To save money on life insurance, it helps to be a young woman who doesn’t smoke, a new report shows.
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Men pay an average of 38 percent more than women for the same life insurance policy, according to InsuranceQuotes.com.
The gap widens with age: a 25-year-old man pays 25 percent more for the same policy than a woman of the same age. By age 65, the difference grows to 40 percent.
The study also quantified the impact of smoking on life-insurance prices.
Smokers on average pay 235 percent more than non-smokers, said the free San Francisco-based insurance comparison Web site.
For example, a 45-year-old woman who doesn’t smoke pays on average $45 a month for $500,000 of coverage over 20 years.
Let’s say the same woman smoked.
She’d pay $167 a month, said the website, which is owned by Bankrate.com.
Another insurance website said any trait that lowers one’s life expectancy will result in higher insurance rates.
“That means being male, smoking, being overweight, and having high blood pressure will mean higher rates,” said Amy Danise, editorial director for Insure.com.
It also pays for consumers to buy life insurance while they’re still feeling invincible; a 35-year-old will pay on average 27 percent more than a 25-year-old for the same coverage, InsuranceQuotes.com said.
That cost gap widens even more as consumers age.
A 45-year-old will pay more than twice as much as a 35-year old for life insurance.
“You can save a lot of money by getting life insurance while you’re young,” InsuranceQuotes.comsenior analyst Laura Adams said in the report.
By locking in a policy in their 20s or 30s, “you will benefit from much lower rates while protecting your loved ones for decades,” she said.
Ratefilings.com and term4sale.com gathered the data used in the InsuranceQuotes.com analysis. The data covers the top 25 carriers nationwide.
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