Finding Term Life Insurance in Boston
Read this before purchasing term life insurance in Boston
Obtaining Term life insurance in Boston may seem simple at first. You go to your local insurance agency and ask for a basic 20 or 30 year term policy. You get quoted an affordable premium and apply.
Unfortunately, this is when things can get complicated. Unless your agent did his due diligence, you might have just wasted your time.
How do you know if you’re working with the right agent? Well it’s important to understand the many different type of life insurance agencies and where they fit.
In this article, we will dive a little deeper on how to shop for life insurance. We’ll focus on using the right agencies. We’ll also explain who Boston Life Group is and why you might want to consider us for your next life insurance purchase.
the three types of life insurance agents in boston
When seeking term life insurance in Boston, you might run across 3 different types of insurance agents.
- The large Captive Company Agent
- Your Local all inclusive agent
- Your independent Life Insurance Agent.
Your local insurance agent does not specialize specifically in any Life Insurance. He/She spends most of his time helping clients with their auto and home coverage. Life Insurance is only one small component of what they typically offer.
The captive agent works for one company and does not specialize in term life insurance.
Though it’s not true for all, you will find a greater percentage of independent life insurance agents who specialize in term life insurance. There is a much fewer number who specialize in underwriting to get you an accurate quote the first time.
Your local Insurance agent.
If you live in and around Boston, you should should be able to find a local insurance agent pretty easily.
They are in and around every corner. They are essential for many of your insurance needs. They will help you find the best coverage for your car insurance, homeowner’s insurance, renters and pet insurance to name a few.
Many of of these local agents also offer life insurance coverage.
Many of them might be forced to only offer you a policy from the specific they have a contract with. Around Boston the most popular companies are Allstate, State Farm, and Nationwide Insurance.
Others might have no ties to one particular company. Though these agents are able to offer coverage from many insurance companies, their selections might be limited. More importantly, their expertise lie in Auto and Home insurance since that’s what they cover every day.
Life Insurance requires more underwriting knowledge. Local agents simply don’t have enough time to master.
The Captive Agent
The captive agent is someone who is employed by an insurance company.
In Boston, you’ll most likely see one of the 3 companies who have captive agents: Mass Mutual, Northwestern Mutual or New York life.
To a lesser extent, there are agents out there working for Penn Mutual, The Guardian and Ohio National.
Though these companies are highly rated. They offer some great permanent products.
They’re not necessarily the best fit for people seeking a simple term insurance policy.
Captive insurance agents work for that one company. They are incentivized to offer their employer’s policy.
There are other alternatives. Highly rated companies like Lincoln Financial, Banner Life & Prudential who will offer the same coverage for much better rates.
Example: A very healthy 35 year old female seeking a $500,000 coverage for a 20 year term: The premium would be less than $20/month compared to $36/month for one of the captive companies.
An Independent life insurance agent.
An independent life insurance agent is typically best described as an insurance broker. He/She is the middle person who works on behalf of the client to find the best deals on life insurance.
The independent life insurance agent typically focus only on life insurance and is therefore more knowledgeable about each company’s underwriting procedure.
Boston Life Group: how we are different
It’s one thing to offer insurance coverage from many different companies, it’s another to know which company would work best for a client based on their lifestyle of health conditions.
At Boston Life Group, our expertise lie on knowing exactly what the insurance companies are looking for, where they are willing to take risks.
We understand some insurance companies charge a high premium for smokers, while others are more lenient.
We understand that certain skin cancer survivors might get above average, even preferred rating with some carriers, while other carriers only offer standard coverage.
We say it time and time again, term life insurance is not about finding the company with the cheapest premium.
The company offering the cheapest premium might require that you have the health of an olympic gymnast.
Fortunately at Boston Life Group, we understand that most people do not fall in that category, and we aim to be the insurance agency for everyone else.