There are several life insurance aggregations sites, such as Insure.com and AccuQuote.com that provide you with complete, highly searchable database of hundreds of insurance plans from dozens of life insurance companies. If you are in the market for term insurance, it becomes a very easy process of apples-to-apples comparisons. But, before you get online, you should need to clearly define your needs and assess your long term financial situation:

Determine, as precisely as you can, your life insurance need. You can use simple formulas such as a multiple of income (10 times is a minimum recommendation), or you complete an actual needs analysis using any number of online planning tools (search for life insurance needs analysis)

Conduct an honest assessment of your health. You should know before looking at life insurance plans whether you can qualify for preferred or standard rates. If you haven’t been in awhile, this would be a good time to get a physical.

Determine your life insurance budget. Although budget considerations should be secondary to solving for your family protection needs, you need to able to afford what you need. Make sure you solve the need, and, if you need to, be ready to cut back in other areas of your budget.

You’re now ready to shop and compare. Two very important tips: Stick to life insurers that receive the highest ratings ('A' or better with AM Best or Standard & Poor’s). Second, compare policies based on standard premiums. There’s a chance you might not qualify for their preferred ratings, and companies vary much more widely in their preferred ratings than they do their standard ratings. If you end up qualifying for preferred rates, it will be like an instant bonus.

Read our full life insurance guide here