Since 2000, term life insurance premiums have been declining about 4% per year according to the Insurance Information Institute. Premiums are now 50% lower than they were a decade ago. Obviously the biggest reason for this trend is the mortality tables now being used by actuaries since January of 2009 which show people living longer. These new tables show that a 65-year-old male is now expected to live to 85 where under old guidelines the life expectancy was only 81. They also show that death rates for people in the 25 to 44-year-old age groups have dropped about 10% since 1994.
Based on these trends, policy holders because they are living longer will pay premiums for longer periods of time for the same coverage which allows insurance companies to charge less. The biggest drop in rates are for term life insurance where there is no cash value. A non-smoking 40-year-old male at todays rates can expect to pay an annual average premium of $350 for the pre-ferred rate class on up to $725 for the standard rate class for a $500,000 policy with a (10) year term.
American consumers are starting to realize that the best ROI is to pay off debt with their discretionary income.