Life Insurance
The cheapest thing you'll ever buy for the people you love.
Adults under 30 overestimate what life insurance costs by ten to twelve times. Here's what the different types actually do, and how to figure out which one fits.
First Principle
Life insurance answers one question
If your income stopped tomorrow and never came back, what would happen to the people who depend on it? Everything else on this page is just mechanics.
The mortgage still comes due. The car payment. Childcare. College, someday. The funeral itself, which now runs well into five figures. Life insurance is the tool that keeps a death from also becoming a financial collapse.
Try the numbers yourself
The coverage calculator on the home page gives you a real estimate in about two minutes, and the cost estimator next to it shows what that coverage tends to actually cost. Most people are surprised in the good direction.
The Types
Six kinds of life insurance, plainly
Term Life
Coverage for a set number of years — typically 10, 15, 20 or 30. If you die during the term, it pays. If the term ends, coverage ends.
Fits: the years you have a mortgage and dependents. It is by far the most coverage per dollar, which is why it's the right answer for most working families.
Whole Life
Permanent coverage with a level premium and a cash value that builds over time on a guaranteed basis.
Fits: lifelong needs, final expenses, leaving something behind with certainty. Costs considerably more per dollar of death benefit than term.
Universal Life
Permanent coverage with flexible premiums and an adjustable death benefit. Cash value growth depends on the type and on crediting rates.
Fits: people who want permanent coverage with room to adjust. Requires real attention — underfunded policies can lapse. Read the illustration carefully.
Final Expense
A smaller permanent policy, commonly $5,000 to $25,000, designed to cover a funeral, burial and last bills. Usually simplified underwriting, often no medical exam.
Fits: seniors who want to make sure their family isn't handed a funeral bill. Many policies have a graded benefit in the first two years — know that going in.
Mortgage Protection
Term coverage sized and timed to your mortgage, so the house is paid off if you die before it is.
Fits: homeowners who want the roof to stay over their family's head. Note that a plain term policy often does the same job with more flexibility — we'll show you both.
Income Replacement
Not a separate product so much as a way of sizing one: enough death benefit to replace your salary for the years your family would need it.
Fits: anyone whose paycheck other people depend on. This is the single most common reason coverage is bought.
Term vs Permanent
The honest comparison
| Term | Permanent | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per dollar of coverage | Much lower | Much higher |
| How long it lasts | A set number of years | Your whole life, if funded |
| Builds cash value | No | Yes |
| Premium stability | Level during the term, then rises steeply | Level, or flexible by design |
| Typical use | Protecting working years and a mortgage | Final expenses, lifelong needs, estate planning |
Where We'll be blunt with you
Permanent insurance pays an agent substantially more than term does. You should know that when any agent, including us, recommends it. For most young families with a mortgage and children at home, term is the right tool. There are genuinely good reasons to own permanent coverage — and we'll explain which reasons apply to you and which don't.
Getting Covered
What the process actually looks like
We size it
Debts, income replacement, mortgage, education, final expenses — minus what you already have. Twenty minutes.
We pick the type and term
Usually driven by the youngest child's age and the years left on the mortgage.
You apply
Health questions, sometimes a quick paramedical exam at your home. Many policies today issue with no exam at all.
Underwriting
The carrier reviews and assigns a rate class. Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
You review before it's in force
If the offer comes back different from what we applied for, you decide. Nothing is binding until you accept and the first premium is paid.
Things that surprise people
- Rates are locked at the age you buy. Waiting a year costs real money, permanently.
- Well‑managed conditions often still get good rates. Don't assume you'll be declined.
- Quitting tobacco can roughly halve your premium after the carrier's required window.
- Employer coverage usually ends when the job does, and is often only one to two times salary.
- Answer every health question honestly. Misstatements can void a claim during the contestability period, which is exactly when your family can least afford it.
Let's find out what actually fits your situation.
No cost. No pressure. A straight conversation about what you have, what you need, and what it really costs.