The presentation, without the pressure
Everything we would tell you at the table. In order. At your pace.
Six chapters. Read them in one sitting or over a month. Nothing here asks you for anything, and nothing here expires.
How to use this
You are not being sold to on this page.
This is the whole conversation, written down. Read it before you speak to anyone, including us. If you finish it and decide you want nothing, that is a completely acceptable outcome and we will not chase you.
Bring your questions →01
What a policy actually is
02
Term or permanent, and the honest tradeoff
03
How much you actually need
04
What moves the price
05
What can go wrong
06
What happens if you say yes
01
Chapter one
A policy is a promise with a price on it.
That is the whole product. You pay a premium. In exchange, an insurer promises to pay a sum of money to the people you name, if you die while the policy is in force.
Everything else is detail. How long the promise lasts, how much it pays, what it costs, and what could void it. Those four things are the next four chapters.
The money is paid to people, not to an estate, when you name a beneficiary. That is the part most people do not realise: it can arrive quickly, and it does not have to wait behind a will.
02
Chapter two
Term or permanent. The difference is how long the promise lasts.
Almost every product you will be shown is a version of one of these two, or a blend. Once you see the difference in shape, the sales language stops working on you.
How long the cover lasts, drawn to scale
Term life
A set number of years
The bar stops. If you outlive the term, the cover ends and nothing is paid. That is not a trick, it is the deal, and it is why term costs less.
Permanent life
For as long as it is funded
The bar keeps going, and part of what you pay can build cash value you may be able to borrow against. It costs more for the same death benefit, because the promise is longer.
Neither one is the right answer. Term is usually the answer when the need has an end date, like the years until the mortgage is paid or the youngest child finishes school. Permanent is usually the answer when the need does not end. Most honest recommendations are a mix.
03
Chapter three
How much you actually need.
Ignore the rules of thumb. The number you need is not a multiple of your salary, it is the sum of the bills that would still arrive after you were gone.
Add the four amounts on the right, subtract what you already have set aside, and you have your number. Bring it to us and we will check your arithmetic, not talk you out of it.
Add these four
D
Debt
Everything that does not die with you: credit cards, car notes, personal loans, and the cost of a funeral. Someone has to settle these.
I
Income
What your household actually lives on each year, multiplied by the number of years the people you love would need to keep living on it.
M
Mortgage
The balance left on the home, so that the roof is never the thing they have to give up in order to grieve.
E
Education
What it would cost to get each child through the schooling you had planned for them, at the schools you had in mind.
Then subtract savings, existing policies, and any cover you already have through work. What is left is the gap.
Work out your number
The DIME worksheet, with the arithmetic done for you.
Fill in what you know. The figure updates as you type, and nothing is sent anywhere until you choose to send it. Rough numbers are fine, this is an estimate, not an application.
Your estimated gap
Start typing
This is the amount of cover the worksheet suggests, not a quote. What you would actually pay depends on underwriting.
04
Chapter four
What moves the price.
An insurer is pricing one thing: the chance it pays out sooner rather than later. Every question on the application is a version of that question. Here is what actually moves the number, in both directions.
Brings the price down
Buying younger. Age is the single biggest lever, and it only moves one way.
Being a non-smoker, and having been one long enough to qualify.
Blood pressure, cholesterol and weight in a healthy range at the time of the medical.
Choosing term over permanent, or a shorter term, when the need really does have an end date.
Applying to more than one carrier. They do not all read the same health history the same way.
Pushes the price up
Waiting. Every birthday costs you, and a diagnosis in the meantime costs you more.
Tobacco or nicotine in any form, including vaping.
Existing conditions, and a family history of them. Both are asked about, and both are checked.
A higher payout, a longer term, or permanent cover. More promise, more premium.
Riders. Some are worth every cent and some are decoration. Ask which is which, and ask it out loud.
Nobody can quote you from a web page. Anyone who does is guessing, and the number will change the moment a real application is underwritten.
05
Chapter five
What can go wrong. The part nobody presents.
A policy can fail. Not often, and almost never for a reason nobody saw coming. These are the ways it happens, so that none of them can happen to you quietly.
You stop paying
This is the most common failure by a distance. The policy lapses and the years of premium behind it buy nothing. Buy an amount you can still pay in a bad year, not a good one.
The application was not accurate
If you leave something off, an insurer can contest the claim, typically within the first two years. Tell the truth on the form even when it raises the price. A cheaper policy that does not pay is not cheaper.
The term runs out
Term does exactly what it says. If the need outlives the term, you will be shopping again at an older age, in whatever health you are in then. Ask what the policy converts to before you sign it, not after.
The beneficiary is out of date
The policy pays whoever is named on it, not whoever it should have been. Marriages end, children arrive, people pass. Read the name on your policy after every one of those.
The cash value is drained
Borrowing against a permanent policy is a real feature, and it is not free. An unpaid loan reduces what your family receives, and in the worst case it can collapse the policy. Borrow deliberately.
Nobody knows it exists
Benefits go unclaimed because the family never found the paperwork. Tell the person you named. Tell them the carrier and where the document lives. That conversation takes two minutes.
06
Chapter six
What happens if you say yes.
No surprises. This is the whole sequence, start to finish, and you can stop it at any point without owing anyone an explanation.
1
A conversation
We ask what you are actually protecting and who depends on you. No forms yet, and no pitch.
2
Options, side by side
More than one carrier, more than one shape, with the tradeoffs said out loud. You take it home.
3
The application
Health history, and usually a medical. This is where accuracy protects you, so we go through it together.
4
Underwriting
The carrier prices your actual risk and comes back with a real number. It can differ from the illustration. If it does, we tell you why.
5
In force, and reviewed
The promise starts. We check it against your life again when your life changes, which is the part most people never get.
You can stop at any step. Nothing binds you until you sign, and we do not chase.
That was the whole presentation
Now you can decide from the same side of the table we are on.
If something here did not sit right, that is the most useful thing you could bring us. Come with the objection, not the appointment.
Ask your questions