Where do you buy life/disability insurance from and how do you go about writing a will

I pay $73/ month for $2m in life insurance on a 20 year term through AIG. My will plus living will and simple estate plan cost $500 to draw up.

That's OK that your employer doesn't offer it because employer-offered life insurance is most often quite inferior to individual-purchased life insurance.

Life insurance can be confusing, especially when an insurance agent is involved. They tend to like to promote policies that line their pockets which are, unfortunately, in most cases, not the best policies for the customer. Fortunately, there's no need for an agent. Just skip them and go to the internet.

Unless you make upwards of $350,000 or more per year, stick with level term life insurance which simply pays in the untimely event of your death. It's simple to understand and simple to compare from one company to another.

Here are some guiding factors that can help simplify this shopping process and help get you the best policy for you:

1. First, consider if you need life insurance. If you don't have anyone who depends on your income, then you don't need life insurance.

2. Only get quotes from companies that are rated A++ (and possibly A+, but I'd stick with just A++) by A.M. Best. You want to make sure the company you go with is financially strong enough to be around years or decades down the road when your beneficiaries might need them.

3. Keep it simple and simply get 10 times your annual income.

4. Get a policy that covers you until you plan to retire.

5. The easiest and best place to shop for level term life insurance is on the internet so you avoid an insurance salesperson trying to up-sell you from level term coverage to whole life. There are a number of sites where you can shop for level term such as Insure [insure.com] and AccuQuote [accuquote.com]. Most comparison sites will show you the company's A.M. Best rating beside the quote.

Concerning disability insurance, that's great you're considering buying it because we are three times more likely to become disabled than we are of dying before age 65, so getting disability insurance is more important that getting life insurance. However, historically, we have been more likely to buy life insurance than disability insurance.