And now a word from a sponsor…
You probably know about the gender pay gap – but did you know there’s a gender gap on life insurance too?
While 58% of men have life insurance coverage, only 47% of women do.1 But women are just as likely to need coverage.
If you have people in your life who rely on you for their well-being – spouse, kids, or others – you generally need life insurance. Life insurance payouts can be used to help pay the mortgage, debts, child care, future college tuition, and the many other day-to-day expenses families have.
What’s more, coverage is usually more affordable for women (because statistically women live longer and are more likely to live past an insurance policy’s term length). For example, the average monthly cost of a 20-year term life insurance policy with a $500,000 death benefit for a healthy non-smoking 35-year-old woman is $25.23. The average cost of that same policy for a healthy non-smoking 35-year-old man is $30.03 a month.2
And even if you have some life insurance through work, employer-provided policies often aren’t enough to provide the full coverage your dependents usually need. Typically they provide only one to two times your annual salary – so if you make, say, $70,000, your beneficiary would receive $70,000 – $140,000 … which can run out quickly if you help provide for a spouse and kids. (Experts usually suggest getting coverage that equals five to 10 times your salary.)
One misconception women sometimes have is that you can’t apply for insurance while you’re pregnant – but you can. In fact, it’s often smarter to do it then instead of waiting, in case you develop any conditions during or after pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, that can make it harder to get a good rate. (That said, even if you do have health issues, qualified independent insurance brokers – who work with multiple insurance companies rather than just one – can often help you get a better rate.)
If you don’t yet have enough life insurance coverage in place, one company to consider is Bestow, which is using technology to make affordable term life insurance more approachable and accessible. Bestow offers the only 100% digital (no physical exam needed) way to apply for and buy term life insurance policies up to $1.5 million. That means that what used to take weeks can now be done entirely online in as little as five minutes.
Buying coverage sooner rather than later could help you get a more affordable rate, since the cost generally goes up each year that you get older. Additionally, most term life insurance policies offer “guaranteed level premiums,” which means you lock in that pricing for the duration of your coverage.
Visit Bestow today to get a quote. You can apply online and, if approved, start coverage immediately.
This post is sponsored by Bestow. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
1 According to the 2021 Insurance Barometer Study by insurance industry groups Life Happens and LIMRA.
2 From https://www.forbes.com/advisor/life-insurance/what-women-should-know/