Last Updated on September 3, 2020 by lifepolicyshopper
When we consider that over 40% of Americans do not currently have life insurance (per LIMRA report) and that a large portion of that number is senior citizens, it’s important to know that life insurance for seniors is certainly not out of the question.
If you are a senior with no life insurance or are expecting your term insurance to expire soon, is it important to you to find life insurance that is affordable and easy to purchase?
If your life insurance is only an employer-sponsored group life policy and you will soon be retiring, have you considered how to replace it?
Here we’ll discuss life insurance for seniors and provide our top final expense quotes. We’ll also answer the most frequent questions we find regarding life insurance for seniors.
Does Life Insurance for Seniors Make Sense?
Generally speaking, most people understand that while supporting a family, life insurance is critical when you are working on managing your everyday risks. Life events happen and unfortunately, although some are good, there are others that are not good.
Certainly, no one likes to think about their death even though it is inevitably going to happen. When you consider what happens after the event, thinking about death gets even scarier than the actual event itself.
The truth of the matter is whenever anyone dies, whether unexpectedly or in their senior years, they will pass their final expense costs on for someone else to pay for. Most seniors are keenly aware of this and yet many seniors fail to plan for this inevitable event. This alone is why life insurance for seniors is so critically important.
Unless you are a senior with resources that can be accessed in a quick fashion, you are a serious candidate for final expense insurance for seniors.
How much Final Expense Insurance Do I Need?
To appropriately answer this very popular question, we must first discuss what final expenses you will likely leave to surviving loved ones to pay for.
In almost every case, the largest part of final expenses that seniors leave behind is the costs for the funeral and burial. Even if you prefer to be cremated, these expenses can be a tremendous burden for surviving loved ones without a final expense insurance policy in place.
Other typical final expenses generally include unpaid medical bills due to copays or coinsurance and nursing home expenses that may not be covered under health insurance or Medicare.
Since we can determine how much a funeral and burial will likely cost, we can use this amount as the basis for your final expense insurance coverage. According to Parting.Com, a national funeral arrangement platform, the average price of a funeral can be broken down as follows:
“Here is a reasonable "ballpark" estimate of the main funeral costs.
It's important to notes that funeral prices vary considerably between funeral homes and geographic areas of the country,
- fee for the funeral director's services: $1,500
- cost for a casket: $2,300
- embalming: $500
- cost for using the funeral home for the actual funeral service: $500
- cost of a gravesite: $1,000
- cost to dig the grave: $600
- cost of a grave liner or outer burial container: $1,000
- cost of a headstone: $1,500
In this example, total costs would approximate $9,000....and that's just for the "main" items. There could be additional charges for things like placing the obituary in the newspaper and buying flowers. Read the entire article.
It’s important to note that your cost of a funeral will depend on the area of the country you live in, the cost of the casket and headstone (some people really splurge on these), and the various "bells and whistles" offered by the funeral home.
Unfortunately, funeral prices can be like buying a wedding dress where the amount you spend can be driven higher by emotional buying decisions. Based on the information above, in our opinion, your final expense life insurance should be at least $9,000 and then add another $3,000 to $5,000 to cover unpaid medical expenses.
Our Top Final Expense Quotes for Life Insurance for Seniors
If you consider "best practices" that should be used when purchasing a final expense insurance policy, the cost of coverage should not be the determining factor when you make your purchase decision. Since Life Policy Shopper only represents highly-rated insurance carriers that deliver outstanding customer service, it makes sense to use the monthly premium as the primary factor when making your purchase decision. Here are our Top Final Expense Quotes for life insurance for seniors:
These rates are for a $15,000 final expense policy for a healthy male and female non-smoker:
| Applicant Age | Insurance Company | Male | Insurance Company | Female |
| 60 | Christian Fidelity | $49.65 | Christian Fidelity | $36.55 |
| 65 | LifeShield | $66.58 | Christian Fidelity | $49.62 |
| 70 | Christian Fidelity | $86.47 | Christian Fidelity | $62.95 |
| 75 | LifeShield | $116.11 | Christian Fidelity | $84.05 |
| 80 | LifeShield | $166.92 | Christian Fidelity | $121.86 |
| 85 | Christian Fidelity | $235.59 | Christian Fidelity | $180.49 |
These final expense insurance companies do not require a medical exam or blood/urine tests. The carriers mentioned-above have liberal underwriting guidelines so some medical conditions will not automatically exclude the applicant from coverage.
What if I'm Declined because of Health Issues?
Your independent insurance agent will likely have access to all of the final expense insurance carriers that offer guaranteed issue (guaranteed acceptance) final expense insurance.
This is good news for seniors who have serious or multiple health issues and cannot qualify for level benefit plans that provide first-day coverage. A level benefit plan will always have a lower premium so guaranteed issue insurance should only be purchased as a last resort.
Guaranteed Issue life insurance does not take health underwriting into consideration so virtually any person who is alive and falls into the eligible age group can buy final expense insurance. It's important to note, however, that guaranteed issue final expense insurance has a two or three-year waiting period where the company will not pay the full death benefit if your death is the result of natural causes. Once the waiting period has expired, your full death benefit will be paid to your beneficiary regardless of the cause of your death.
