The carrier pays me. Here is how much.
Milwaukee, and the upper Midwest
Four things about the money.
None of it is a secret. It is simply never said first.
- You do not pay me. The carrier does.
- Your premium is the same whether you buy through me, through a comparison site, or directly. Brokers are paid out of the carrier's own budget, not added on top of what you pay.
- It is a share of the first year
- For term life, typically somewhere between 50% and 90% of the first twelve months of premium, paid once. After that a small renewal amount for a few years, and then nothing.
- Whole life pays several times more
- Because the premium is several times larger. This is the conflict of interest in the industry, it is real, and the honest response is to say so on the front page rather than in a disclosure nobody scrolls to.
- Which is why the comparison table exists
- Three of the five rows on it end in 'buy term'. If I only ever recommended the product that pays me most, the page would look different.
Everybody assumes a broker is paid by the insurance company and almost nobody says so out loud, which is why the conversation usually starts badly. So it is the first thing on the site rather than a disclosure at the bottom of a page nobody reaches.
3 of these five end in “buy term”.
Term pays me a fraction of what whole life pays me. That is the conflict, and this table is what doing something about it looks like.
| If this is you | Then | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You have young children and a mortgage | Buy term | You need a large amount of cover for a defined number of years, at the lowest cost. That is exactly and only what term does. |
| You want cover and you want to invest | Buy term | Buy the term, invest the difference somewhere with lower fees. The combined outcome beats a whole life policy for most people, most of the time. |
| Somebody told you it is a tax-free retirement plan | Buy term | It is a life insurance policy with an investment attached and a large charge on the front. If retirement saving is the goal, this is an expensive way to do it. |
| You have a disabled dependant who will need care after you die | Whole is right | Cover that never expires is genuinely the right instrument here, because the need does not expire either. This is one of the few clear cases. |
| You own a business with partners and a buy-sell agreement | It depends | Depends entirely on how the agreement is written and how long the partners intend to hold. This is a conversation, not a table row. |
What $750,000 actually costs.
About $44 a month for a healthy 38-year-old over 20 years. Illustrative rather than a quotation — your number depends on your age, your health, and which carrier ends up wanting your application.
Work out how much cover- Cover
- $750,000
- Term
- 20 years
- Monthly
- $44
- Yearly
- $528
No deadline, no countdown, and nothing expires if you think about it for a month.