Life insurance leads for agents and agencies
Life insurance leads are requests from consumers who asked for a life insurance quote or information and agreed to be contacted. Agents, agencies and call centers buy them to reach people considering coverage now. A life lead usually states the coverage type (term or permanent), an age range, the amount of coverage wanted and a consent record.
Summit Leads is now onboarding buyers and suppliers for life insurance, final expense, IUL and mortgage protection leads. Email us with the lines, states and daily volume you want.
This page covers term and permanent life insurance leads, the agents and teams that buy them, the fields a life lead commonly includes, and how to judge a source. It also answers who has the best life insurance leads, using criteria and company types rather than names.
Generate insurance leads? Sell them through Summit.
What life insurance leads are
A life insurance lead starts when a consumer fills in a form that asks about life coverage and gives consent to be contacted. Some forms ask for a quote. Others ask the person to request information or a call back. Either way, the buyer receives a named person who has raised the subject of life insurance.
Life leads behave differently from auto or home leads. Nobody is required by law or by a lender to buy life insurance, and there is no renewal date that forces a decision. People often start looking after a life event: a marriage, a new child, a home purchase, a new job without workplace coverage, or a term policy that is about to end. The request is real, but the sale usually takes more conversations than a car insurance quote.
Life insurance leads for sale are sold in two timings. Real-time life insurance leads reach the buyer seconds after the form is submitted. Aged life leads are resold days or months later. See real-time vs aged leads for how the two are worked.
Term vs permanent life insurance leads
Most life forms ask which kind of coverage the person wants. That answer splits the leads into two broad groups, and different agents buy each one.
| Term life insurance leads | Permanent life insurance leads | |
|---|---|---|
| What the consumer asked about | Coverage for a set number of years | Coverage meant to last for life, such as whole life or universal life |
| Common form questions | Term length wanted, coverage amount range, age, tobacco use | Product interest, coverage amount or budget range, age, tobacco use |
| How the sale often runs | A quote by phone, sometimes completed in one or two calls | A longer conversation, often with a scheduled appointment |
| Typical buyers | Agents and call centers that quote term with several carriers | Agents and advisors who sell permanent products |
Three narrower life lead types are sold under their own names: final expense leads for small whole life policies, IUL leads for indexed universal life, and mortgage protection leads for coverage tied to a home loan. Buy the type that matches what you sell, because a term quote request is a weak lead for an agent who only sells permanent products.
Who buys life insurance leads
| Buyer type | How it uses life leads |
|---|---|
| Captive agent | Sells one carrier's life products, so it buys only the ages, states and coverage types that carrier writes. |
| Independent agent or broker | Quotes several carriers and can place a wider range of health profiles and coverage amounts. |
| Agency with a team of agents | Buys in volume and splits the leads across its agents by state, product or schedule. |
| Call center or telesales team | Works life leads by phone in shifts, so it needs steady daily volume and fast delivery. |
| Lead buying desk | Buys life leads and routes them on to agents or other buyers. |
Life insurance leads for agents work best when the filters match the agent's carriers. A captive agent whose carrier does not write a certain age band pays for every lead in that band and cannot place a policy. An independent agent has more room, but still needs leads in states where it can write business.
Call centers are a buyer type of their own. They dial at scale, so they care about delivery speed, daily caps and the number of attempts each lead can receive. Dialing at that scale also means following federal and state rules on consent, calling hours and Do Not Call requests; see TCPA consent and TCPA state laws.
What a life insurance lead commonly includes
Fields depend on the form and the seller. In the industry, a life insurance lead commonly includes:
- Name, phone, email and mailing address
- State and ZIP code, which decide which carriers and products you can offer
- Date of birth or an age range
- Gender and tobacco use, which carriers use in pricing
- Coverage type wanted: term, whole life or another permanent product
- Coverage amount range and, for term, the length of term wanted
- Sometimes height, weight and a few yes or no health questions
- Sometimes the reason for coverage, such as family protection or a mortgage
- Best time to call
- The consent record: the consent language, timestamp, IP address and page URL
Health answers on a web form are self-reported and short. Treat them as a starting point for the call, not as underwriting. Which fields your leads carry, and which ones you can filter on, is agreed with the seller before the first order.
Who has the best life insurance leads?
No single company has the best life insurance leads for every agent. The best life insurance leads for your agency are the ones that fit your carriers, reach you fast, carry a consent record you can retrieve, and convert into issued policies in your own numbers. Use these criteria to compare any source:
- Product match. The form asked for the coverage type you sell, not a general question you have to sort out on the phone.
- Age and state fit. Leads fall inside the age bands and states your carriers accept.
- Speed or a stated age. Real-time leads arrive within seconds. Aged leads come with the original request date.
- Times sold. You know whether a lead goes to you only or to several buyers.
- Consent records. Each lead carries the consent language, time, IP address and page, and you can retrieve the record later.
- Written return terms. You know which failures can be returned and how credits work before you start.
- A small test. The seller lets you start with limited volume and track it to issued policies.
Life leads are sold by several types of company. Each type has strengths and points to check:
| Company type | What it sells | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Lead broker using ping/post | Real-time leads from many generators, routed by your filters | Which filters apply, how often a lead is sold, and how returns work |
| Quote or comparison site | Leads from its own life quote forms | Whether you are named in the consent and how many buyers get each lead |
| Life-focused lead generator | Leads from forms and ads it runs itself | Which forms and ads produce the leads, and how quality is checked |
| Aged lead seller | Older life leads resold at a lower price | The original request date and how many times each lead was sold |
| Agency marketing organization | Leads supplied to agents in its own network | Whether leads are tied to a contract or a carrier |
For a wider comparison of seller types across all insurance lines, see insurance lead companies. For a general method, see how to evaluate a lead supplier.
How to evaluate life insurance leads
A life lead produces a result weeks after you buy it, because an application still has to go through underwriting before a policy is issued. Track each source on these measures, in order, and keep sources apart in your reports:
Contact rate
The share of leads you reach. Life consumers often need several attempts over a few days, so count contacts across the whole follow-up period.
Appointment or quote rate
The share of contacted leads that accept a quote or book a meeting. This shows whether the form attracted people who want to talk about coverage.
Application rate
The share of quoted leads that submit an application.
Issued policies
The share of applications that become issued, paid policies. This is the number that decides whether the source works for you.
Data accuracy
How often the age, state, tobacco and coverage answers match what the consumer tells you on the call.
Put the cost per issued policy next to your commission and persistency to judge a source. For the factors that set the price of a lead, see how much insurance leads cost and how lead pricing works.
Common mistakes when buying life insurance leads
- Buying the wrong coverage type. A permanent-only agent buying term quote requests spends most calls explaining why the quote differs from the request.
- Treating a life lead like an auto lead. One call attempt is rarely enough. Plan calls, texts and emails over several days.
- Judging a source in its first week. Applications take time to become issued policies. Decide after the results have had time to arrive.
- Trusting form health answers as final. They are short and self-reported. Confirm them on the call before you quote.
- Calling outside the rules. Check calling hours, the Do Not Call list for businesses and the consent record before you dial.
- Working shared leads slowly. When several agents receive the same lead, the first useful call usually wins the appointment.
If you are new to buying, read how to buy life insurance leads before your first order. To produce leads with your own marketing instead, see how to generate life insurance leads.
Where life insurance leads sit in the insurance lead market
Life leads are one group within the wider market of insurance leads for agents, next to auto and home insurance leads. The path from quote form to agency is described in how insurance lead generation works. If you run your own life quote forms and want to sell the leads, see sell life insurance leads.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between term life leads and permanent life leads?
A term life lead comes from a consumer who asked about coverage for a set number of years. A permanent life lead comes from a consumer who asked about coverage meant to last for life, such as whole life or universal life. Different agents buy each type.
Do life insurance leads for sale include health information?
Some do. Many life forms ask a few short questions, such as tobacco use, height and weight. The answers are self-reported and are confirmed on the call. Which fields you receive is agreed with the seller.
Can a captive agent buy life insurance leads?
Yes. A captive agent usually sets tighter filters than an independent agent, so that each lead falls inside the ages, states and products its carrier writes.
How do I buy life insurance leads for the first time?
Decide which products, ages and states you can write, choose a source type, agree fields and return terms, then run a small test. The steps are on how to buy life insurance leads.
Related
Buying insurance leads?
Email us the insurance lines, states, daily volume or caps, delivery method and the fields you need. Terms are agreed during onboarding.
Or write to team@summitleads.ai. We reply by email.
What happens next
- Step 1: You email us.
- Step 2: We reply by email.
- Step 3: Return terms are agreed on the onboarding call, before you go live.