Ask a 28-year-old with a toddler and a mortgage what a basic term life policy costs, and the number that comes back is usually a guess. The 2026 Insurance Barometer Study from LIMRA and Life Happens, built on a January 2026 survey of 5,237 adult financial decision-makers, found that 46 percent of consumers described their cost estimate as a "gut feeling" or a "wild guess." Roughly three-quarters of consumers overestimate what life insurance costs.

The miss is largest among the buyers with the longest runway. Adults under 31 overestimate the true cost of a term policy by about five to six times, according to the study, and the gap narrows with age. A year earlier, Life Happens reported that adults 30 and younger overestimated the median cost of a $250,000, 20-year level term policy by 10 to 12 times.

This finding gives producers a clear strategy for structuring sales calls. Price resistance is rarely a response to the actual quote; instead, prospects carry an exaggerated guess into the room. By presenting figures early in the call, an agent grounds the discussion in actual costs rather than lingering assumptions.

The Size of the Gap

The Barometer puts the number of U.S. adults who need life insurance or more of it at 92 million, roughly 70 million people with no coverage and 22 million owners who want more. Fifty-two percent of Americans own at least one policy, up a point from 2025, and the need gap eased to 38 percent from a peak of 42 percent in 2024.

Among people with a gap, the top reason for not buying is cost, cited by 45 percent, followed by other financial priorities at 35 percent. Two more barriers tie at 23 percent: not knowing how much or what type to buy, and simply not having gotten around to it. Only 32 percent of Americans call themselves very or extremely knowledgeable about life insurance.

Coin together, the four barriers describe one buyer. The prospect thinks it is expensive, is not sure how much to get, has other bills competing for the money, and keeps putting it off. Each one has a specific answer on a sales call, and the order in which an agent delivers those answers decides whether the call ends in an application or a follow-up task.

Surface the Guess Before You Quote

Behavioral economists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman described anchoring in their 1974 paper on judgment under uncertainty: the first number a person considers pulls later estimates toward it. On a life call, the prospect's own guess is the first number, and it is usually wrong in the agent's favor.

Agents who close well bring that number into the open. A question as plain as "Before I run anything, what would you expect a policy like this to cost a month?" does two jobs. It tells the agent how large the misperception is, and it sets up the reveal, since a real quote lands as relief when it arrives beside a guess several times higher. A prospect who has said a figure out loud has a harder time arguing "that's too expensive" when the actual premium sits well below it.

The reveal works best when it comes early. An agent who spends twenty minutes on needs analysis before showing any price leaves the prospect's anchor in place the whole time, quietly coloring every question about coverage amounts. A sample quote for a common term length and face amount, offered in the first few minutes and labeled as an illustration subject to underwriting, does the corrective work before the conversation gets complicated. Our earlier guide to handling the price objection covers what to do when the objection arrives anyway.

Answer How Much With One Number

Nearly a quarter of people with a coverage gap say they do not know how much or what type to buy. That uncertainty stalls a close as surely as price does, because a buyer who is unsure of the amount will default to thinking about it later.

The fix is to reduce the decision to a single recommendation with a reason attached. A producer can walk through income replacement, the mortgage balance, debts and future education costs in a few questions, then present one face amount and one term with the monthly premium beside it. Offering a second option, slightly smaller or shorter, gives the buyer a choice without reopening the whole analysis. The Barometer adds a sobering backdrop for that conversation: just 29 percent of Americans say they could stay financially secure for more than two years if a primary wage earner died, and 47 percent would feel the impact within six months.

Close the Procrastinators on the Call

The 23 percent who say they just have not gotten around to it are the most closable group in the data, because their objection is about time rather than money. Every follow-up email gives them another chance to not get around to it.

The Barometer also shows where those buyers want to finish. Fifty-three percent prefer speaking with an advisor, in person, by phone or by video, when they are ready to buy, and 43 percent say they would research online but ultimately buy in person, against 25 percent who would research and buy entirely online. A prospect who has booked time with an agent has already chosen the channel most buyers prefer for the final step.

That argues for having the application ready to start before the call ends. When a prospect agrees on an amount and a premium, the agent can move straight into the application, schedule any exam or underwriting step on the spot, and set the next touchpoint for the underwriting decision rather than for another decision meeting. Speed matters at the front of the funnel too, and our piece on speed-to-response systems covers how fast the first contact needs to happen.

Correct the Living Benefits Myth Too

The Barometer found that 83 percent of consumers know long-term care can be part of certain life policies, yet 71 percent still believe long-term care coverage is too expensive, and 58 percent wrongly believe long-term care insurance is "use it or lose it." Interest is high among younger buyers, with 72 percent of Gen Z and 76 percent of millennials calling long-term care benefits appealing.

For agents whose carriers offer chronic illness or long-term care riders, the same price-first sequence applies. Showing the incremental cost of a rider beside the base premium, in the first conversation where it fits, answers the "too expensive" assumption with a number before it hardens.

Meet Them Where They Research

The 2026 study found that 62 percent of consumers use social media when seeking information on financial or insurance products, and YouTube, at 66 percent, has overtaken Facebook, at 62 percent, as the top platform for financial information. When the 2025 Barometer results were released, Brian Steiner, executive director of Life Happens, put it bluntly: "Educating consumers about life insurance on social media is no longer a 'nice to have;' it's a 'must.'"

A short video that shows a real sample premium for a healthy 30-year-old, with the underwriting caveat on screen, does prospecting and objection handling at once. Prospects who arrive after seeing it carry a smaller anchor, and the first call starts closer to the close.

The 2025 release also carried a line worth keeping on an agent's whiteboard. "The good news is that 54 million Gen Z and Millennial adults recognize their need for life insurance," said Bryan Hodgens, senior vice president and head of LIMRA Research. Recognition is the part the industry already has. The number in the prospect's head is the part the agent can change on the first call.