Just because you’re past the prime time of your life doesn’t mean you don’t qualify for insurance. Just because you don’t have small children living in your home any longer doesn’t mean you don’t need life insurance, either.
Purchasing life insurance late in life can provide you with a number of benefits that doing so earlier in life can’t. When you think about life insurance in your early years, you think about a huge coverage amount that will provide for your family for years to come. In your later years, you need to think more in terms of providing for your final expenses, and for your spouse alone.
You might decide to purchase life insurance in order to cover your funeral expenses, as well. You don’t want your burial to be a burden on your family. In other cases, you might want to purchase life insurance so that a large loan that’s still pending in your name can be paid off when you die. These are all good reasons for the elderly to buy life insurance.
There are some important differences between purchasing life insurance at a young age and purchasing later in life, as well. Not only is the coverage amount typically smaller for the elderly, the premium is often higher. The premium will vary, of course, but relies to a large degree on the health issues that the insured may have or have had in the past.
Sometimes, when an elderly person applies for life insurance, they may not be eligible for the benefits from the first day. It could be that the policy will be graded or a modified death benefit policy. What these policies usually do is pay only a portion of the face value of the policy, if you should pass away within the first few years of the policy’s life. For some policies, the premiums that have been paid, as well as interest, will be paid to the beneficiary, however.
Whole life insurance policies are often the way to go for the elderly. With a whole life policy, the full benefit is available from day one. The monthly premium is guaranteed, as well, so that it won’t increase, regardless of your age or your current health. The same is true for the face value of the policy.
There are also senior term life insurance policies. These policies will often, again, be graded or have a modified death benefit. Still, as is usually the case, these term life insurance policies often cost much less than a whole life policy.
As time goes on and as it becomes more and more common for people to live even longer, more life insurance policy options for the elderly appear on the market. Now, more than ever before, you have plenty of choices when it comes to your life insurance policies, even later in life.
Jonathan Simmons has been an experience
life insurance adviser since 20 years. His area of expertise includes
critical illness cover and
life insurance comparison.
