How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?

Your age is the most important factor affecting the cost of your life insurance premium, according to the Farm Bureau Financial Services. The older you are, the more expensive your premium will be.

Although buying life insurance when you’re young is the key to affordable life insurance coverage, there are other factors that affect costs.

There isn’t a singular average monthly life insurance cost. The seven factors listed above — age, health, sex, smoking habits, hobbies, occupation and policy details — all have an important part to play in life insurance costs.

To help you get a better idea of average life insurance costs, compare quotes for several policies based on different ages and sexes.

If you wanted more coverage, your life insurance premium would increase. For example, a 10-year term policy from Mutual of Omaha with $950,000 in coverage is quoted at $36.42 for a healthy 40-year-old woman. This is quite a jump from the $15.27 quote for $250,000 in coverage – for the same policy type and age.

There are two main types of life insurance: term and permanent. Term policies are more affordable since they offer temporary coverage.

Permanent policies are more expensive since they have lifelong coverage with additional benefits, like a cash value component. According to the Insurance Information Institute, the most common type of permanent life insurance is a whole-life policy.

Term life insurance has average monthly premiums between $20 to $40 for healthy individuals under 50 years old. Due to their affordability, term policies are the most popular type of life insurance in 2023, according to CNN.

If you manage to get a term policy in your 20s, you’ll likely pay under $20 a month for substantial coverage.

RetireGuide’s editorial team compiled a list of term life insurance quotes from highly-rated life insurance companies to help you understand the average costs for term policies in 2023.

Whole life insurance costs vary, depending on if you’re considering traditional whole life insurance or a burial whole life policy. It’s important to note that in either scenario, whole life insurance is typically known as the most expensive type of life insurance.

There are several ways to lower the cost of your monthly life insurance policy; they may require you to purchase a policy soon or change your lifestyle to improve your chances of living longer.

Participating in extreme sports may also cause you to pay higher premiums, and some insurers won’t even sell policies to people who take part in them. Still, other insurers may sell you a policy that won’t pay out your benefit if your death results from an extreme sport – or what insurers call a “hazardous avocation.”

Generally if you take up a hazardous avocation after the contestability period on your policy expires — which is usually one to two years — your death would be covered if you die from an extreme activity.

Editor Malori Malone contributed to this article.