Can I Still Get Life Insurance at My Age?

There is a common misconception that seniors can’t get approved for a traditional life insurance plans, or that a life insurance policy will be too expensive for most people to afford. In the majority of cases, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not having life insurance could be one of the worst mistakes that you could possibly make for your loved ones.

At Over50LifeInsurance.com, we know that shopping for life insurance can be a difficult and frustrating process, especially for anyone that is getting older. It’s our mission to ensure that you’re getting the best rates possible to protect your family and ensure that your loved ones have the money that they need, even if something tragic were to happen to you.

Life Insurance for Seniors

Most people believe that once you reach the age of 60, you don’t need life insurance and you can’t get approved for the size of plan that you would need. That’s not true. There are a couple of options for affordable life insurance that you can choose from, regardless of how old you are. 

When you apply for life insurance, the company is going to look at dozens of different factors to decide how much they are going to charge you for protection.

Your age is going to be one of the most significant factors that is going to impact how much you pay. The older that you are, the more that you’re going to pay every month.

One thing that’s important to note is that every insurance company is different, and all of them have different medical underwriting guidelines and views on age.

Some insurance companies specialize in working with seniors, while other companies avoid giving life insurance to seniors. It’s essential that you find the best company for you and your family.

One option for life insurance is a no exam life insurance plan. With these plans, you won’t have to take a medical exam, which means that your current health isn’t going to impact how much you pay every month.

These no exam plans are one of the most popular options for seniors because they tend to be in less than perfect health.

Another popular choice for seniors is a burial insurance policy. These plans are specifically designed for older applicants that only need a small amount of insurance protection to pay off funeral bills. Most funeral insurance plans are only going to give around $25,000 worth of coverage.

Because these plans are much smaller, they won’t require a medical exam, and they won’t ask any health questions. Without the medical exam or health questions, you can get approved for coverage drastically faster than a traditional policy. You can get approved for burial insurance in a matter of hours, versus the month that it can take with a normal policy.

Do You Need Life Insurance?

Before you purchase a life insurance policy, you should determine if you actually need a policy. Not everyone still needs a life insurance plan the older that they get. There are groups of people that don’t need a plan.

If you are still working and your family would suffer financially without your income then you should definitely consider buying life insurance.

However, if your family has plenty of money already and is not dependent on your income then life insurance may not be needed.  If your family could afford to pay the monthly without your income then you may not need life insurance for income protection.

However, it is possible that if you are retired that you may still may need life insurance.

For instance if are married and both you and your spouse receive Social Security.  When one of you passes away you will lose a Social Security check.  You will keep the higher of the two but the smaller one goes away.

We helped a couple where the husband’s monthly Social Security check was for about $1,800 and his wife’s was for about $1,700.  They had a little extra savings that they lived on as well, but the Social Security money was the bulk of their income.

If one of them were to pass away it would bring the Social Security income that would be received down from about $3,500 to about $1,800 per month.  $1,800 would not have been enough to cover their monthly bills.

In this case they each bought a policy.  This way when one of them passed away they would have some additional funds to live on to go with the reduced Social Security check.

We’ve also helped people with what is referred to as estate equalization.  Sounds like a big fancy term, but we promise it’s actually a very simple concept.

Here’s how it works.

A man in his late 60’s came to us because he was concerned that when he passed away that he wanted his two daughter’s to receive an equal inheritance from him when he eventually passed away. One of his daughter’s lived with him, but the other one lived out of state.

The one that lived with him would inherit his house which was completely paid off.  The value of the house was about $225,000.  He wanted to make sure that his other daughter would inherit something from him as well.

Since he didn’t have a whole lot of savings that he could pass on to his other daughter we helped him purchase a $225,000 life insurance policy and he made his daughter that was out of state the beneficiary.  This made it so he could make sure when he did pass away that his daughter’s each received a fairly equal inheritance.

Another reason to consider getting life insurance over 50 years of age is to help cover any debts you may have either now or in the future.  With the costs of health care continuing to increase many people are concerned about what types of expenses could be incurred later in life to handle various health care costs.

Some are concerned that potentially high costs of health care would provide less money for the surviving spouse to live on.  In order to help pay for those medical expenses after passing away a life insurance is often bought.

Life insurance is also bought for business reasons.  If you own a business and have a buy sell agreement you may need life insurance to help fund the agreement.  Too often buy sell agreements are created but there is no funding put in place.

Also, if you own a business you may need key person life insurance.  You may need a policy for yourself or perhaps a key employee.

Recently we helped a business owner secure life insurance on a key man at this company.  The concern was that the key individual was planning to retire in 4 or 5  years.  They were going to groom a new employee to take over the duties of this key employee at the time he retired.

However, if tragedy were to strike before then and the key man were to die it would be difficult for the company financially because of his specialized knowledge as their computer programmer and the creator of their internal software application.

Certainly another reason life insurance is bought is to ensure that your family will have the money to pay for your funeral.  It’s a morbid thing to consider, but it’s important that your family won’t have to empty their savings account to pay for your funeral and burial.

The reality is that we all pass away at some point.  It’s better to plan upfront to know that things are going to be taken care of in the future.  The average funeral can cost around $10,000, which can be difficult for a grieving family to cover.

Working with an Independent Insurance Agent

Because every company is going to give you different rates, it’s important that you compare dozens of plans before you decide which one is best for you. Instead of wasting your time calling dozens of companies, let one of our independent insurance brokers do all of that hard work for you.

Unlike a traditional insurance agent, our independent agents work with dozens and dozens of highly rated companies across the nation, which means that we can bring all of the best rates directly to you. Independent insurance agents can gather quotes from all of the best insurance companies and help you find the best plan for you.

You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, which means that you shouldn’t wait any longer to get the coverage that your family deserves. If something tragic were to happen to you, and you didn’t have protection, your family could be stuck with a massive amount of debts and other final expenses.

If you have any questions about life insurance as an applicant over 50 or the options available to you, please contact one of our agents today. We would love to answer those questions and ensure that you have the proper protection for your loved ones.