Ways to get best life insurance rates
By Pat Curry • Bankrate.com

If you ask 10 different experts how to buy life insurance, you'll get at least 10 different answers.

The debates rage over a variety of topics, such as what kind of insurance is best; buying from an agent or through the Internet; the right amount of coverage you need; and even what the true purpose of life insurance should be.

No wonder people get confused.

Despite the opposing views, the experts do agree on several strategies to get the best deal on a life insurance policy:

Honesty's the best policy
At the top of the list is honesty. Don't lie on the application about your health. People do that sometimes if they think telling the truth will result in being turned down.

"Lack of disclosure is one of the biggest things that comes back to bite consumers," says Randy Herz, vice president and chief financial officer of Connecticut-based Herz Financial Group. "Underwriters hate uncertainty. If it doesn't get on your application correctly and it shows up on your medical record, underwriters think you're lying to them and won't offer you as good a deal."

If you smoke, don't deny it. A family history of heart disease or diabetes isn't an automatic rejection, but some insurance companies are more comfortable with those policies than others. You probably won't get the best rate, but you're probably not uninsurable, either.

Time is on your side
A more involved way to get the best rate is to schedule your medical test for first thing in the morning. The time of day that you take your medical test is so important that Lynne Rosenberg Kidd won't even look at a policy with a test done later in the day.

"If someone took the exam after dinner, I just send it back," says Kidd, who is president of Innovative Solutions Insurance Services, a national brokerage insurance agency that finds policies for agents.

The reasons are fairly simple. Your blood pressure is lower and your cholesterol is better in the morning. You're also less stressed out early in the day. Plus, you need to fast before the blood tests, so you want to get them out of the way so you can have breakfast. To get the most accurate results, avoid salts and heavy sugars. Stay way from alcohol, drugs and caffeine, and don't exercise before the test.

"Exercise can cause liver functions or sugars to be off," Herz says. "In people who are big runners, it's common for sugars to be off. Avoid ibuprofens and Tylenol and any type of stress if you're going to do an EKG. Go to bed at 9 p.m. and have the nurse or doctor show up at your house at 7 a.m."

Herz also suggests you may get better deals toward the end of each quarter and the end of the year when insurance companies are working to reach their sales goals. "There is a timing issue involved," he says. "A lot of companies want to make their numbers at the end of the year."

Kidd says a company's most-competitive pricing probably will be in the middle classification rather than in its preferred rates, which only cover 20 percent to 30 percent of the market.

Watch for falling rates
Don't think that once you get insurance, you're locked into that rate forever. They've dropped significantly in the last decade.

"Rates in the last 10 years on a typical term policy have fallen by 60 percent," says Byron Udell, president of the Web-based insurance brokerage AccuQuote.

"A 40-year-old male in 1994 would pay $995 for the very best rate for $500,000 worth of coverage for 20 years. That same plan today is $390. The information age has caused a phenomenal flow of information. There's better information from blood tests. People are living longer. There's better health care. It's a phenomenal time for people to take a look at policies they took out three or four years ago."

You also can reapply for a lower rate if there have been changes in your health, Kidd says. "If you've had some cholesterol problems or gained some weight, you may not be able to change your product," Kidd says, "but if you lost weight or got your cholesterol under control, or had a borderline EKG and got that under control, go back and reapply."

Shop around for agents
One of the easiest ways to get the best deal, of course, is to do what all smart consumers do: shop around. Experts usually recommend going to an independent agent who has access to a wide range of policies. Don't stop there.

"Shop at least a couple of agents," says Steve Pomerantz, a certified financial planner in Boca Raton, Fla. "It's a big decision. You're making a big commitment for many years."

-- Posted: July 28, 2004