We Might Behave Better for $306 Per Month: Life Prospects

Dieting and cutting back on use of alcohol can be difficult, but U.S. insurance users claim that they are much more likely to take those steps to lower their life insurance premiums than to use some other low-effort premium-reduction strategies.

(Related: Americans Haven’t Thought Much About Life Insurance: Survey)

Simple Life Insure, an independent life insurance brokerage firm, has included data supporting that finding in a summary of results from a recent online survey. The sample included 665 people who said they owned a health insurance policy, a car insurance policy, a life insurance policy, a homeowners or renters insurance policy, or a disability insurance policy.

Some of the questions focused on the steps participants were willing to take to reduce their premiums for various types of insurance.

“Shopping around” was by far the most popular premium-reduction strategy: 54% of the participants said they were likely to try to shop around to reduce health insurance premiums, and 47% said they were likely to try to shop around to reduce life insurance premiums.

Participants said they were much more likely to take some other, challenging steps to improve their risk profile than to take some other steps that, on the surface, seem as if they might be easier to take.

Here’s a look at how likely participants said they were to take some life premium-reduction steps:

• Lose weight: 38%
• Cut back on alcohol: 28%
• Choose a smaller insurer: 17%
• Fast before a physical exam: 14%
• Lie on an application: 4.5%

Simple Life Insurer found that typical survey participants said the motivation they would need to make major lifestyle changes would be about $306 in life and health premium savings per month.

Resources

A summary of the Simple Life Insurance Survey results is available here.

— Read How Much Cash Would It Take to Get People to Delay Retirement?, on ThinkAdvisor.

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