What this page is for
Life insurance is a subject where bad information costs people money, and the internet is full of rate figures with no source attached to them. This page sets out exactly how the content on this site is produced, so you can judge it.
Every rate figure is sourced and dated
We do not generate quotes and we do not have proprietary rate data. Every premium figure on this site is an industry average published by a third party. Under each table we name the publisher, the title of the publication, its publication or last-updated date, and a link to it.
The sources we currently rely on are MoneyGeek, NerdWallet, Forbes Advisor, ValuePenguin, Policygenius and Choice Mutual for rates, LIMRA for consumer research, and published carrier and regulator guidance for product rules. We are not affiliated with any of them and receive nothing from them.
We label what each source actually measures
Published life insurance averages disagree with each other by up to a factor of two, and the reason is methodology rather than error. Forbes Advisor and NerdWallet average the three lowest quotes they can find, which produces a best-case figure. MoneyGeek averages hundreds of thousands of quotes across many insurers, which produces a market-wide figure. For a 40-year-old man that difference is $32 a month against $59.
Both are honest answers to different questions. We show both where we have both, and we state the basis under every table, because a rate figure without its methodology is close to meaningless.
We do not invent figures
Where a number does not exist in a published source, we say so on the page rather than estimating, interpolating or borrowing one from a different context. You will find several places on this site where we state plainly that we could not find a credible published figure — for example, the average price difference between no-exam and fully underwritten cover. We would rather leave a gap visible than fill it with something that looks authoritative and is not.
For the same reason this site carries no customer testimonials, no star ratings, no “as seen in” media logos and no carrier logos. We have not earned any of those yet, and displaying them would be a lie about what this service is.
Nothing on this site is a quote or advice
The rate tables show what other people, on average, have been charged. They are not an offer and they are not what you will pay. Your own rate depends on your age, sex, health, build, tobacco use, family history, driving record, occupation, state and the underwriting rules of the specific carrier.
Nothing on this site is insurance, legal, tax or financial advice, and we are not licensed to give any of those. The content is general information intended to make you a better-informed customer before you speak to a licensed professional.
Corrections
If you find an error on this site — a figure that does not match its source, a link that has gone stale, a product rule that has changed — email contact@americalifeinsurance.com and tell us what page it is on. We will check it against the source and correct it. Corrections to a rate table are made by updating the figure and its source line together, so the date always reflects the data actually shown.
Dates
Every guide carries a published date and a last-reviewed date in its header. A last-reviewed date means a human has re-checked the figures on that page against their cited sources on that date, not merely that the file was touched.
Independence
We are paid a referral fee by the licensed agency to which quote requests are forwarded, and that arrangement is disclosed on our About page and in our Privacy Policy. No insurance carrier pays us for coverage, placement or favourable treatment in any guide on this site, and we do not accept payment in exchange for naming a carrier. Where carriers are named — for example in the no-exam coverage limits table — they are named because the cited source named them.