1) Directly from an insurance company;
2) through an independent insurance agent;
3) via an independent online broker.
First, it’s important to stress that you should always buy life insurance from an independent broker—whether local or online. Agents who work for a single insurance carrier, such as MetLife or John Hancock, will be eager to sell you a policy. Nothing against those companies, both are large, reputable insurers. However, life insurance pricing is incredibly complicated. If you don’t shop around, it’s almost guaranteed that you will pay more than you need to.
If you work with an independent insurance agent you trust, he or she may be your first stop to discuss life insurance, and that’s fine. Just know that your agent may present you with different types of life insurance and the choices may be overwhelming. Once you know what kind of life insurance you want to buy, comparing policies gets a bit easier, but there are still a number of variables.
In next blogpost, we will discuss what information do you need to provide in order to receive life insurance quotes.