Best Family Life Insurance Companies Of 2024 For families who would face an uncertain financial future following the death of a parent, family life insurance can put a surviving spouse and children on solid financial ground.
We evaluated term life insurance options to find the best family life insurance.
Best Family Life Insurance of 2024
Our top picks for family life insurance are:
- Pacific Life – Best Cost for $1 Million Term Life
- Principal – Great for High Issue Age
- Protective – Great for Long Level Term Length
- Symetra – Best for Term Life Insurance Rates
- Transamerica – Best for Buyers in Their 50s’
What Is Family Life Insurance?
Someone shopping for family life insurance enjoys numerous options. Typically, though, term life insurance offers the best option for someone with a family, particularly a family with young children.
A term life insurance policy locks in a level rate for a certain period of time, such as 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years. Protective and Banner Life also offer 35- or 40-year term life policies. After this level premium period, you can typically renew the policy every year, but the renewal rates can be extremely high.
Term life is great for family life insurance because you can choose a level term period that most matches your family’s financial priorities. For example, term life is a good option for income replacement, meaning a way to provide your family with funds that replace your income if you die unexpectedly. If you’re 40 years old, you might buy a 20-year or 25-year term policy to cover your working years.
Other reasons to buy family life insurance include:
- Paying off a big debt, such as a mortgage.
- Covering funeral expenses.
- Paying children’s college expenses.
- Leaving an inheritance to your children.
Term life insurance is also an affordable alternative to other options such as whole life insurance. Term life insurance gives you the most bang for your buck when it comes to the coverage amount for your money. One reason is that it does not contain cash value, so all your premium goes toward paying for the life insurance, not to cash value or policy fees.
Who Needs to Get Family Life Insurance?
“Life insurance can provide a financial safety net for your loved ones and means peace of mind for those who depend on you,” says Dave Curry, chief distribution officer for individual solutions at Transamerica.
Curry says it’s especially important to look into buying life insurance if you’re welcoming a child into the world. Such coverage can shield surviving family members from financial struggles if you pass away, he notes.
“When considering your life insurance options, you should look not only at the potential lost income of a parent but also covering the responsibilities of raising children. A solid financial plan can make all the difference for years to come should the unfortunate occur,” Curry says.
It’s also important to think about family life insurance for stay-at-home parents. Primary caregivers in a family take on a lot of household tasks that would still need to be done in their absence. A life insurance payout can provide money for these services, such as child care or house cleaning.
How Much Is Family Life Insurance?
Here are examples of average costs for term life insurance. The rates below are for men and women in excellent health. Once you buy a term life policy, you lock in the rate for the level term period, such as 10 years.
Term Life Insurance Rates for a 30-Year-Old Male
| Term | $250,000 | $500,000 | $1 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-year term | $129/year | $174/year | $265/year |
| 20-year term | $159/year | $246/year | $399/year |
| 30-year term | $235/year | $381/year | $669/year |
Term Life Insurance Rates for a 30-Year-Old Female
| Term | $250,000 | $500,000 | $1 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-year term | $117/year | $149/year | $217/year |
| 20-year term | $142/year | $204/year | $320/year |
| 30-year term | $198/year | $317/year | $525/year |
Term Life Insurance Rates for a 40-Year-Old Male
| Term | $250,000 | $500,000 | $1 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-year term | $162/year | $238/year | $371/year |
| 20-year term | $223/year | $360/year | $629/year |
| 30-year term | $365/year | $632/year | $1,172/year |
Term Life Insurance Rates for a 40-Year-Old Female
| Term | $250,000 | $500,000 | $1 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-year term | $149/year | $208/year | $329/year |
| 20-year term | $193/year | $304/year | $518/year |
| 30-year term | $299/year | $506/year | $920/year |
Life Insurance Riders for Families
When you buy life insurance for yourself, you may be able to add coverage for your family:
- Children’s term life insurance riders are common. Buying this rider will allow you to add a certain amount of life insurance for one or more children. If the children pass away (before the term age limit), you’ll receive a death benefit that you could use for funeral costs or any other expenses.
- Spousal term life insurance riders are available from some insurers when you buy coverage for yourself. This rider will pay out a death benefit if your spouse passes away while your policy is active. If your spouse has health issues and would not be able to buy their own life insurance, this rider could be a way to insure them. But if you pass away, their rider ends, too.
Tips For Buying Family Life Insurance
If you’re looking for family life insurance, keep these tips in mind.
1. Have a Family Financial Plan
Having a clear financial plan will help you identify how much family life insurance you need and whether term life insurance is the best option.
A life insurance purchase works best as part of a broader financial plan. A financial advisor can help you put all the pieces of your financial puzzle together.
2. Don’t Underestimate How Much Family Life Insurance You Need
Many people underestimate how much life insurance they need. A financial advisor or life insurance agent can help you pinpoint an amount. A life insurance calculator can also help. A good calculation method is this:
- Add up the financial obligations you want to cover with family life insurance, such as income replacement, large debts and/or college costs.
- Subtract funds your family could use for these expenses if you were no longer around, such as savings or other existing life insurance.
- The result is your estimated life insurance need.
It would not be uncommon to need $1 million in life insurance or more. It’s smart to buy the coverage amount you need rather than wait. As you get older—and potentially develop health issues—life insurance quotes will go up.
3. Compare Life Insurance Quotes
Like other purchases, you can save money on family life insurance by shopping around. Life insurance quotes are free, and by comparing multiple quotes you’ll get a sense of what a good price is.
Life insurance quotes are very individualized. Rates are typically based on your age, gender, health, driving record and other factors.
But don’t shop based on price alone. Check the financial strength of each life insurer you’re considering. Rating agencies such as AM Best and Standard & Poor’s produce financial strength ratings that reflect the ability of each insurer to pay claims many years down the road.
Methodology
To find the best family life insurance, we focused on term life insurance, which is the most affordable coverage for families. We used our own research and data provided by AccuQuote, a national online life insurance agency. AccuQuote has been in business for over 30 years and works only with insurance companies that have top financial strength ratings. We evaluated 20 companies on these measurements:
- Cost (80% of score): Because price is the primary concern of many term life insurance shoppers, we gave weight to this category. We scored costs based on each company’s rates for 30- and 40-year-old men and women for 10, 20 and 30 terms and for coverage amounts of $250,000, $500,000, $1 million and $2 million.
- Guaranteed renewability (10% of score): Companies earned points if their term life policies can be renewed at the end of the level term period.
- Term life conversion (10% of score): Companies earned points if their term life policies can be converted to permanent life insurance.