Cheap Burial Insurance for Seniors
Final expense insurance can be an excellent investment for seniors. A burial insurance policy provides an affordable and stress-free way to offset your funeral costs, medical bills, and other end-of-life expenses.
Also known as funeral insurance or final expense insurance, burial insurance typically provides a guaranteed payout to help loved ones pay for funeral service, hospital bills, burial or cremation, and other immediate expenses after death.
Since the coverage is usually small, the premiums for these policies tend to be very affordable. However, how cheap your policy will be depends on a number of factors, including your age at the time of application and gender.
When it comes to purchasing a burial insurance policy, the trick to getting very competitive rates is purchasing a policy while younger when you’re likely to be in pristine health.
For seniors shopping around for coverage, while burial insurance policies are generally cost-effective, here are carriers with cheap offers for seniors.
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Transamerica
Transamerica offers arguably the most affordable burial insurance policies for seniors. All of its three permanent policies — Immediate Solution, 10-Pay Solution, and Easy Solution — combine low premiums with lax underwriting, making it an ideal choice for seniors looking for low rates.
For seniors looking to defray their end-of-life expenses, Transamerica’s burial insurance policy is a whole life insurance offering lifetime coverage of up to $50,000, depending on your age at the time of application. Interestingly, you don’t take any medical exam to qualify for a policy.
Transamerica’s Immediate Solution, which is made available to applicants aged 0–85 years, is the company’s most competitively priced option. Depending on your age at the time of application and the coverage amount you apply for, among other factors, you may be paying as low as $300 per year ($25 per month) for top-notch coverage.
Interestingly, if you are approved for this plan, as the name suggests, you are fully covered from the very first day. This is also the case if you apply and qualify for Transamerica’s 10-Pay Solutions.
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Mutual of Omaha
Mutual of Omaha is a reputed whole life insurance provider offering one of the USA’s most sought-after burial insurance policies. It has a reputation for being a more innovative carrier and providing a superior customer experience.
While most burial insurance policies are open to seniors aged 50 and older, Mutual of Omaha makes its insurance products with a funeral element available to 45-year-olds. For the most part, this means people can get coverage at a younger age when rates are lowest.
Living Promise whole life insurance from Mutual of Omaha offers top-notch coverage to ages 45 – 85 with face amounts starting from $2,000 to $40,000 for the level plan. Depending on your insurance needs, age, and gender, you can expect your policy to cost anywhere between $20 and $200 per month.
Besides the low policy costs, the company has an enviable financial strength and solid investment performance, so you can trust them to pay the claims when the time comes. They have an A+ (Superior) rating with A.M. Best.
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AIG
The superior historical performance of AIG’s investments has greatly contributed to lowering premiums for its burial insurance policies. For seniors looking to save their loved ones from having to shoulder their funeral costs, AIG offers competitively priced burial insurance policies to individuals aged 50 – 80.
Besides being budget-friendly, AIG’s final expense insurance policies come with an accelerated death benefit rider at no extra cost.
Depending on your coverage needs, you can purchase a policy with a face amount ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. The base rates are $20.29 per month for women and $28.99 per month for men. Depending on gender and your age at the time of application, the highest rates are $512.78 and $519.08 per month for women and men, respectively.
If you are considering an AIG burial insurance policy, it is worth noting that its whole life insurance policies have a 2-year waiting period. Considering life expectancy in the US is 78 years, it may be worth buying an AIG’s whole life policy even after hitting 75.
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Fidelity Life
Fidelity Life utilizes cutting-edge, patented technology to provide innovative insurance solutions to seniors looking to defray their end-of-life expenses.
The company’s RAPIDecision Final Expense plan is a whole life insurance product designed to offer seniors a small coverage, enough to cover funeral costs and associated expenses. It allows seniors aged 50 – 85 to purchase up to $35,000 worth of coverage.
In terms of cost, monthly premiums start as low as $12.44 and $16.82 for a $5,000 policy for women and men, respectively. If you buy a bigger coverage when at 75 years and older, you can expect to pay around $200 per month or more.
Fidelity Life prides itself on having an easy-to-use website that allows seniors to purchase policies relatively quickly. Best of all, Fidelity Life’s RAPIDecision Final Expense plan is a no-waiting period product, and you can qualify even with some pre-existing conditions.
For seniors with less than pristine health, Fidelity Life offers an affordable guaranteed issue policy that accepts virtually every applicant. Although it is slightly expensive compared to the RAPIDecision Final Expense plan, it is one of the best for people with serious health problems.
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Banner Life
Owned by Legal & General America, Banner Life appeals to many people who want to keep the process of buying a burial insurance policy as simple as possible. Although they do not offer exactly a whole life insurance policy, their universal policies have a burial element as they stay in force for a lifetime.
Banner Life’s universal life insurance policy offers lifetime coverage to individuals between the ages of 20 and 80, with coverage starting from $50,000. Perhaps the most attractive feature of this plan is that, like other universal life policies, it offers flexibility in premium payments.
Depending on whether you purchase Life Step UL and Life Choice UL, Banner Life guarantees that your policy will accumulate cash value over time at a rate of 2-3% annually. At a small additional cost, you can also add a few riders to your basic policy.
How to choose the best burial insurance carrier
Purchasing a cheap burial insurance policy starts with selecting the right life insurance company for your coverage needs. As such, knowing how to choose the right life insurance company is key to ensuring you land a better deal when purchasing coverage.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to finding cheap burial insurance, identifying the best insurance carriers and comparing their offers can help ensure you get the right coverage. Here are factors to consider when looking for a reputable final expense insurance provider:
- Financial strength:
A burial insurance policy lasts for a lifetime. For this reason, when buying a policy, you want to make sure that your carrier is capable of paying all its insurance obligations for several years.
A financially stable insurance provider will also likely offer cheaper coverage. To increase your chances of landing a better deal, look for a company with an A or Above rating from A.M. Best.
- The features you want:
No insurance product is exactly the same as another. When choosing a carrier, you want to ensure the product they sell you has the most features you want at reasonable rates. Some companies include riders in their policies at no cost, while others offer them at an additional cost.
When making a purchase, search for a company with the policies that offer the best living benefits, depending on your insurance needs. Reputable carriers often offer policies with more benefits at a reasonable price.
- Customer complaints:
When choosing a burial insurance provider, it is advisable to pick a carrier with the least complaint index. This is extremely important considering that final expenses insurance policy payouts are needed almost instantly after the policyholder’s passing. All companies listed above have received very few customer complaints.
Buying a policy from a reputable carrier increases your chance of landing better deals. Even so, it is imperative to remember that buying from a respected provider won’t guarantee cheaper monthly premiums.
How much your burial insurance policy will cost depends on a number of factors, including your gender, age at the time of application, overall health, and the amount of coverage you have applied for.
Thankfully, because burial insurance policies usually have a small death benefit, they tend to be cheaper than other types of insurance. Regardless of the coverage amount, buying a policy when still young puts you in the best position to lock in the cheapest rates.
Conclusion
Burial insurance policies for seniors are generally cheap. Even so, not all products are the same. If you are in the market for cheap burial insurance, Mutual of Omaha Living Promise and Transamerica’s Immediate Solution are some of the competitively priced options you can find.
Since they are from trusted names in the life insurance industry, you can be sure that the carriers will pay the claims when that time comes.