The more complicated the policy gets, the more you will find yourself relying on an agent to explain it. It's often difficult to compare whole life or universal policies because they are complex.

Basic questions to ask about a whole life or universal life policy:

• How much would you pay each year for each part of the policy?
  • Cost of insurance or "mortality charge"
  • Sales commissions
  • Administrative fees
  • Future insurance (cash value)

• Are there penalties for early surrender?
  • How much?
  • When do they stop?

• Can you understand the illustration?
  • What's guaranteed in your whole life insurance quote -- and what is not
  • What's buried in the footnotes of the quote
  • Interest rates: declared monthly or annually ... simple or compounded?
  • Does the quote still make sense after the agent has left
  • Does the quote sound too good to be true

• How long do you plan to keep it?
  • Decades
  • Only a few years (consider term instead of whole)

The answer on this page was edited based on source material from the Ohio Dept. of Ins. These pages are no longer being updated. --Webmaster

• Net Quote

• InsureMe

InsureMe and NetQuote are the two top Internet tools for getting competing quotes. Their online forms ask you a few quick questions and then match your needs with competing companies. We recommend trying them both to get the widest selection for comparison.