Over 50s life insurance - Pros & Cons

If you’re approaching retirement age, or perhaps you’re already retired and you’re starting to think about what your future holds, including financial planning for your funeral and what kind of payout guarantees your family can expect when you die, you might want to start thinking about life insurance.

Over 50s life insurance is something that you might want to consider to ensure that your family will receive life insurance payments once you die. In our guide about over 50s life cover below, we discuss exactly what over 50s life insurance includes, how it works and the pros and cons of taking out life insurance for over 50s.

What is over 50s life insurance?

Over 50s life insurance is a type of life insurance policy, similarly to a whole of life policy that covers those aged over 50 when they die and their family comes to make a claim on their life insurance policy.

Unlike whole of life cover, however, there are no medical checks involved in an over 50s life insurance policy and you’re almost always guaranteed to be accepted.

Of course, in order to be accepted for this type of insurance, you must be at least 50 years old in order to apply.

How does over 50s cover work?

These types of life insurance policies work by ensuring that money is guaranteed to be paid out when you die, regardless of when that happens.

As they’re a type of whole of life policy, over 50s policies are not term-based, so there are no rules involved with regards to when a payout can be expected; it’s just guaranteed to happen when you die. Most other types of life insurance policies run out as they’re usually term-based, but with an over 50s life insurance policy, this isn’t the case.

As a payout is guaranteed, the life insurance provider is able to work out a premium that you need to pay in order to receive cover. There are also no medical checks involved when applying for over 50s life cover, so the process is much easier and much more streamlined than many other types of life insurance policies.

The way that insurers work out the cost of your premiums is by using your age and numerous statistics to determine how much you should pay.

While it’s not very nice to think about, if you think that you’re more likely to die sooner than the average person due to underlying illnesses or if you’re a heavy smoker or severely obese, an over 50s life insurance plan could be the right choice for you.

This is because you don’t need to go through rigorous medical checks in order to take out a policy, even if your life expectancy is lower and you could therefore still obtain a life insurance policy without having to pay much more for cover.

When taking out any kind of life insurance policy, it’s imperative that you keep up with your premium payments as if you default on any of your payments, you could risk your policy becoming invalidated which means your family won’t be able to make a claim when you die.

If you find yourself in a position where you’re unable to keep up with your payments, you should get in contact with your life insurance provider who may be able to offer you a payment holiday until you’re in a better financial position to make your premium payments again.

Pros of over 50s life insurance

Of course, just as there are numerous advantages and drawbacks of almost every type of insurance, there are both pros and cons involved with an over 50s policy as well.

Take a look at some of the pros and cons of over 50s life insurance below.

• Providing that you’re over 50, you’re almost always guaranteed to be accepted for over 50s life cover.
• There are no medical checks involved so the application process is much easier and quicker.
• It’s like a whole of life policy so you’re guaranteed a payout, regardless of whether you die when you’re 60 or 90, as long as you keep up with the payments of your premiums.
• Many policies have a cut-off point (usually around 85 or 90 years old) where you no longer have to pay any more towards your premiums, but you’ll still remain covered for the rest of your life, regardless of how many more years you live for.

Cons of over 50s life cover

• As the insurance companies are offering a big risk to themselves by accepting pretty much anyone and everyone for over 50s life cover, in order to reduce their risk somewhat, there is usually a waiting period of around one to two years after your policy has started in which the insurance company won’t payout if you die. However, they will usually pay out an amount that’s equal to the amount that you’ve paid into your policy so far, so the worst that can happen is that you’ll just get the money back that you’ve already put in.
• If you’re lucky enough to live a long and healthy life, you could actually end up paying more or less the same into your policy as what you’re paid out.

How to find cheap life insurance for over 50s

In order to find cheap life insurance for over 50s, we recommend speaking to a Life Insurance Broker to speak to an advisor who can find the best cover suited to you and your situation and the most affordable policy depending on your budget and the amount of cover you'd like.