When you look at the title of this article, you might think we are fighting against ourselves, as a company specializing in the online marketing of life and health insurance. Our website has thousands of visitors every day, a lot of of them approaching us with enquiries about possibilities of buying an insurance policy directly online. While we have tinkered with and marinated on this idea, we are afraid buying life insurance online is a disservice to our customers.
The following supports our reasoning behind why buying a life insurance policy online just doesn't make sense:
1. Life insurance, when bought directly via a website, is looked at on a singular level and not as part of an overall financial portfolio. When considering life insurance, careful planning should be put into consideration why the insurance is needed, how much is necessary and what's the best type of life insurance for a specific client. All this is very difficult to be done, if you don't speak to an insurance broker in person or at least over the phone.
2. Life insurance bought directly from a website is limited in its product selection. Most companies offering life insurance online limit their selection to a few carriers and in some instances, just one carrier with only a few of their products.
3. Certain policy details may not be fully explained when a policy is bought online. When you purchase your life insurance online, you may be surprised later about some details - for instance certain ten-year term policies are not renewable or convertible, or may have a higher than usual renewable premium, and so on.
4. Many insurance policies are just too complicated to be sold online. There are too many details in some policies (for example Universal Life or Whole Life insurance) that cannot be disclosed when the policy is sold directly online. In case of BMO's Universal Life insurance policy, there are more than 400 investment possibilities available. There are just too many details in the whole plan, which makes it difficult to be offered online.
5. Any further communication would probably be with a call centre and not a broker.
We don't want to be misunderstood, we are not saying that the Internet is useless when you wish to buy a life insurance. The Internet is a great education forum when buying life insurance. You can find many useful web tools, for example our Instant Quote Calculator or Needs Analysis Calculator, which can help you a lot. But it is one thing to look for information and another one to actually purchase an insurance.
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Comments: 1
When I was younger, insurance agents came to my house to sell me whole life insurance face to face. I bought three or four policies over 7 years. Later on, when I worked the math, I realized I was being ripped off. I am still angry with these agents who told me bold face lies that whole life insurance would make money. I cashed them after several years, and I got significantly less money than what I paid into it. I was losing money every month I paid them money, for a long long time.
In the last ten years, I bought my insurance policies from companies I trust. One is USAA, one of the most reliable and trusted insurance companies in the United States. The other is a broker, Zander Insurance Company. Both companies offer policies online, and I have done my math this time.
Caveat emptor - Buyer beware.