Life Insurance For The Age 50 And Over

If I am over the age of 50, can I still get Life Insurance?

The short answer to this question is, yes. Age alone isn’t enough to decide whether or not you can still purchase life insurance. There are increasingly more options for people over the age of 50, lets break down some of the options you have so you can better understand which is right for you.

The first thing you’ll want to consider is your health:

• Do you smoke?
• Do you take any prescription medication?
• Have you be tested or diagnosed with any condones in the last 12 months?

Regardless of how you answer those questions, there are still affordable life insurance options for you. If you answered no, to all of those questions lets look at your options.

Healthy over the age of 50

Traditional life insurance still might be the best way to go. When we refer to traditional life insurance, we normally mean medically underwritten. If you have nothing hide and are being honest about your health status, traditional life insurance will be the most affordable option for you.

The reason for this is because you give the insurance company more information on who they are insuring. This gives them a better picture and in turn, you have to pay less for life insurance.

But what happens if you (like most Canadians over 50) take some medication or smoke on a regular basis?

Well, good news, there are still affordable options but depending on your specific situation, your options might be limited. You see, if you are over the age of 50 and take medication for something like high cholesterol, you might still be able to qualify for traditional life insurance.

Medication alone isn’t enough to determine which options are best for you. What we always recommend is to work with a broker, someone who can help navigate your specific needs and find the best policy for you, obviously at a price you deem to be affordable.

So what are the options if I take multiple medications or have been diagnosed with some health concerns in the past several years?

Guaranteed issue life insurance is what you’ll want to look at. Guaranteed issue life insurance is exactly that, you can’t be turned down for any reason. With the type of coverage, there are normally two factors you’ll need to know. First, that coverage is normally capped.

This is highly based on the company you work with, but many companies limit your coverage to $25,000. At least to start, this is the main reason to review your insurance, for people who have been in good or controlled conditions for several years might qualify for more coverage or a better rate. So look at the $25,000 as a stepping stone, to better coverage later on.

The second thing you’ll need to know is some companies may offer a waiting period. Think of this as a two year period where if you were to pass away, your beneficiary would collect 100% of the premiums you paid into the policy not the full $25,000 of coverage. After the 2 year period, the full amount would be paid as a death benefit.

Why do some companies have a waiting period on guaranteed issue life insurance?

Financially it would be viable for the insurance company if they didn’t have a waiting period. Think about it, everyone who was on their death bed would purchase life insurance for a few hundred dollars, and then their beneficiaries would receive tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits. An insurance company simply wouldn’t be able to survive.

In short, if you are over the age of 50, you still have many options. The goal should be to find the right one for your needs.