Nobody likes to think too much about death, but when you’re making a financial plan, you have to consider what your family might be left with if you passed away tomorrow. Although life insurance doesn’t make sense for everyone, if you’re the breadwinner of your family or if you have small children, you need to have coverage. AXA offers a variety of options with flexible terms, and stellar customer service makes this insurance company shine.
Before you get a life insurance policy from AXA Equitable or any other company, shop around and get quotes for a few different policy options. Use an online life insurance comparison tool or get quotes directly from insurers so that you have several life insurance policies to compare and contrast. This gives you a good shot at finding the ideal policy with the lowest rates.
Ratings at a Glance
A 2015 survey by J.D. Power ranks AXA Financial as below average in several categories, including overall satisfaction, price and interaction. The company earns three out of five stars in policy offerings and billing and payment. Some of the strong positives for AXA include its A+ rating from A.M. Best for its financial strength and its lower-than-average number of consumer complaints.
Life Insurance Policy Options
Depending on the type of life insurance policy you choose, you could benefit from low or flexible premiums, access to cash or the ability to leave your heirs enough funds to pay off all taxes and debts in addition to an inheritance. AXA offers a variety of life insurance policies, including popular options such as:
- Term Life: AXA’s BrightLife Term is one of the least-expensive options, which makes it ideal if you’re on a budget or only need life insurance for a set number of years. AXA’s term life comes with two premium options, including fixed payments for 1, 10, 15 or 20 years. Alternatively, you can choose a plan with increasing premiums to save money early on in the term.
- Whole Life: AXA’s Interest Sensitive whole life policy offers a minimum cash value that increases every year up to the face amount once you reach age 100. This option offers fixed premiums for the life of your policy.
- Universal Life: Like whole life, universal life insurance can accumulate cash value, although it’s not assured. This option offers affordable permanent life insurance with a lower-cost structure early on and the flexibility to increase your coverage later.
- Survivorship Life Insurance: AXA also offers three types of survivorship insurance, which is a type of policy that insures two lives and only pays once the second person dies. This is a good option if your heirs might face high estate taxes. These plans also offer the potential for growth, supplemental retirement income and flexible premiums, depending on which plan you choose.
AXA Life Insurance Rates
The price that you pay for life insurance depends on a variety of factors, including your age, sex and the state where you live. Your medical history and current health also factor into the equation. Although life insurance rates are personalized and tailored individually to you according the underwriters’ guidelines, the following chart provides an at-a-glance look at what you can expect to pay. These rates are based on 20-year term life policies for healthy individuals.
| Sex/Age | Policy Amount | Monthly Premium | Annual Premium |
| Female/25 | $500K | $22 | $225 |
| Male/25 | $500K | $25 | $265 |
| Female/25 | $750K | $28 | $300 |
| Male/25 | $750K | $33 | $360 |
| Female/40 | $500K | $38 | $410 |
| Male/40 | $500K | $41 | $450 |
| Female/40 | $750K | $52 | $578 |
| Male/40 | $750K | $57 | $638 |
How to Get the Lowest AXA Life Insurance Rates
In general, you need to be healthy with a clean driving record to qualify for AXA’s “preferred elite” plan, which boasts the lowest rates. Some of the specifics that this insurer looks at while evaluating your application include:
- Blood Pressure: For the lowest rates, applicants age 59 or younger should have a maximum blood pressure of 140/85. Applicants between the ages of 60 and 69 shouldn’t exceed 150/90.
- Good Driving Record: If you have any history of driving while intoxicated or reckless driving in the five years before your application, expect to pay more or even face a possible denial.
- No Nicotine Use: Applicants who qualify for lower rates haven’t used nicotine in the five years before they apply.
- Substance Abuse: Applicants with no history of drug or alcohol abuse can expect to qualify for lower rates than applicants who have struggled with substance abuse.
Calculating the Amount of Coverage You Need
To figure out how much life insurance you need, use one of two methods: the simple income multiplication method or the debt, income, mortgage and education (DIME) formula. The income multiplication formula states that you should multiply your income by 10 and add an extra $100,000 for each child’s college expenses if you have children. Most experts prefer using the DIME formula because it provides a more comprehensive view of what your family needs based on the following criteria:
- Debt: With the exception of your mortgage, tally up all of your outstanding debts. Add in your estimated funeral and burial costs.
- Income: How many years does your family need support? In many cases, you might opt for the number of years before a child graduates or turns 18. Once you decide on the number of years, multiply your annual income by that number.
- Mortgage: Calculate the payoff figure for your home loan.
- Education: Include estimated college costs for each of your children.
To illustrate how this works, consider Ellen’s DIME calculation. She makes $100,000 annually and she wants to provide enough income replacement to carry her youngest child, who is 11, to age 21. She owes a total of $21,000 in debt and has a mortgage balance of $189,000. She wants to set aside $100,000 for each of her three children to go to college. Using the formula, she calculates:
$100,000 x 10 years = $1 million + $21,000 + $189,000 +$300,000 = $1,510,000.
Ellen chooses to purchase a policy for $1.6 million to cover all the expenses with a little bit left over. If she wanted to reduce that amount, she could consider providing fewer years of income replacement.
When you’re calculating the amount of life insurance you need, take your spouse’s insurance and any other life insurance coverage you may have into account. Subtract any other policies from your DIME calculation to determine the amount you want to obtain from AXA, should you choose to purchase a policy from this company.
