The Best Policy at the Best Price What to ask and request from your producer. Most states require agents to provide these numbers for cash-value policies if you ask for them. Interest-adjusted costs vary according to the type of policy and your age at purchase. Armed with these numbers, you can compare the costs of different policies within the same company and among different companies. What you'll discover is that the cost of whole-life insurance is all over the lot.
Careful shopping can pay off big.
Also ask for comparable data for the same kinds of policies issued by two other companies. The producer doesn't have to furnish information on competitors' policies but should be able to obtain approximate figures for some companies from manuals widely used in the insurance business. They are based on the assumption that the cash values will earn a certain amount per year. When interest rates are higher or lower than that, the relationships between premiums and cash values are thrown out of whack, especially in the later years. But the distortions affect all policies, so you can still use the indexes as a relative measure of comparative policy costs over the years, provided the issue dates and death benefits are the same.