Life Insurance For Seniors

Life Insurance For Seniors

Senior life insurance is more expensive than life insurance for younger individuals because seniors are more of a risk to insure. That may sound unfair, but the biggest factor that determines life insurance rates is life expectancy.

Life insurance companies go through a process they call underwriting. This process involves taking a good look at the applicant’s life, including hobbies, health, health history, family health history, age, sex, height, weight, and even DMV records.

This may seem like a lot (and even an intrusive look into your life), but the point behind it is that the life insurance company has to make sure you are not too much of a risk for them to insure. If they insure too many people that are too great of a risk, they put themselves in a bad situation where too many death benefits are being paid out and the company loses financial stability.

Because life insurance companies have to pay death benefits to the beneficiaries of policy owners that have died, people who are more likely to die will always end up paying more for life insurance—if they are able to get a policy at all. (Yes, there are many people that get turned down because they are too much of a risk to insure).

In short, because seniors are older and closer to passing on, life insurance will be more expensive for them.

 

Now, just because life insurance will be more expensive does not mean that you should just apply with anyone.

There are many life insurance companies. Each company has favorable rates for different cross-sections of the population. 

To make sure you apply with one of these companies, you need to apply with a life insurance agent or agency that understands which companies are the best for people like you.