The Life Insurance Delay in Numbers

New client research puts a number on a familiar problem: almost three in four people—72% in a survey conducted by life insurer Ethos—wish they had purchased life insurance sooner, and 70% said they understood its importance long before they actually bought a policy. The delay is rarely about ignorance; it is about urgency, according to Nichole Myers, Ethos’ chief underwriter. In many cases, everyday expenses and the discomfort of confronting mortality combine to keep life insurance permanently on the “later” list.

Brendon DeRouin, co-CEO and managing partner at E4 Insurance Services, describes the structural problem in starker terms. Taxes have a filing deadline and a mortgage has a closing date, but life insurance “just sits there,” he notes, so it loses whenever it competes for a client’s attention. The advisor’s task is to manufacture the missing urgency without resorting to scare tactics.

The most common block is a belief among younger, healthy buyers that coverage is unnecessary. That assumption ignores how premiums rise with age and health changes, Myers explains. A second block is cost. LIMRA found that 40% of people overestimate the cost of a basic 20-year term policy, and about half of those estimates are based on nothing more than a gut feeling. “Most people who give me a price objection have never been quoted,” DeRouin says.

Advisors can reframe that conversation by focusing on benefits rather than fear, showing the same policy priced today versus three and five years later, and explaining that a current rate and health class can be locked in for 20 years but cannot be repurchased once lost. When a client still says “later,” starting a no-obligation application can create the deadline the client never will: underwriting requirements come due, the carrier follows up, and the offer eventually expires.

What the Delay Data Means for Advisors and Clients

The Missing Deadline Is the Real Competitor

The interviews point to a psychological dynamic, not a product problem. Without a filing or closing date, a life insurance policy can be postponed indefinitely. DeRouin’s comparison to tax returns and mortgages helps explain why high awareness does not translate into action: clients are not rejecting the product; they are never forced to decide on it.

The Price Objection Is Often an Information Gap

The LIMRA data suggests that what sounds like resistance to cost is frequently resistance to the unknown. If 40% of consumers overestimate a basic 20-year term policy and half of those estimates are gut-level guesses, then an actual quote is a more useful response than persuasion. That aligns with DeRouin’s observation that many price objections come from people who have never seen their own number.

Underwriting as an External Deadline

The most concrete tactic in the piece involves starting the application with no money changing hands. That is not a sales gimmick; it changes who drives the timeline. Once underwriting begins, the carrier, requirements and offer expiration do the follow-up work that the client has so far avoided. The advisor’s claim that a health class cannot be recovered later is directly tied to the underwriting process, not to marketing urgency.

How to Convert 'Later' Into a Life Insurance Decision

For advisors and agents, the practical steps below follow directly from the findings and practitioner methods described in the article.

  • Open with the Ethos survey finding that 72% wish they had acted sooner and 70% knew life insurance mattered before buying. Use it to normalize delay, not to scold.
  • Answer price objections with LIMRA’s figure: 40% overestimate a basic 20-year term policy, and roughly half are making a gut estimate. Offer a personalized quote instead of debating assumptions.
  • Show the same policy priced at the client’s current age versus three and five years later, and then pause. This makes the waiting cost visible without drama.
  • Explain that buying now locks the current rate and health class for the policy term and can be cancelled anytime, but a previous health class cannot be repurchased once it is lost.
  • When a client says “later,” begin the 10-minute, no-obligation application. It involves no payment and no binding commitment, but it triggers underwriting deadlines, carrier follow-up, and an offer expiration that replaces the client’s own “later” with a real date.