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The need for life insurance could stretch into your 60s and beyond for many reasons. If you’re looking for senior life insurance, you’ll want a policy suited for your age group.
We evaluated the best senior life insurance companies based on their cash value products using data provided by Veralytic, a leading publisher of pricing and performance research and competitiveness ratings for cash value life insurance products.
Our scoring put weight on two measurements important to seniors: internal policy costs and pricing stability, meaning how well a company’s policy illustrations line up with the insurer’s historical performance.
Good
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Why we chose it: Over 97% of AXA Equitable’s cash value products show superior pricing stability, helping push it to the top of our ratings.
Very good
Excellent
The vast majority (94%) of Lincoln Financial’s cash value products have policy illustrations that are in line with the company’s historical performance.
Very good
Very good
Pacific Life offers low internal policy costs and the company has a history of maintaining or reducing these costs.
Good
Excellent
The vast majority (96%) of Principal’s cash value products have policy illustrations that are in line with the company’s historical performance.
Excellent
Very good
96% of Protective’s cash value products are highly competitive for premiums and internal policy costs.
Very good
Excellent
Prudential offers very competitive costs and its policy illustrations are true to the company’s past performance for 95% of its cash value products.
Good
Excellent
Transamerica’s cash value policies can fit a senior’s need for low costs and reliable policy illustrations.
American General (part of AIG) is a good choice for life insurance buyers who want reliable policy illustrations. AIG announced plans to spin off some of its life insurance business, which may cause some new uncertainty.
Very good
Very good
Very good
Very good
For those looking for a policy with low costs, including low internal charges that won’t eat away at cash value, Cincinnati Life is worth consideration.
Very good
OK
Mutual of Omaha beats out most other life insurers when it comes to both low policy costs and superior historical performance of invested assets.
OK
Very good
OK
Very good
Nationwide is a solid option for life insurance buyers who want reliable policy illustrations
OK
Very good
OK
Very good
Northwestern Mutual beats out competitors on multiple measures, most notably in financial strength and pricing stability in policy illustrations
Good
Good
Good
Good
State Farm is a solid choice, especially for superior financial strength and for those who plan to access cash value.
Company | Forbes Advisor rating | |
---|---|---|
Company | Forbes Advisor rating | |
AXA Equitable | ||
Lincoln Financial | ||
Pacific Life | ||
Principal | ||
Protective | ||
Prudential | ||
Transamerica | ||
AIG | ||
Cincinnati Life | ||
Mutual of Omaha | ||
Nationwide | ||
Northwestern Mutual | ||
State Farm | ||
John Hancock | ||
Minnesota Life | ||
Penn Mutual | ||
RiverSource | ||
Midland | ||
New York Life | ||
Ohio National | ||
Ameritas | ||
Guardian | ||
National Life | ||
Massachusetts Mutual | ||
Allianz | ||
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Compare Policies With 8 Leading Insurers
Seniors have access to the same types of life insurance as anyone else. This includes term life, whole life and universal life insurance.
Term life insurance is available through age 80, although the length of the level term period available will get shorter, especially as you enter your late 50s.
Cash value life insurance policies can be obtained with some companies through age 85, but other insurers have lower maximum ages.
Your need for life insurance will usually decrease as you grow older and accumulate other assets. The primary need for life insurance is based upon providing income to someone who is financially dependent upon you. If the assets you are leaving to heirs will be sufficient after you pass away, then your need for life insurance may disappear.
Here are reasons seniors may need life insurance:
Like anyone else, buyers of senior life insurance should look for a policy that fits their needs. Your purpose for buying life insurance will guide your decision on the types of life insurance to consider.
But if you need life insurance at an older age, here are some considerations for senior life insurance.
Avoid Graded Death Benefit Policies
It’s important to have coverage that pays the full death benefit from day one. Therefore, you’ll want to consider a traditional life insurance policy and avoid a “senior policy” that has a limited death benefit in the first years.
Financial predators often focus on seniors. They may try to get you to purchase unnecessary coverage. Be wary of anyone who tries to rush you into making a decision or discourages you from discussing a proposed policy with a family member or trusted advisor.
“Beware of ‘advisors’ offering policy reviews comparing non-guaranteed premiums, cash values and/or death benefits for some limited number of products,” says Barry Flagg, founder of Veralytic. These sales practices are now considered “misleading,” “fundamentally inappropriate” and unreliable by the financial, insurance and banking industry authorities.
“Insist that quotes include year-by-year disclosure of costs, often referred to as detailed expense pages or policy accounting pages,” says Flagg. Work with an advisor who can benchmark a policy’s internal policy costs and actual historical performance against the company’s peers, just like you do for other assets in your portfolio, he says.
Because seniors are likely to have health issues, it’s especially important to work with a qualified life insurance advisor who can help you compare policies from multiple insurance companies.
Your advisor should review your medical history, and send informal (anonymous) queries to multiple insurance companies to determine the best available rate for you. By doing anonymous inquiries, you’ll save time and avoid any possible application denials.
We scored the cash value products of large life insurance companies using data provided by Veralytic.
We did not include companies that sell all or mostly term life insurance products, nor companies that are direct writers, meaning they sell policies either directly to consumers or only through their own exclusive agents.
We evaluated each company on five measurements, putting weight on costs and pricing stability in order to identify the best senior life insurance:
Compare Policies With 8 Leading Insurers
These two policy types are especially for senior life insurance buyers:
Guaranteed issue life insurance. These policies are offered with the promise that you can’t be turned down and won’t be asked any health questions. The trade-off is that maximum coverage amounts tend to be small, and if you die in the first two or three years after purchase your beneficiaries won’t get the full death benefit. This is known as a graded death benefit,
Guaranteed issue life insurance is also pricey for the amount of insurance you’re getting, but it’s designed for seniors who have health issues.
Burial insurance. Also known as final expense insurance, burial insurance is available only in small amounts and is designed for seniors in poor health and with limited budgets. It’s meant to cover a funeral and final expenses.
You can buy a guaranteed issue life insurance policy without any health questions or an exam. These policies offer low amounts of coverage but are designed for people looking to cover a funeral and other smaller expenses.
Note that guaranteed issue policies have “graded death benefits”: If you pass away within the first two or three years of owning the policy, it will not pay out the death benefit to your beneficiaries. Instead it will usually pay them a refund of your premiums plus interest.
The life insurance you bought years ago may no longer serve a good purpose for you. Maybe your children are financially independent, or another life change has altered your need for insurance. Instead of walking away from the policy or taking the surrender value, some seniors opt to sell their policies in a life settlement.
A life settlement is the sale of a policy to a third party, who becomes the policy owner. In a life settlement transaction you can typically get more than the policy’s surrender value but less than its death benefit. The new owners will make themselves the beneficiary.
If you have a cash value life insurance policy, you can withdraw money from it, take a loan against the cash value, or surrender the policy for the cash.
You could also sell the policy in a life settlement transaction. Read more about these ways to tap life insurance for cash.
Term life insurance policies, on the other hand, don’t have a cash value component, so there’s no money inside the policy to access.
Tony Steuer is an author and advocate for Financial Preparedness. Tony’s created the Get Ready Initiative for consumers and professionals which provides resources and best practices on financial preparedness along with spotlighting leading financial literacy advocates.
I’m the Insurance Analyst for Forbes Advisor. I’ve been writing about insurance for consumers for more than 20 years. Insurance intersects with many parts of our lives, yet it’s tough to untangle, and wrong choices can make a financial mess. I’m here to help you make sense of it. I’m especially interested in how data is affecting the price you pay for all insurance types.