Senior Life Insurance

Senior life insurance is a life insurance product that is geared toward older people and usually carries a smaller death benefit than other types of insurance policies that are designed for younger people. Traditionally, the age at which people qualified for senior life insurance was 65, but now the age requirement varies by insurance company. Some insurers offer a senior life insurance policy for sale to adults who are as young as 50, which is somewhat ironic, since the average life expectancy has increased over the past several decades.

As with other types of life insurance products, senior life insurance features premiums that increase in price as the age of the policyholder increases. If you are interested in obtaining a senior life insurance policy and you can afford the premiums, you will realize lower premium rates if you purchase the policy as early as possible.

Many seniors no longer have children or spouses to support but are still concerned about burdening their loved ones with their eventual funeral expenses. In this situation, a "pre-needs" senior life insurance policy may be a wise choice; this is an insurance policy that is purchased from a funeral director. Rather than a family member as the beneficiary, the funeral director is the beneficiary for this type of life insurance; the amount of the death benefit is roughly equal to the estimated costs of the funeral and burial.

Another way in which some seniors choose to set up a reserve for their funeral expenses is to purchase a small whole life insurance policy that names themselves as the beneficiary. In this way, the payout goes into the deceased`s estate and the heirs can use the proceeds to pay for burial expenses.

Some senior life insurance policies require a medical exam for approval, but other policies of this type do not contain a medical exam clause. The latter type of insurance can be an excellent choice for a senior who has a health issue that might prevent them from qualifying for a more traditional policy. As you would expect, senior life insurance policies that do not require any medical exam tend to have more expensive premiums.