Scott Karstens
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Quote-Bot
Scott has worked in insurance and financial services since 2001, based in Colorado. Twenty-five years on, his work centers on insurance planning and business development — and on the unglamorous half of it: attention to detail, and a team that stays engaged with where the industry is going rather than just working in it.
He founded Quote-Bot in 2022 on a straightforward premise. A consumer should be able to quote, customize and buy insurance on their own terms — with an agent if they want one, and without if they don't. That meant building more than a quote engine. The calculators on this site exist to take the guesswork out of planning, so the number someone arrives at is one they understand rather than one they were handed.
Scott is also Founder and CEO of Broker Backoffice, LLC, which builds and operates the technology behind Quote-Bot. His planning work spans both sides of the problem: income replacement and family protection for individuals, and buy-sell funding, key person coverage and executive benefits for business owners.
Outside the business, he mentors elementary and middle school children through his sports program, where the point is as much teamwork and work ethic as the sport. He lives in Colorado with his wife and their three children.
He is responsible for all insurance content published on quote-bot.com. Articles are researched, sourced and reviewed before publishing, and updated as industry data changes — the process is set out in full in our editorial standards.
Credentials
- National Producer Number
- 7042071
- Resident license
- Colorado · 133542
- Also licensed in
- 48 states and the District of Columbia
- Licensed since
- 2001
A producer licence can be verified by NPN through the National Insurance Producer Registry. Agency licensing for QB Insurance LLC, state by state, is listed separately on our licenses page.
Articles by Scott Karstens
53 articles on life, disability, long-term care, annuities and business planning.
Annuities Guide 2026
What an annuity is, the retirement income problem it solves, the four types compared, and the G.I.F.T. framework for deciding whether one fits.
Disability Insurance Guide 2026
Fewer than one in three working adults has disability cover. What a policy does, how likely you are to need one, and the M.U.G. method for sizing it.
Long-Term Care Insurance Guide 2026
What long-term care costs, why one extended care event can undo a retirement, the coverage types available in 2026, and three ways to plan for it.
Protecting Your Insurability: Buy Life Insurance When You're Young and Healthy
Health and age can close the door on cover later. How the conversion privilege keeps a term policy open, and what a child rider protects.
15 Year Term Life Insurance
Convertible and non-convertible 15-year term compared: who the middle term suits, the riders you can add, and how the cost compares.
20 Year Term Life Insurance
Convertible and non-convertible 20-year term compared: who the most common term suits, the riders available, and what it costs at each age.
Tax-Free Retirement Guide 2026
Sequence of returns risk, the tax nobody plans for, and how cash-value life insurance is used to supplement a retirement rather than replace it.
10 Year Term Life Insurance
Convertible and non-convertible 10-year term compared: who the shortest term actually suits, which riders you can add, and what it costs.
37 Uses for Life Insurance
Life insurance does more than replace a paycheck. Here are 37 real uses — from mortgages, tuition and emergency funds to estate taxes and special needs trusts.
Divorcing? Don't Forget to Update Your Life Insurance
Divorce changes who your policy should protect. Why the beneficiary update is the step people miss, and what a decree can require you to keep in force.
Education Fund: Peace of Mind for Your Child's Future
Covering college if you are not there to pay for it: why term life is the cheapest way to fund it, and how the DIME method sizes the amount.
Estate Planning: The State Taxation of High Estates
Some states tax estates the federal exemption never reaches — what that means for your heirs, and how life insurance pays the bill without selling assets.
Foster families and life insurance: What you need to know
Fostering can mean several children at once and an uncertain timeline. What life insurance covers for a foster family, and the riders worth adding.
How Life Insurance Can Equalize Inheritance Among Your Heirs
A business or a family farm cannot be split evenly. How life insurance lets one heir inherit the asset while the others receive equal value in cash.
How long will my savings last after the loss of a spouse or life partner?
Losing a partner means losing an income while the bills carry on. What decides how long savings last, and how life insurance bridges the gap.
How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?
Five ways to work out how much cover you need — income multiplier, per child, DIME and affordability — with the trade-offs of each stated plainly.
How to Calculate Debt to Determine How Much Life Insurance You Need
The D in the DIME method, step by step: which debts to count, which to leave out, and the assets to subtract before you arrive at a coverage figure.
How to calculate education expenses when determining how much life insurance you need
The E in the DIME method: choosing the kind of education to plan for, working out the cost for each child, and turning that into a coverage figure.
How to calculate income replacement when determining how much life insurance you need
The I in the DIME method: the income multiplier, the present-value method that is more accurate, and how to choose the time horizon.
How to calculate mortgage expenses when determining how much life insurance you need
The M in the DIME method: what the mortgage component should cover, how to calculate it, and how it fits alongside a mortgage replacement plan.
Using Life Insurance for Income Replacement
Estimating what it would take to replace your income: the factors that drive the number, and why it is usually the largest part of a policy.
Life Insurance and Credit Card Debt: A Love Story?
Who actually inherits a credit card balance when you die, when a spouse can be pursued for it, and how a death benefit clears it.
Life Insurance and Special Needs Trusts: A Match Made in Heaven?
Why the policy is written on the parents and paid to the trust rather than to the child, and why benefits eligibility makes an attorney worth the fee.
Protecting Your Treasures: Life Insurance for Families with Adopted Children
Life insurance for adoptive parents: covering the legal costs of adoption, and protecting an adopted child rights and inheritance afterwards.
Life Insurance For Families with Two Dads
Two-dad families need the same cover as any other, and the same policies are open to them. Why buying while your children are young costs least.
Life Insurance for Families with Two Moms
Two-mom families need the same protection as any other, and the same policies are available. What to put in place while your children are young.
Life Insurance for Grandparent Raising Grandchildren
If you are raising a grandchild you are the primary caregiver. What cover keeps them supported if something happens to you, and how to qualify.
Life Insurance is Life Changing
Life insurance is a promise to the people who depend on you. What it changes for them if you die, and what it changes for you while you are still here.
Life Insurance – The Easier Way To Give Back
Naming a charity as beneficiary turns a modest premium into a far larger gift, and lets you replace for your heirs what you give away.
Life Insurance When Retirement Plans Fall Apart
Retirement plans assume two incomes and two lifespans. What a spouse death disrupts, and how a death benefit keeps the plan from falling apart.
Mortgage Replacement Plans: The Easiest Way to Protect Your Family
A mortgage replacement plan keeps your family in the house if you die. How the cover is sized, and the flexibility to adjust it as the balance falls.
Navigating the Finances of a Deceased Loved One
Income in respect of a decedent: the money that arrives after a death, the tax that follows it, and how to work through the transition.
Pass the Life Insurance, Please!
You do not need a trust to control how a death benefit is paid. The settlement options that release money over time, and when a trust is worth it.
People who need life insurance overestimate its costs by nearly 300%
Americans put the price of life insurance at three to five times what it costs. Where that misconception comes from, and the 1-2% rule that corrects it.
Student Debt No More: Using Life Insurance to Pay Off Your Student Loans
What happens to student loan debt when the borrower dies, who can be pursued for a co-signed balance, and how a death benefit clears it.
The Benefits of Using Life Insurance to Maximize Your Charitable Giving
Giving appreciated stock or a business interest to charity saves tax and shrinks the estate. How life insurance replaces that value for your heirs.
The Facts about Life Insurance and Federal Estate Tax
How the federal estate tax works, what changed in 2025, and why life insurance is used to pay the bill without forcing a sale of the estate.
The Life Insurance Way to Build an Estate
For someone with little to leave, a policy creates the estate outright. How the death benefit builds one, and why it usually arrives tax-free.
The New Life Insurance: A look at the Disability Income Rider
The disability income rider pays you while you are alive if illness or injury stops your income. What it covers, and how to add it to a policy.
The Value of Buying Life Insurance Young
Why a policy bought young costs less for as long as you hold it, and how buying early protects your children ability to get covered later.
Using Life Insurance for Special Bequests
A specific bequest names who gets what. How life insurance funds the cash gifts, and evens things up when the item itself cannot be divided.
Using Life Insurance to Pay Off Auto Loans
An auto loan is usually settled from the estate, unless someone co-signed. Who can be pursued for the balance, and why cover still matters.
What is an agent less process?
Quote, customize and buy life insurance in under ten minutes without an agent: how the process works, and when talking to someone still helps.
What is life insurance for burial and final expenses?
What final expense cover actually pays for, what a funeral costs now, and why a small term policy is often cheaper than a burial policy.
Love and Life Insurance: What to Do When You're In a Second Marriage
How life insurance provides for a new spouse and for children from a first marriage, without the two claims on your estate working against each other.
Why Life Insurance Makes You Feel (and Be) More Financially Secure
The security life insurance buys is both felt and real. What financial security actually means here, and the part a policy plays in it.
Why You Should Create An Emergency Fund – With Life Insurance!
Most households cannot cover three months of expenses. Why that savings gap exists, and how a life insurance death benefit becomes the fallback.
State Estate & Inheritance Tax Guide
Eighteen states tax estates or inheritances in 2026, some from $1 million. Which states, how the cliff rules bite, and why spousal portability will not help.
Mortgage Replacement Life Insurance
Using life insurance to pay off the mortgage if you die: how much cover it takes, why it beats the bank’s own policy, and what it costs at each age.
What Is an Annuity?
How annuities turn savings into income you cannot outlive: fixed, indexed and immediate explained, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
What Is Life Insurance? A Plain-English Guide
What life insurance actually does, the difference between term and permanent, how much cover you need, and what it costs — explained without the jargon.
What Is Long-Term Care Insurance?
What long-term care actually costs, why Medicare does not cover it, how traditional and hybrid policies differ, and the right age to start looking.
What Is Disability Insurance?
Why your income is the asset worth insuring, how disability benefits are calculated, what own-occupation means, and what a policy actually costs.