Is Life Insurance cheaper for Women?

If anyone has ever attempted purchasing a Term Plan online by comparing rates, you would have figured out by now that the Life Insurance premium for women is significantly lower than that of men. This is keeping in mind for the same age, tenure as well as coverage. There are many reasons for the same and we shall discuss them one by one.

Now, buying a Life Insurance Policy itself is quite an exhaustive task and finally after the policy gets issued and the Life Insurance Policy starts. With e-commerce as the latest trend, we must shop for the best deals available and even the insurance sector is not far behind. There are comparison websites and by doing so you will be surprised to know that premium rates for smokers and non-smokers vary and even gender wise.

Thus, comes the most common question: why do women bear lower insurance costs than men?

The biggest and the most prominent reason being: different Mortality Rates for men and women. The Mortality Rates for women are much lower than that of men because historically women live longer than men. They usually outlive men by 5 years or so although the gap is narrowing by the day. Thus, the insurance company will tend to receive more premium for a woman’s life than a man’s because an average women will outlive an average man by 5 years.

Another reason is low penetration of Life Insurance with female lives. This is an initiate taken by Life Insurance Companies to lower insurance rates for a female life so as to attract her to take a Life Insurance coverage for her life. This has also been contributed by the men since they being the earning member have only taken life insurance coverage for themselves and thereby ignoring the women. The inequality in the Life Insurance Policies in the industry has been a concern for a while and this deliberate difference in premium rates is a step to balance the two.