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Self-employed workers and freelancers buy life insurance without one of the biggest advantages employees have: free or cheap group coverage through work. That makes the individual market your only option, and it means the full cost lands on you. The upside is that individual term life is cheap enough that this is not the problem it sounds like.
A healthy 35-year-old freelancer pays roughly the same as a healthy 35-year-old employee for the same policy: about $23 to $32 a month for a $500,000 20-year term in preferred health, per 2026 rate surveys. Insurers do not charge self-employed people more. Your occupation only affects pricing if it is hazardous: commercial fishing, roofing, piloting, and similar jobs get surcharges. Desk-based freelancers, consultants, designers, and developers price the same as office workers.
The real gap: no employer coverage to supplement
Most employees get one to two times their salary in group life insurance free, then buy individual coverage on top. Freelancers start from zero. Our guide to group life insurance through work explains what that coverage does and why it is rarely enough on its own. As a freelancer, you skip the free part and go straight to the individual policy, which is the part that actually protects your family anyway.
Income documentation is the one place freelancers hit friction. Underwriters verify income to set the maximum face amount they will issue, usually 10 to 15 times annual income. Employees show a W-2. You will show two years of tax returns. If your income swings a lot year to year, insurers generally use an average, which can limit your face amount in a down year. Apply after a strong tax year if you can.
What freelancers usually buy
The 10-to-12-times-income rule still applies. A freelancer earning $80,000 typically looks at $750,000 to $1 million. At 35, $1 million of 20-year term costs roughly $35 to $50 a month in preferred health. Add a disability insurance policy too, because for a freelancer, an injury that stops you working is a bigger financial risk than death. Disability coverage costs more than life insurance, often 1 to 3 percent of income, but it protects the income itself.
Term length deserves extra thought when your income is variable. A 30-year term locks in today’s rate and your insurability for three decades, which has real value when you cannot count on an employer’s open enrollment to add coverage later. Our guide to choosing your term length walks through the 10, 20, and 30-year decision.
Taxes and structure
Life insurance premiums are not tax-deductible for individuals, self-employed or not, with narrow exceptions for certain business-owned policies. Do not let anyone sell you a policy as a tax strategy unless a CPA has reviewed the specific structure. The death benefit itself is generally income-tax-free to your beneficiaries, which is the actual tax advantage and applies to everyone.
If you run your business as an S-corp or LLC and want the business to own the policy, for example to fund a buy-sell agreement, the underwriting and pricing work the same way. The application just names the business as owner and beneficiary. Our breakdown of monthly life insurance costs in 2026 gives you the baseline numbers to budget against.
