WSJ reported that term life insurance rates are starting to climb. The article attributes the hike to an insurance regulation called XXX (what a good name), which will require insurance companies to keep larger reserves for term policies. The author mentioned that analysts earlier had expected the approval of a favorable mortality table will allow rates to drop further, but now believe that such price drop will not materialize. Instead, rate may increase or insurers may tighten the underwriting standards.
Back to March, I did a quick check of term life insurance rates. I wrote:
"I can get $500,000 term life insurance from an A++ insurer for:
$180-$195/year for 10-year guaranteed, or
$215-$220/year for 15-year guaranteed, or
$285-$290/year for 20-year guaranteed."
I checked Term4Sale again today for the same coverage and the best rates for each category bearly changed; I can still get the lowest rate I saw in March. It appears to me that the market is still very fragmented and highly competitive (all term life insurance are offering almost the same thing in nature, so players can only compete on price) because each Term4Sale query can easily get dozens of offers.