How To

How to Shop for Life Insurance Using Mint.com

Written by Mint.com
Published Jan 22, 2013
3 min read
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I’m confident I’ll live as long as my grandmother (92 years young!) but my husband insists I buy life insurance. Oh, joy.

But, I am a stay at home mom and daycare is expensive, as he loves to point out. I guess he’s right: My job is pretty important and I am definitely valuable.

For me, shopping for life insurance sounds about as exciting as cleaning up after the dog, so I’ve decided that the best way to spice things up is by finding a steal on a policy.

Life insurance may be boring, but I never get tired of saving money.

After using Mint’s free financial planning tools to set up a regular contribution to my daughter’s 529 plan, (cha-ching!), I returned to Mint to see how the site could help me tackle life insurance.

All you have to do is follow these easy steps:

Step 1: Log In

Here I am, logged in.

Step 2: Find Ways to Save

Clicking on the “Ways to Save” tab, I spot four options: banking, investments, insurance, and credit. Under “insurance,” there were two options: auto and life. I clicked on “life.”

Step 3: Answer 4 Basic Questions

Mint promises to find me the right life insurance policy after answering just four questions. That’s quite a promise!

– How old am I?

– What is my annual income?

– Do I own a home?

– Do I have any dependents?

I was skeptical. The questions seemed geared at calculating how much I could afford to spend on life insurance, not what was the best policy for me.

But next to each question was a small blue link asking, “Why is this important?”

I’ll give Mint credit — it had good answers:

– Age influences the type and length of policy I’ll need.

– My income is used to estimate how much my family will need to maintain its current lifestyle.

– Homeowners need more coverage than renters.

– People with kids need more coverage than those without kids.

Step 4: Select Amount of Coverage

Now for the big reveal. How much life insurance does Mint recommend I buy?

A 30-year term policy of $200,000-$250,000. That sounds like a lot, but Mint estimates each month this type of policy will only cost $19 to $33.

Step 5: Browse Quotes

Scroll down, and Mint nudges me one step closer to fulfilling my goal to get life insurance quotes and buy a policy. Mint provides links to two providers: Efinancial and MetLife.