3 Simple Tips To Buying Life Insurance As A Senior
Guest Post by Chris Holdheide, financial expert and writer for StumbleForward.com, with a US perspective on which options to consider when seeking the best life assurance policy for senior citizens.
Are you above the age of 60 and looking for a life insurance policy? Recently, a survey was done to find out how many seniors are looking to buy life insurance and one thing they found was that an overwhelming majority still did not have coverage and were looking for it. So in this article I’m going to give you 3 easy tips to getting a policy in your older years.
Go With Term Coverage
The first thing you need to think about as a senior is what type of coverage you should get. For starters there are several different kinds available. You have whole life, which is a fixed policy that covers you for your entire life and also means you will have to pay into the policy for your entire life.
You also have variable universal life, and indexed universal life. These again are permanent policies just like whole life but allow you to invest the money in your cash value account in different ways such as in a market account or an indexed account.
The problem with these types of policies is that they will cost far more and can be much harder to qualify for. In fact, if you are above the age of 55 it can be difficult to get accepted for a variable or indexed policy simply because of the investment strategies being used in these policies.
Instead, consider going with a term life insurance policy. These policies are much cheaper by far since they don’t contain cash value accounts, and will be much easier to qualify for because they don’t carry the extra investment qualifications. In fact, you can expect to pay half the price in most cases with these types of policies versus permanent policies.
Go With A Lower Death Benefit
The next thing you need to consider is the amount of coverage you need. The truth is the older you get the less coverage you will be able to get. It’s just a basic rule when it comes to buying life insurance for seniors. This means you should stick with a lower death benefit if you want to get accepted.
In fact, my research has shown me that once you are past the age of 60, your life insurance cost will increase dramatically. This is why I suggest you stick with a policy of $100,000 or less. However this needs to be based on what your needs are and why you need the coverage.
If you need the large amount of coverage to pay off bills after you pass, that is one thing but if you only need the coverage to pay for the funeral cost then you might even want to consider going with just a $25,000 policy. In fact life insurance policies with the AARP can be a great option because the death benefits on their policies can be lowered to these levels.
Cut Down The Term Length
Finally, the last thing you can do to improve your chance of getting a policy as a senior is to cut down the length of the term life policy. In most cases term policies can range from as long as 30 years to as short as 10 years.
The biggest benefit in doing this is that it will allow you to keep a higher death benefit and pay far less. For example, a $100,000 thirty year term life policy at 65 might run you $80 to $100 a month. However if you were to cut it down to a 10 year term policy it might only cost you $40 to $50 a month depending on your health.
Final Thoughts…
As a final thought it’s impossible to say what will give you the best bang for your buck when buying a life insurance policy. For this I recommend you contact your local insurance agent and have them run several different policy illustrations for you to find an option that is suitable to your needs.
Also check out Stumble Forward.com where you will be able to learn more about some of the issues that come along with buying life insurance through the AARP, and where the best place is get this kind of insurance.
