What are Life Insurance Options for Seniors
You might be in your 50s or 60s or even 70 and looking to get a life insurance policy. Why? It could be for many reasons. It could be that your term insurance, that you bought when you were in your 20s or 30s, is now coming up and expiring or perhaps already expired.
It could be that your policy at work, the price is starting to increase, and it doesn't make sense to have that policy in force anymore as it goes up every five years, typically. Or it could be that you've just come into a situation where you think it's important for you to have life insurance now, either for final expenses, or maybe you just bought a new home or just gotten remarried.
So what type of life insurance would make the most sense for you specifically? Let's talk about a few options. If you're buying life insurance, you might be in your 50s, and you want to make sure that you have coverage throughout your working years so that you can replace your income should something happen to you, then term insurance might be the way to go.
Or perhaps you have a mortgage, so in both situations, your mortgage might be paid off in 10 or 15 years. You might retire in 10 or 15 years, and a term insurance policy would probably be the best option for you. That's the least expensive option and would cover your needs. So a 10, 15, or perhaps even a 20-year term policy might just be the best option for you specifically.
If you're buying life insurance because you have a younger spouse, for example, that's significantly younger than you, and you want to make sure that when you pass she can continue or he can continue to live a certain lifestyle or have a certain amount of money coming in, then you might want to get the permanent life insurance policy. In that case, you want to look for something that's going to last your entire life. Or perhaps you are dealing with a situation where you want to leave your kids an inheritance, or your kids might be subject to estate taxes when you die.
These are reasons to get a permanent life insurance policy. You might want to look into a guaranteed universal life policy. These policies are cheaper than whole life policies. They're guaranteed to last your entire life, and they're much more affordable. They are more money than term insurance, but again, they do last your entire life. Some people who want to save money choose to get a blend or combination of both term and permanent insurance.
This way you can buy more insurance for your money with the term policy, and you can also buy some permanent insurance that's going to last your entire life. So should you outlive your term policy, if that's going to expire, then you can still have some form of permanent insurance in place. If you're buying life insurance because you want to make sure that your final expenses are covered - burial expenses, final debts paid off - then you might be looking for what's called final expense insurance.
Final expense insurance is a form of permanent life insurance that's specifically designed to pay off your final expenses. These policies start with as low as $5,000 death benefit increments and usually go up to $50,000 or $100,000. They're designed to be there for you to pay off things like burial costs. That might be the right policy for you if you might have some debt, or if you don't have much money in the bank and you want to make sure that you're not burdening your partner or spouse, your family, your kids with paying for things like burial expenses.
If your health situation is one that does not allow you to get a traditional life insurance policy, because you may have recently had cancer or a heart attack or some kind of major health issue that does not allow you to get a traditional policy, then you may want to look into something called a graded death benefit policy. These are types of insurance policies that have a waiting period, sometimes two or three years, until the full death benefit goes into effect, and they're designed for people that have some kind of preexisting health condition.
With a graded death benefit policy, the only downside is that you have a waiting period. But as long as you outlive that waiting period, the full death benefit is in effect. If you don't outlive that waiting period, your family would get all the premiums you paid, plus some additional interest on the money. So you can still get insurance, even if you have some kind of preexisting health condition, and I specialize in high-risk life insurance.
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