As you reach the age of 55 and beyond, many people start planning for their post-work life. This is often a time of transition, where people move away from the nine to five lifestyle and start exploring how they’d like to occupy their time in retirement. This can also be a time of soul-searching, as people begin to think about their legacy, and the situation they’d like to leave behind.
Our health becomes more important than ever as we reach our senior years and having a comprehensive life insurance policy helps us prepare for any eventuality. Many people have been told that their options for life insurance dwindle significantly if they don’t have it before they’ve officially become a senior citizen. Fortunately, this isn’t really the case anymore.
There are lots of life insurance companies that offer great plans with affordable premiums to seniors. Depending on which company you choose, you may be able to get your long-term care covered or select a policy that leaves your family with the security of having money available to them after you’re gone.
Although life insurance does tend to get more expensive as we get older, these agencies that we’ve found today offer affordable premiums and great benefits.
AIG Life
AIG Life offers a wide variety of insurance policies, ranging from basic term life insurance, which protects you until a certain term, to variable universal life insurance, which provides protection as well as the ability to accumulate cash value through investment options.
Depending on your age, AIG offers different tiers of premiums. If you’re just looking for term life insurance, AIG is unique because they offer the opportunity for new enrollees to select their own term, up to 30 years. That way, if you want to be really specific, you can select a non-standard term like 17 or 23 years.
They also offer a convertible option, which means that you can convert your term life insurance (which typically has lower monthly premiums) to whole life insurance. This is ideal for people who have recently been diagnosed with a health condition that would prohibit them from getting whole life insurance, but still want the benefits that this type of insurance provides.
In addition to the conversion option for their term life insurance, AIG also offers several popular life insurance riders, including disability income, which covers your income if you were to become disabled, and child term, which extends additional life insurance coverage to your child until they reach between 18 and 25 years of age.
In addition to their many different options for terms, policies, and riders, AIG is also known for its outstanding customer service. They’re always there to help you navigate their offerings.
State Farm
Another popular national insurance provider is State Farm. Their website is extremely comprehensive and offers lots of resources to people who are just getting started with their research. There are plenty of articles on different life insurance topics, as well as a helpful illustrated calculator that helps you decide how much life insurance you need.
Offering term, whole, and universal life insurance, State Farm has a great reputation for good rates when families or individuals bundle more than one plan or type of insurance together. Otherwise, their individual rates are not as competitive as some of the other large insurance companies on the market, likely due to their strict underwriting standards. If you’re healthy, there’s a much higher chance of you getting a better rate.
However, their incredible customer service is what retains many customers long-term. They have a great reputation for treating both staff and customers extremely well.
Their term and whole life insurance offer standard benefits, but their universal life insurance offers additional benefits like flexible premiums and the ability to encompass two people under one joint universal life plan. If you’re a senior, you can also choose their single premium life insurance, which you can enroll in up until you reach the age of 80. This plan allows you to pay one single lump-sum premium and protects you for the remainder of the term without you having to pay another cent.
Mutual of Omaha
Even though it may not have as big a name as some of their competitors, Mutual of Omaha is a Fortune 500 company with great insurance options. Like most other insurance companies, they offer term, whole, and universal life insurance.
Seniors up to the age of 80 can still sign up for term life insurance, although they are offered shorter terms. Their premiums don’t change throughout your term, which is helpful for budgeting your expenses in retirement.
Their two permanent life insurance options — whole life and universal life — are available to adults between the ages of 45 and 85. Like their term life insurance, premiums on whole and universal life insurance are leveled out, so they won’t increase at any time. These permanent life insurance options are great for covering final expenses and ensuring that you have a financial legacy to leave behind to surviving family members.
If you’d like your life insurance to do more, Mutual of Omaha offers a good number of different term and permanent life insurance riders. On term life insurance, they offer an annual renewable term up until the age of 95 and the option to convert your term life insurance to either type of permanent life insurance until the age of 75.
Conclusion
When you’re looking into buying life insurance as a senior, there are a lot of factors that you should keep in mind. Companies that offer fixed premiums, as well as the ability to convert term life insurance to whole or universal life insurance makes it a lot easier for seniors to adapt to the changes that come with retirement.
It’s important to do your research before you purchase, as this is a choice that could impact not only you but the family you leave behind.