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Maximum no-exam coverage
$1 million
Eligible ages
18-55
Term lengths available
10 & 20 years
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We’re accustomed to shopping conveniences such as easy price comparisons and instant delivery. If you’ve been shopping for life insurance, you may feel you’ve entered into a time warp of long applications, life insurance medical exams and lengthy wait times for approval.
But there are companies looking to remake the life insurance shopping experience. They’re forging a path for no-exam life insurance that can be competitively priced with traditional life insurance policies.
We scored providers based on price and coverage benefits to help you find the best no-exam instant life insurance.
$1 million
18-55
10 & 20 years
$2 million
25-50
10, 20 or 30 years
The Brighthouse SimplySelect policy offers the best benefits across the categories we scored and excellent rates. SimplySelect was developed in collaboration with Policygenius and is currently only available through them.
$1 million
18-70
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
$1 million
18-70
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
Jenny Life offers excellent life insurance rates among the companies we scored and a high age for eligibility
$1 million
18-60
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
$1 million
18-60
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
Lincoln Financial’s top-notch coverage benefits boosted its score.
$500,000 for instant coverage for ages 18-65; instant amounts up to $1 million available for ages 18-45
18-65
10, 15 or 20 years
$500,000 for instant coverage for ages 18-65; instant amounts up to $1 million available for ages 18-45
18-65
10, 15 or 20 years
Sagicor’s excellent rates and very good benefits make it a solid choice.
$3 million
20-60
10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years
$3 million
20-60
10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years
Ladder sets itself apart by allowing you to change your coverage amount any time in order to adjust it to your needs. But it’s hindered by relatively high rates and lack of some valuable coverage benefits.
$1 million
20-60
10, 15, 20, 30 years
$1 million
20-60
10, 15, 20, 30 years
Ethos’s coverage benefits make it an option to take a look at, although we found rates to be relatively high.
$1.5 million
18-60
10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years
Bestow offers good options for term life insurance lengths and the coverage amount. It gets beat out by competitors in coverage benefits and pricing.
$1.5 million
up to 5 million with an exam
21-60
10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years (depending on your state)
$1.5 million
up to 5 million with an exam
21-60
10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years (depending on your state)
Fabric’s solid coverage benefits make it worth consideration, although its high average rates brought down the overall rating.
$500,000
20-55
5, 10 or 15 years
$500,000
20-55
5, 10 or 15 years
The Haven Simple policy from Haven Life takes only a few seconds for approval. Its score was impacted by lack of some benefits and comparatively high rates.
$500,000
18-60
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
$500,000
18-60
10, 15, 20 or 30 years
American Family’s instant, no-exam product has some solid benefits but it consistently had the highest rates among the companies we evaluated.
An instant no-exam policy may not be able to provide the full coverage amount you need, especially if you’re looking to cover many working years or the years of raising a family.
Before you start getting price quotes, calculate how much life insurance you need. A no-exam policy alone may not be sufficient coverage.
Getting life insurance without a long application process is appealing, but don’t jump into an no-exam application without understanding your chances of getting approved. Many no-exam policies require very good or excellent health for approval. A denial goes on your insurance record and could hinder future applications.
“Customers wanting instant-decision life insurance should ask the seller to reveal the underwriting guidelines before applying so that you don’t accidentally earn an unwanted rate-up or decline on your insurance record,” says Bob Bland, CEO of Life Quotes, a national online life insurance agency that offers a variety of policies including no-exam, instant decision and traditional policies.
“The instant decision life insurance plans have strict acceptance guidelines. The successful applicants for these plans tend to be in excellent health with no serious pre-existing conditions, no dangerous hobbies, are below age 45 with coverage requests that do not exceed $250,000,” observes Bland.
Don’t be surprised if you end up doing a more traditional application process, including a life insurance medical exam, if you’ve had some health issues.
Of course you don’t want to overpay on life insurance, but don’t research price alone. There are coverage options that can turn out to be very valuable long after you buy the policy, such as the option to convert term life to permanent life insurance. Also look at whether there’s an accelerated death benefit, which gives you access to your own death benefit if you become terminally ill.
“The instant-decision life insurance market is new, evolving and represents an exciting growth sector because of the ease with which a purchase can be made,” says Bland at Life Quotes. “But don’t overlook the fundamentals. There are differences in policy features, and always ask to see the company’s A.M. Best rating before you buy.”
No matter what type of life insurance you’re applying for, be truthful on the application. Intentional misrepresentations can lead to application denials or, worse, denial of a claim by beneficiaries.
Life insurance companies have many ways to verify application information. Technology on the backend allows them to verify data from additional sources. This additional data can include your prescription drug history, answers on past life insurance applications and your driving record.
Compare Policies With 8 Leading Insurers
We scored companies based on these measurements:
Price (50% of score): We averaged the life insurance rates for males and females in excellent health at ages 30, 35, 40 and 45 for $500,000 in term lengths of 10, 20 and 30 years. (Not all companies in our analysis offer all term lengths.)
Coverage options and benefits (50% of score):
Sources: Bestow, Ethos, Fabric, Haven Life, Jenny Life, Ladder, Life Quotes and Policygenius.
The timeline for approval could be within seconds or two to three days, depending on the company and possibly even your health. For our purposes we called these instant policies.
There are many other life insurance companies that sell no-exam life insurance but without instant decisions. The chances of avoiding an exam can vary widely among companies depending on your age, health, coverage amount and term length. We focused on the emerging space of instant no-exam life insurance, where several start-ups are looking to redefine the life insurance buying experience.
We did not include guaranteed issue life insurance in our analysis. These policies offer coverage with no medical exam but are intended mainly for seniors looking to cover final expenses. Guaranteed issue policies usually have a graded death benefit, meaning they won’t pay out the full amount in the first few years.
Looking for traditional term life insurance? See Forbes Advisor’s ratings of the best term life insurance.
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.