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Life insurance is commonly thought to be something you only need when you are younger and have a family that depends on you financially. Policies are generally designed to help provide your family with financial support in the event that you pass away unexpectedly. Seniors can buy life insurance, too. Many seniors want to provide security for their spouse, even if their children are already grown. Others might still have younger dependents. Just because you are a senior, this doesn’t mean that life insurance needs to be expensive. Here are 7 secrets to finding affordable life insurance to meet your needs.
Don’t Buy More Than You Need
Your life insurance needs change as you age. When you are older, you typically do not have children to support financially anymore. You also may be finished paying off your mortgage and paid down some other debts as well. Any retirement investments that you have made will hopefully have grown. As a senior, you most likely need less insurance than you did when you were younger. You can save a significant amount of money simply by not buying more life insurance than you really need.
Buy As Soon As Possible
Life insurance premiums increase as you get older. Once you reach your 60s, the premiums can jump significantly every year that you put off purchasing your policy. Additionally, if you are looking into purchasing a term life insurance policy from an insurance agent, your options decrease as you age. The length of the available terms decreases, as do the number of insurers willing to work with you and provide you with coverage. The sooner you purchase the policy, the less you will end up paying.
Maintain Your Health
With age comes many health-related issues. Any health issues can significantly drive up the cost of your premiums. Smoking, being overweight, having diabetes or heart disease, or other health issues can all play a significant role. These issues make you more of a liability, meaning that you are riskier to insure. As a result, premiums can be quite high. In order to maintain lower, more affordable premiums, maintaining your health is crucial. Quit smoking, maintain a healthy weight, and exercise regularly.
Look Into Final Expense Insurance
Instead of traditional life insurance, you could look into final expense insurance. Final expense insurance is a type of life insurance policy that is designed specifically to cover the cost of your funeral and burial (or cremation). You can even design a plan to take any other debts that you have into consideration. Funerals are expensive, costing on average thousands of dollars, and can be a severe financial drain on those you love most. With final expense insurance you can rest easy knowing that your family is protected, and that the will not be left financially bereft.
Look Into Group Plans
If you are still working, you may be able to participate in a group plan offered by your employer. If you can, look into finding out if it’s possible to maintain your coverage after you decide to retire. There are many plans that do offer that option, and it’s almost always going to be the most affordable one.
Even if you are no longer working, you may still be able to participate in a group plan. Look into any group buying benefits that you are a part of, such as AARP, to see what their plans provide. Before you decide to buy into one of these plans, however, it may be worthwhile to compare their costs to the costs of term life insurance plans.
Shop Around
There are several different insurance companies that offer life insurance policies and they all price age groups differently. This means that some insurance companies will provide better premium costs than others. Shop around before you buy. It doesn’t cost anything to get quotes, so it can be worth your time to check with several different companies to find your best options.
Compare Life Insurance Options
There are different types of life insurance that you can buy. The two most common are term life and whole life insurance. Term life is designed to cover you for a specific time period while permanent is designed to cover you for life. While whole life policies generally cost more than term, your options for term policies become more limited as you get older. Additionally, the cost discrepancies between term and whole life become much smaller. It may be worth it to purchase whole life. You can also look into policies that don’t require medical exams. These policies, however, tend to cost more. Research all of your options to find the type of life insurance policy that works best for you.
If you are a senior in need of life insurance, you do have options. Doing some research before you buy can help you to save money and find the most affordable plan that works for you.
