The life insurance plan works as a financial security net and you pay for decadesget the benefits. Have you ever thought about the factors that affect the cost of the premium of your health insurance plan? Well, most of us keep on paying the premiums of our life insurance plans without thinking much about the premiums. However, it is your right to know how the premium of your life insurance plan is calculated and understand the factors that affect it. Majorly, there are three factors, the classification under which you fall in, length of the term and coverage amount, and the rider benefits you choose.


The explanation of these factors is provided below:

Classification:


The life insurance companies make use of the classification to know how prone towards risk you are for them. For example, if you are unhealthy and may die during the term of the policy, then the premium of your term insurance plan can be more. On the other hand, if you are healthy and the company thinks you that you are at little risk, then the premium of your life insurance can be less. The parameters under which the classification is calculated are:

  • The status of your health: Most of the life insurance companies require medical checkup reports of policy buyers so that they can get to know about the exact health condition. In addition to this, the companies may ask a few questions about your family’s health history and whether you smoke or not. This is done to get your exact health condition.

  • Your current age: The older you get, the more premium you will have to pay for your life insurance.This is because of the fact that the older you are, the more prone you become to diseases and death while the policy is active.

  • The hobbies you possess: Sometimes the hobbies that you possess can lead you to dangerous. For example rock climbing or scuba diving over the weekend. The insurer takes all these hobbies in mind.

  • Your way of driving: To understand the way you drive, the insurance company checks your driving record by considering your vehicle record. If you are a reckless driver, then you are more likely to get into the accidents.


The Length of the Term and Coverage Amount


The amount of life insurance that you need depends on two factors – for how long you want coverage and how much coverage you require. Both these factors are important and both directly affect the insurance cost. Life insurance policies with high life insurance coverage cost more than a plan with lower coverage. The same is the case with policies that last for a longer period of time.

Note: The duration of the life insurance policy is applicable on term life insurance plans and a permanent life insurance policy does not have this kind of limitation, however, the coverage cost does exist. So, consider a plan accordingly.

Add-Ons or Riders


Add-ons or rider benefits are like small contracts that you can attach in your basic life insurance policy to enhance its coverage. Most of the times, you have to pay some additional cost to get the benefits of riders. Generally, all the life insurance companies include the following riders –accidental death benefit, waiver-of-premium, child care rider, etc. You can select any of the riders or other required rider provided by your life insurance provider. Since most of the insurance riders are available at extra cost, thus the premium of your policy also depends on riders. However, most of the riders are worth the price, so it is suggested to add some or other rider benefits in your plan if you want some extra coverage.

Final Words:

The situation of every person is different and this is the reason for the difference in premium of life insurance policies of a different person. In and all we can say that the amount of life insurance that you need depends on the coverage that you have opted, the type of life insurance policy you need, and how risk-prone you are. Smoking is considered as one of the riskiest factors in deciding the premium of your life insurance plan.

So, if you are a smoker, then you may need to pay a higher premium than another person of the same age group and having a common family history. With different types of life insurance policies, term insurance is one of the cheapest. The reason for the same is the validity of a term plan for a fixed period of time.

Apart from the major factors mentioned above, there are some factors such as being overweight or underweight and the credit history can also affect the premium of the life insurance plan that you purchase.