Archie Hayes 
If you have dependents, whether it’s a partner, children, or another loved one who you want to make sure is taken care of financially if something happens to you, you need life insurance. Having life insurance will ensure your family’s needs are met when you’re no longer around to take care of them. While it’s always a good idea to think ahead (and morbid as that may seem) get a life insurance policy, some people hesitate because they’re worried about the cost. So to help you determine which life insurance is right for you, let’s take a look at a few factors that could impact the cost of your policy.
Age
One of the first factors that can impact how much life insurance costs is your age — generally, younger people pay less for insurance than older people. Depending on the life insurance products, some policies may have premiums that increase each year while others may have certain prices for different age groups. But overall, the older you get, the more you’ll have to pay for your insurance. So if you get life insurance when you’re in your twenties, you can expect the price to go up as you get older.
Health
Health is another factor that’s looked at pretty closely when determining the cost of life insurance. When you apply for a policy, the insurance company will look at your health history — they’ll look for major life events, like strokes and cancer diagnoses, as well as other risk factors, like high blood pressure. Temporary injuries or illnesses, like a hip replacement that may require recovery home care from a registered nurse (to help with things like housekeeping, meal preparation, and other daily tasks) won’t impact the cost of your insurance premium. Insurance companies examine your health to determine whether or not they’ll accept your application and how much your premium will be.
Hobbies and Lifestyle
Insurance companies are going to look at your overall lifestyle to determine the cost of your premium, too. If you smoke and / or partake in dangerous hobbies, like regularly motorcycling or skydiving, the insurance company may see you as a high risk applicant — and this can result in a declined application or a high premium. But what’s considered “high risk” hobbies and lifestyle choices can vary between insurers, so it’s important to shop around.
Occupation
Just like with hobbies and lifestyle choices, insurers look to see if what you do for a living in dangerous. Pilots, firefighters, loggers, and miners will be seen as higher risks since their jobs have a higher risk of death — if you change your job at any point in time to a more or less dangerous occupation, you should contact your life insurance company to see if your premiums will change and to ensure your coverage remains the same.
Policy Type
Lastly, the amount of coverage you want will impact the price you pay — more coverage means a higher premium cost. And when it comes to determining the amount of life insurance you need, you can use a life insurance calculator. This will take factors like your income, age, and debt into consideration and give you an estimated amount of coverage you may need. You can easily calculate how much life insurance you need with iSelect so you get an estimated amount you can then use to begin comparing potential policies.
Choosing whether or not to get life insurance and the amount of coverage you get is a very important decision. If you want your family’s financial needs to be taken care of when you’re gone, you need to be smart about life insurance. So to help you determine which life insurance is right for you, let’s take a look at a few factors that could impact the cost of your policy. All of these factors should be kept in mind, once you start to compare life insurance quotes online. So keep these factors in mind and compare multiple policies before making a final decision.
