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PolicyMe is an online life insurance company that allows Canadians to buy term life insurance in minutes, 100% online. PolicyMe now offers life insurance policies directly to consumers, simplifying the process of getting insurance even further! This allows PolicyMe to provide a fully-underwritten term life policy that has the most competitive pricing in Canada.
*PolicyMe’s policies are issued by Canadian Premier Life Insurance Company, one of Canada’s most reputable life insurance companies.
When you are young and healthy, life insurance isn’t something you generally give a lot of thought. However, this is in fact a great time in your life to consider purchasing it.
My first proper introduction to life insurance was when I started my first “real” job after university. The company I worked for at the time offered all employees optional life insurance plans, I think it was something like $25/month. But being in my early 20’s, healthy and budget-conscious, I assumed this was just a rip-off from big insurance companies and of no use to me. Was I wrong?
When Do You Need Insurance?
Well, clearly when you die unexpectedly is the answer – but it brings me along to the real point. Get it when you don’t need it, so it’s there when you do. Life insurance is not for you, it’s for your family and dependents. Consider the purchase of your life insurance policy as an investment or a hedge against a catastrophic situation.
A lot of people put off the process and major life events end up prompting the decision to finally apply. For example, a family member dying unexpectedly may push you to look into life insurance. Getting married or having kids is also high on the list of reasons. It’s the consideration of taking care of your family if something happens to you or your spouse. And rightly so, you need to plan for how you will protect and support them in such a situation.
Unfortunately, many people don’t get around to the life insurance task until middle-age, when it can become harder or more costly to get insured! You can’t predict when a health issue will arise that might affect your insurability. Even if you’re fairly healthy overall and can get approved, minor health issues can affect your rates.
Apply when you are young and healthy, the biggest reason is so you don’t get denied or pay exorbitant amounts later on.
What Type of Life Insurance Should I Get?
If you’re shopping for Life Insurance in Canada, you’ll likely see two options – Term Insurance and Permanent Insurance.
Term Insurance is life insurance the covers you for a certain period of time (the term), usually 10, 20 or 30 years. The benefit is only paid out if you die during that term. That doesn’t sound great on the surface, but it is actually the best option for most people as it is cost-effective and offers you protection during your working years, during the time you will likely be paying off major expenses such as your home and supporting your children.
You also won’t be paying hefty fees when you’re old, because the term will be up and you will hopefully no longer need the insurance at that point, with kids moved out and your home (hopefully) paid off.
Permanent Life Insurance, on the other hand, covers you for life. It guarantees your beneficiaries will receive a death benefit no matter what age you pass. While this sounds good, Permanent Insurance is generally much more expensive since the benefit is guaranteed. So, if you live until you’re 100, you’ll still be paying those fees and likely covering a lot of the cost anyway.
Here is an excellent resource or primer, explaining what life insurance is and What Type of Life Insurance Makes Sense for Me.
How to Get Life Insurance?
The traditional methods to getting life insurance could be through your financial institution, an insurance broker, or possibly getting direct quotes online from the insurer. All of these methods can be fairly time-consuming but can also be a very sales-oriented experience. The people selling the products are there for that exact purpose, to sell you products – not necessarily to give you the best advice possible. You don’t want to get pressured into purchasing more insurance than you really need and can you completely trust someone who is getting a commission based on the policy they sell you?
When we got life insurance for our family, we went through a professional association and used a broker to discuss our needs. After doing a bit of research and a number of phone calls back and forth with the insurance broker, we finally were given some options and pricing.
While we did feel the advice received was adequate, I still felt the need to do my own research and it seemed like a lot of time was spent gathering information, then calling the broker back to discuss. Reviewing it a few years later, I do think we got the insurance that was appropriate in the end, but the entire process seemed cumbersome and unnecessarily time-consuming to complete from start to finish. It’s also one of those things on your to-do list, that when you’re busy with a young family, can fall by the wayside and get tripped up or stalled out by such delays mid-process.
Applying for Insurance can be Frustrating
Whenever I’ve searched for insurance through insurance company websites, I always seem to end up with more questions than answers. You might also be familiar with filling out a bunch of personal information, only to be greeted with “Enter your Email or Phone Number and someone will be in touch with you shortly“. If you wanted that response, you would have just called the company in the first place, right?
This is where I wish an advice-based service was around when I first started shopping for insurance. A system to give real recommendations without requiring you to call a bunch of companies for quotes and having to recite the same information over and over just to get quotes. Why not do it all in one place to save time during the initial investigative process?
This is where PolicyMe comes in!
PolicyMe – Making Life Insurance Simple and More Affordable
PolicyMe is kind of like your own personal robo-advisor for insurance. The website asks you for specific data and details about yourself and your finances. It then uses the data to provide you with a recommendation on the amount of insurance you would require to sustain your current lifestyle, in the event that you or your spouse passes unexpectedly, for example.
The website does its’ best to recommend no more and no less than the insurance you actually need. PolicyMe has a system to give real recommendations without requiring you to call around to a number of companies, as nobody wants to recite the same information over and over just to get quotes. Why not do it all in one place to save time during the initial investigative process? PolicyMe has helped thousands of Canadians with their life insurance search and is backed by licensed advisors who are ready to answer any questions you have. And while you can get help if you want it or need it, you are also free to just fill out the online forms without fear of a pushy sales call coming your way afterwards.
I can attest to the engine not just “offering” me insurance regardless of my input. I entered my own personal details and existing life insurance coverage, and it ended up telling me I required “no additional insurance” at this time, which I felt was accurate.
The PolicyMe Website Process
As mentioned, it seems like most insurance websites drag you through an information-gathering process, only to request a follow-up conversation to get a quote. Let the sales pitch begin!
PolicyMe allows you to go through their streamlined process at your own leisure and seems to cut out most of the back and forth. This reduces the traditional time lag when discussing with an insurance agent or broker. Advice is available free from their team of licensed advisors, but utilizing it is not necessary to complete the process.
The process goes something like this:
- Get Personalized Advice
- Submit Your Application & Get an Instant Decision
- Get Approved and Provide Payment Details
As you can see, it is possible to get life insurance in around 15 minutes instead of the traditional timeline of weeks!!!
Trying it Out for Myself
When deciding to try the system out, I was curious to see the pricing and what sort of policy was recommended to me along with how easy it was to use. The system claims it provides recommendations using algorithms based on actuarial experience, so how accurate would it be, and how easy?
It was surprisingly simple and information gathering was broken down into small chunks and well laid out. I didn’t feel like I had to fill out pages and pages of personal information. The PolicyMe website will ask you a few questions about your family and lifestyle, your financial commitments along with your current income and savings. These numbers will help determine the appropriate type and amount of life insurance.
First, you will input your family details such as if you’re married, have kids and everyone’s ages. It will also ask some very basic health questions, such as if you are a smoker or a non-smoker.
The form then asks you for basic financial information to estimate your monthly living expenses and will base your insurance needs off all of the data collected.
Coverage Recommendation
Immediately after completing the form, which only takes a few short minutes, you will receive a PolicyMe Recommendation on the Coverage Amount and Policy Length along with a more detailed explanation of why that specific coverage was recommended.
Their technology is education-focused to provide transparent and unbiased advice. I found that the coverage amount recommended to us (we already have insurance) was pretty much bang on.
You can also customize your coverage amount, policy length and more. This lets you apply for the exact amount of insurance coverage you are comfortable with, whether that is more or less than what is recommended.
Pricing Information
Once you figure out your recommended or desired coverage amount, you can start your application.
PolicyMe offers term-life insurance directly through a partnership with one of Canada’s most reputable life insurance companies.
Fair Recommendations
I found that the coverage amount recommended to us (we already have insurance) was pretty much bang on. Note that while filling out the forms, I purposely omitted that we already have insurance, just to see the recommendations and pricing. The amount of insurance and pricing was very similar, almost identical to what we had purchased. So I would say the tool is very accurate.
After completing my initial test and reviewing the recommendations, I changed the input to indicate that we already have life insurance. The PolicyMe system recognized this change and recommended that we did not need any additional insurance.
Wow, no pushy sales or extras offered!
The recommendation of no additional life insurance also provided reasons and the option to still see quotes if you wanted additional insurance for some reason.
Simply going through these steps and reading the reasoning behind the recommendations afterwards, will give those new to insurance some insight as to the benefits of life insurance and what factors are considered when determining how much you need.
Trusting the Process – PolicyMe Reviews
One question remaining is, can we trust the advice given and are consumers happy with the service? PolicyMe uses an independent review service and has collected over 320 reviews as of writing this article.
With an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 from users of the service, it appears PolicyMe has gained a very good reputation from consumers.
Overall, I was quite pleased with how easy the process was, and I wish I knew such a service existed when I was first shopping for life insurance. I’d definitely recommend trying it out and utilizing their tools if you’re just beginning your own search for life insurance. It should help you out and won’t cost you anything!
This post may contain affiliate links, from which I may receive compensation.
*Interest is calculated daily on the total closing balance and paid monthly. Rates are per annum and subject to change without notice.
