Degree

The Internet is a good place to find cheap term life insurance--but not muchelse.

The Internet should be the perfect antidote to the unpleasant task of shopping for insurance. In theory, at least, instead of spendingyour lunch hour calling agents or devoting an evening to going over policies at your kitchentable, you can shop any time of the day or night, tap huge databases forthe cheapest policies and then buy the best one over the Internet--quickly and anonymously.

Unfortunately, if you're expecting all that when you surf theWeb for insurance, you're headed for a wipeout. When we explored the online offerings, we found a little information about auto, homeowners, disability, long-term-careand health insurance, but hardly any quotes. You can find a low-price, term-insurance policy on the Web, butalong with the useful destinations are a lot of dead ends: A few sites exist simply to generate leads for agents who pay to get yourname. Or you may fill outa detailed form only to discover that you need to wait for an agent to mail you a quote. Youwon't necessarily locate the best deals unless you visit several sites.

BEST OF THE LIFE INSURANCE SITES

We requested quotes from a slew of sites for ,000, 30-year level-termpolicies on Robert and Deena Stuart, two healthy 26-year-olds from Arvada, Colo., who have a 4-year-old and a baby on the way (see the box on page 84). Somesites stood out:

LOWEST PRICES. The lowest quotes for the Stuarts came fromInstantQuote (www.instantquote.com) and Quotesmith www.quotesmith.com)--a 30-year level-term policy for Deena at a year and one for Robert at a year, both from First Penn-Pacific. InstantQuote and Quotesmith provide "real-time" quotes--that is, you can see quotes online within seconds. ConsumerQuote (www.consumerquote.com), which mailed the quotes withina few days, and MasterQuote (www.masterquote.com), whose quotes arrived morethan a week later, cited the same low-price policies as Quotesmith. Among several quote services that do not provide prices for 30-year policies, TermQuote (www.rcinet.com/~termquote), which also mails quotes, providedthe lowest 20-year rate: for Deena and for Robert, both with First Penn-Pacific.

Term policies purchased onlinecost the same as policies purchased through an agent. In fact, most quote services are agencies that receive commissions when they sellyou a policy. Still, shopping online can help you find the lowest rates--which you may be able to lock in even if you end up buying the old-fashioned way.

BEST FOR POLICY INFORMATION. When you receive an insurance quote, you don' t know whether you'llget that price until you take a physical exam. If the quote service doesn't obtain enoughmedical-history information, you may be charged a much higher rate after the exam.

For example, InstantQuote and Quotesmith automatically quoted prices for the leastexpensive, "preferred plus" rate class without asking enough questions to determine whether the Stuarts wouldqualify. However, both services provided quotes and detailed information about all the policies in their databases that fit the criteria Quotesmith gave us49 quotes for Robert, including several rate classes for each policy); most quote services provide quotes foronly five companies and one rate class. Most important, InstantQuote and Quotesmith were the only sites we found that include each policy's underwriting criteria--the list the company uses to decidewho qualifies for each rate. It's easier to compare rate classes at InstantQuote. Several companies' prices for each rate class areall listed on one grid. Each company has a separate grid showing its under-writing criteria for each rate class.

Use the underwriting criteriato predict whether you'll qualify for that price, then scroll across InstantQuote's or downQuotesmith's list to see how much the lowest-price companies charge for the next-best rate class. Alsocompare policy features--such as rules for converting to a cash-value policy and limits on renewal.

BEST PRESCREENING. If you don't want to spendtime wading through InstantQuote's or Quotesmith's information to find a price you can count on, go to a quote service that asks more detailed health questions and is more likely to matchyou up with the correct class. ConsumerQuote and MasterQuote asked more questions about medical condition thanInstantQuote and Quotesmith, but provided much less policy information, fisted no underwriting criteria and providedquotes from only five companies.

Quicken InsureMarket (www.insuremarket.com) and InsWeb (www.insweb.com) asked some of the most detailed medical questions but had fewer thanten companies apiece in their databases. That may be too small a pool tofind the best deal. Generally, quote services with more than 50 companies in their databases tended to find the same lowrates.

ONLINE QUOTES. Sites that provide real-time quotes have advantages in addition to speed: They keep you off mailing lists and make it easy to adjust variables, such as length of termand amount. InstantQuote, InsureMarket, InsWeb, NationsBank's insurance site (www.nationsbank.com/insurance), QuickQuote (www.quickquote.com) and Quotesmith offer immediate quotes from multiple companies. John Hancock (www.jhancock.com) and Lincoln BenefitLife (www.getinsured.com) provide immediate quotes, but only for their own companies. Fidelity (www.fidelity.com) andSchwab (www.schwab.com) each provide real-time term quotes for only one company.

QuickQuote--which hasabout 35 companies in its database, primarily because it includes only companies rated A or better by A.M. Best, an insurance ratings service--found policies from Transamericathat cost a little more than the First Penn-Pacific policies: for Deena's 30-year level-termpolicy and for Robert's.

BEST OF THE REST

Quicken InsureMarket and InsWeb supply auto-insurance quotes for a few companies. But after spending a lot of time filling out the detailed questionnaire, you getmeager results. So far, only a few companies offer real-time quotes and only in a few states.In most cases, companies mail or e-mail information within a few days. Others refer you to local agents who will call with a quote--which is only a little less time-consuming than using the Yellow Pages.

Progressive (www.auto-insurance.com) provides realtime quotes for its own policies andup to three other ma or companies' in many states, but the other companies' pricesare based on rates filed with the state insurance department and aren't always up to date. ElectricInsurance (www.electricinsurance.com), Gelco (www.geico.com), Nationwide Direct (www.ndirect.com) and 20th Century (www.20thcentins.com) will mail you quotes if you live in a state they cover.

The remaining kinds ofinsurance are barely represented on the Web. A few sites let you e-mail a form to agents for homeowners, disability, cash-value fife and limitedkinds of health insurance, but an agent will usually call with follow-up questions before you can get a price.

Ifyou need help finding an agent in your area,NetQuote (www.netquote.com) and the Insurance Shopping Network (www.800insureme.com) will forward your information to up to four nearby agents who paid to receive your name. You can also look up independent agents inyour area at the Independent Insurance Agents of America site (www.iiaa.org).

Quicken InsureMarket and InsWeb are good places to start.Both have background information about variouskinds of insurance and provide online worksheets to help you determine the kind of insurance you need, how much you need and how long you will need it.