrial-Alliance Life Insurance … $1,142
- Industrial Alliance Pacific Life … $1,142
- Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada … $1,161
- L'Excellence Life Insurance Company … $1,220
- Wawanesa Life Insurance Company … $1,237
- CUMIS Life Insurance Company … $1,246
- Manulife Financial … $1,275.12
- Western Life Assurance Company … $1,279
- AXA Insurance … $1,281.
Most Economical 30-Year Term Life Premiums
Compulife’s database generates a much smaller list of insurance companies in its 30-year term life rate comparison. Among these, the lowest annual rate of $1,960 represents a savings of $217 or 10% per year.
- Industrial-Alliance Life Insurance … Cdn$1,960
- Industrial Alliance Pacific Life … $1,960
- Unity Life of Canada … $1,995
- BMO Life Assurance Company … $2,074
- La Capitale … $2,177.40.
Highest Long-Term Life Insurance Savings
Consumers should not rely solely on premium rates to make a final decision on buying term life insurance, no matter how comprehensive, current or credible the source statistics are. For example, the above numbers seem to suggest that the 56-year-old Californian can realize substantial savings by paying $550 for a 10-year term life policy instead of the $1,960 yearly premium for 30 years.
However, renewal premiums for Industrial Alliance’s 10-year life insurance start a dramatic annual increase to $3,254 at its 11th year. That premium becomes $9.152 in the 20th year for a total accumulated premium cost of $129,560 over 30 years.
By paying $1,960 under Industrial-Alliance’s 30-year term life insurance policy, consumers would pay out $58,800 in accumulated premiums. This represents a long-term savings of $70,760 for the 30-year term policy, even though for the first 10 years premiums for Industrial-Alliance’s 10-year term life insurance rates are less than a third of the 30-year term policy.
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