Best Affordable Life Insurance In Canada 2025
See affordable life insurance quotes from PolicyMe and other top companies.
The most affordable life insurance in Canada
The best life insurance fits your budget and meets your needs. Focusing on price alone could leave you with a policy that falls short when it matters most. So we’ve done the legwork to find the companies with the lowest rates. Below you’ll find the results comparing hundreds of quotes from 20 of the biggest life insurance providers in Canada.
Cheapest life insurance in Canada
The cheapest life insurance in Canada is term life insurance, and often sold by online retailers with no brick-and-mortar stores to pay for. The cheapest life insurance policies with the least possible coverage start at less than $4 per month:
* Rates reflect the cost of term life insurance for an 18-year-old non-smoker living in Ontario.
Best term life insurance in Canada
Term life insurance is the cheapest type of coverage, and the best term life insurance in Canada belongs to PolicyMe. PolicyMe is rated 4.8/5 on Reviews.io and 4.9/5 on Google by over 1000 customers, and provides $10B in coverage across Canada.
The runner-ups—especially if you’re looking for a policy worth over $5 million—are Sun Life and The Co-Operators. The two are major players in the Canadian insurance market and offer a wide variety of term life insurance products and riders:
* Rates reflect the cost of a 10-year, $100,000 term life insurance policy for an 18-year-old, female non-smoker living in Ontario.
Affordable life insurance for seniors
Unless you have an extremely high net worth or a complicated estate, the best life insurance for seniors is term life insurance. You can qualify for higher coverage and lower premiums, which are fixed for the entirety of your 10-30-year term.
* Rates reflect the cost of a 20-year term life insurance policy for $100,000 for a 50-year-old non-smoker living in Ontario.
The best affordable life insurance for seniors over 60
The best life insurance for seniors over 60 is fully underwritten term life insurance. At 65, you can still qualify for a 10-year term life insurance policy from most providers, which provides savings over permanent life insurance.
* Rates reflect the monthly cost of a 10-year term life insurance policy for $100,000 for a 65-year-old non-smoker in Ontario.
Methodology
To find the best life insurance providers in Canada, we evaluated over 30 different metrics for 20 different companies. We compiled the results in 3 categories, scoring each one out of 5:
The study added up to over 2,500 points of data. Added together, the three scores for customer service, industry reputation, and price gave us a definitive ranking of the best life insurance providers in Canada in every category.
How are life insurance premiums calculated?
In exchange for a life insurance policy, life insurance providers require monthly or yearly payments known as premiums. Your premiums are calculated and set during the underwriting stage of the life insurance process, when a company assesses how likely and how soon you might pass away.
Depending on the company and the product, a life insurance application might ask for your:
- Basic information, including birth date, birth sex, home address and contact information
- Health information, including height, weight and chronic or pre-existing medical conditions, both mental and physical
- Lifestyle details, including alcohol and tobacco use
- Medical history, including the diagnosis and treatment of certain conditions in you and your relatives
- Occupational details, including your work and hobbies
Each life insurance company uses a different formula to calculate its premiums, and you can receive different life insurance quotes after submitting the same information.
Why are my life insurance premiums so high?
The cost of life insurance in Canada starts at less than $5 per month. Depending on the information on your life insurance application, your premiums could balloon up to $300 or more.
These factors increase the likelihood of your insurer having to make a payout, so they charge higher premiums to compensate.
As you can see, while some of these factors are outside of your control, others aren’t. This guide is all about what you can do to lower your life insurance premiums today.
9 ways to lower your life insurance premiums
After consulting with PolicyMe’s licensed insurance advisors, we found 10 things you can do to get cheap life insurance rates in Canada:
Some methods require more effort than others, but many are easy. There’s no telling how much money you could save by combining two or three!
Tip #1: Apply early
Insurance premiums are cheapest for the young, averaging just $10.35/month for an 18-year-old, and going up to $163.37/month for a 70-year-old for term life insurance. Between different age groups, the average savings for people of the same gender and smoking status range from 46% to 1,300%!
The sooner you apply for life insurance, the more you’ll save.
Tip #2: Choose term life insurance
The two types of life insurance are term life insurance and permanent life insurance. The former lasts as long as your policy’s term length, a period of time which ranges from 10-30 years. The latter is supposed to last your whole life, as long as you keep paying your premiums.
Compared to term life insurance, permanent life insurance (which often includes a cash value fund) is much more expensive. For example, term life insurance starts at just $3.70/month in Canada, compared to $17.94/month for permanent life insurance.
Besides cheaper premiums, the advantages of term life insurance include higher coverage at a lower price, fixed fees for a set period, and increased flexibility. If your term life insurance policy expires before you do, you can buy a new plan with coverage tailored to your new circumstances.
Lock into permanent life insurance coverage when you’re young, and you might just spend your whole life paying high premiums, only to end up with coverage that exceeds your financial needs.
Although often advertised as an investment product, whole life insurance generally performs worse than stocks and RRSPs. Unless you’re willing to manage your own investments with a universal life insurance policy, stick to the old proverb: “Buy term and invest the rest.”
Tip #3: Choose fully underwritten life insurance
Life insurance companies use underwriting to figure out how likely and how soon you might pass away, and to set your premiums accordingly. The more thorough the underwriting, the more complete the picture of your health, and the lower your life insurance premiums are likely to be.
For example, fully underwritten life insurance sometimes requires an in-person medical exam, but it’s 72%-171% cheaper than no medical or simplified life insurance, which only asks a few questions. Guaranteed issue life insurance asks only basic questions and charges high premiums as a result.
Although you might not feel it’s worth the extra effort, 96% of Canadians qualify for the life insurance coverage they apply for at standard rates. Try applying for fully underwritten life insurance first to see how much you could save; you can always apply for a no medical or guaranteed issue policy later.
Tip #4: Choose lower coverage
The larger the death benefit you plan to leave behind, the more you’ll pay. Instead of simply multiplying your income, it’s worth figuring out exactly how much life insurance you need by using a life insurance calculator.
For example, a 10-year term life insurance plan for $100,000 from PolicyMe starts at just $6.29/month. Increasing the amount of coverage to $200,000 raises your premiums to $9.17/month. It’s not quite double, but it’s still nearly 30% more.
With a little effort, you can figure out exactly how much financial protection you need and keep your life insurance costs as low as possible.
Term life insurance, which lasts for 10-30 years, lets you change your coverage amount once your policy expires. With permanent life insurance, you’re locked into high rates, and you’ll probably end up over- or undershooting your insurance needs at some point in your life.
Tip #5: Choose to pay annually
Most life insurance companies provide a discount if you pay your premiums once per year instead of once per month. For example, you can save up to 8.3% by buying life insurance with an annual payment plan from Canada Protection Plan.
Tip #6: Don’t smoke
On average, the life insurance premiums for smokers are 69.59% higher than those for non-smokers. The gap gets wider with age—a 70-year-old smoker will pay about 88% more per month than their non-smoking counterpart, while an 18-year-old smoker will pay 25% more.
The increase in premiums applies to vaping, chewing tobacco, betel nut leaves, cigars, and any other use of tobacco within the last 12 months. If you do consume nicotine, it’s crucial to find a company with competitive life insurance rates for smokers, such as:
* Rates reflect the monthly cost of term life insurance for a 30-year-old living in Ontario.
Depending on the insurer, using marijuana may raise your life insurance rates.
Tip #7: Evaluate your risk
Life insurance companies use underwriting to figure out how likely and how soon you might pass away, and the higher your risk, the higher your premiums. Anyone with a pre-existing medical condition, a dangerous hobby, or a difficult occupation may qualify for high-risk life insurance instead of regular rates.
Here’s a quick guide to lowering your risks and your life insurance premiums at the same time:
If you’ve done the hard work to improve your health, call up your insurer and tell them about your progress. Most companies are happy to review your life insurance premiums after a significant change in circumstances.
Tip #8: Find a bundling discount
A single life insurance policy that insures the lives of two or more people is known as joint life insurance. Although it’s generally cheaper than buying a pair of individual policies, a joint life insurance policy only leads to a single payout.
By buying two policies, you can set different amounts of life insurance coverage for your spouse and yourself, and secure your family’s financial future with two payouts. Plus, you’ll qualify for a couple’s life insurance discount.
Tip #9: Find the right life insurance company
Different life insurance companies set different premiums, even for the same customers. Shopping around and comparing term life insurance quotes is the most reliable way to find the best rates.
But, remember: price isn’t everything. Look for insurers with a strong industry reputation who treat their employees well and have enough financial security to pay their claims. And unless your loved ones enjoy spending hours on the phone, it’s important to find a company with positive customer service reviews.
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Our mission is to empower Canadians to make informed financial decisions. To achieve this, we have an expert editorial team that includes licensed insurance advisors and financial planners. We prioritize the best interests of Canadian families and won't endorse any product, company or financial strategy that we believe isn't suitable. Our educational guides are crafted by in-house experts, like licensed life insurance advisors. Before publication, we subject our research and advice to scrutiny and comprehensive revisions for accuracy and completeness.
Our mission is to empower Canadians to make informed financial decisions. To achieve this, we have an expert editorial team that includes licensed insurance advisors and financial planners. We prioritize the best interests of Canadian families and won't endorse any product, company or financial strategy that we believe isn't suitable. Our educational guides are crafted by in-house experts, like licensed life insurance advisors. Before publication, we subject our research and advice to scrutiny and comprehensive revisions for accuracy and completeness.