Best Life Insurance Companies For People Over 50

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Why We Chose It: With a range of life insurance policies available, competitive pricing, and options for simplified underwriting with no medical exam, Mutual of Omaha is our overall choice for the best life insurance for those over 50.

Founded in 1909, Mutual of Omaha now boasts a robust portfolio of insurance products, including permanent and term life insurance. They provide streamlined underwriting processes and low monthly premiums. This, combined with a JD Power top five rating for customer satisfaction, makes them an excellent choice for the best overall position.

People aged 18 to 80 can buy term life insurance of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years in length for $100,000 or more in coverage. You can renew to age 95 or even convert to permanent coverage.

What you’ll pay for a policy depends on your health status, age, and other factors. A sample monthly cost for an individual in their 50s would be around $100 per month for a 20-year policy with the $250,000 death benefit.

With the Living Promise Level Benefit whole life plan, you won’t need a medical exam and coverage up to $40,000 is available. Applicants must be between the ages of 45 and 85. You can also choose from a long list of riders such as long-term care coverage, accidental death, chronic illness, and others to customize your policy. 

Another benefit is Mutual of Omaha’s Mutual Perks program. This discount plan offers savings on mortgages, travel, and wellness services such as massage acupuncture and gym memberships.

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Why We Chose It: We chose Northwestern Mutual for our best for term life insurance pick because of its reputation, reasonable rates, and ability to combine term and whole life insurance to suit your circumstances as they evolve.

Northwestern Mutual has impressive industry rankings, holding the highest possible rating of A++ from AM Best, an A+ from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and it consistently earns top positions in the JD Power’s customer satisfaction survey. 

Companies that offer term life insurance must be financially stable, offer competitive coverage, and have good client feedback. Northwestern Mutual ticks all these boxes making them an easy choice for our best for term life insurance choice. They also pay dividends on eligible term life insurance policies.

Term insurance policies have level premiums for either 10 or 20 years or you can opt for Term 80 with premiums that could potentially increase each year. Policies are available until the age of 80.

Northwestern Mutual also offers the Whole Life Plus option, a combined term, and whole life policy.

One of the challenges with Northwestern Mutual is the lack of detailed quotation tools. There is a basic system, but you’ll need to contact an agent for a comprehensive quotation. We were also unable to determine the waiting periods and exclusions from their website. Whether or not you need a medical exam depends on your age and health.

Policies are customizable with a waiver of premium and accelerated care benefit riders. There is also an additional purchase benefit rider that allows you to purchase further life insurance coverage at specific times without further medical exams.

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Why We Chose It: Protective is our best budget choice because their premium prices were some of the lowest we found. In fact, the company states they’re usually up to 43% less than the competition.

Protective is our pick for the best budget choice as they offer low-cost premiums and will reconsider your rate following the first year of the policy should your health or circumstances change. 

They also offer the unique Custom Choice policy, which they market as an alternative to term life insurance with a lower cost. This plan has a level premium for a term between 10 to 30 years. Following the initial term, the payments remain the same but coverage reduces. It could be a good option for someone who wants to keep some level of coverage until the end of their life but who does not need extensive coverage in their later years.

Using the straightforward online quotation tool, just plug in the amount of coverage you want, number of years, your age, and other information to obtain a free quote.

Age limits vary by the individual policy with a maximum age of 85. You may require a medical exam depending on your age, health status, and which policy you choose. There was no information provided regarding how long it took for policy coverage to kick in.

One great strength with Protective is its range of riders. People can customize their policy with a waiver of premium, accelerated death benefit, children’s term life insurance, disability benefit, accidental death benefit, and more.

Another is that Protective does not typically exclude people for health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.  

Although many details surrounding policies are not available online, cost-conscious people should be able to find a Protective life insurance option to suit them.

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Why We Chose It: Fidelity Life is our category leader for no waiting periods as even older people can take advantage of their RAPIDecision policies providing coverage immediately upon approval.

Based in Illinois and with an AM Best rating of A-, and a BBB rating of A+, the Fidelity Life Association has some great, almost instant, coverage options with no invasive medical exams for people aged from 50 to 85. Their aptly named RAPIDecision policies can usually provide coverage right from the application date, making Fidelity our top pick for no waiting periods. 

Provided you are less than 65 years old, you can get up to $1 million coverage with the RAPIDecision Life term policies for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. Using the online tool, we found a quote of $50 every month on a $500,000, 10-year term policy for a woman. The same policy costs $70 per month for men. 

Customers can choose from coverage options including term, whole, and permanent life insurance. Some products are customizable with accelerated benefits, accidental death, and child life insurance riders. Most policies include a free terminal illness rider which allows beneficiaries to access benefits early.

Policies vary in their age limits and benefit amounts. If people opt for the RAPIDecision Guaranteed Issue rather than Life option, there is no medical exam or underwriting and, therefore, no health exclusions. However, for this option, coverage is limited to $25,000.

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Why We Chose It: AARP is the category leader for no medical exam coverage as acceptance isn’t dependent on a comprehensive physical, and you don’t need to answer a medical history questionnaire.

It isn’t surprising that an organization that advocates for older people’s health provides a range of life insurance policies with simple underwriting that negates the need for invasive physical examinations. This is precisely the case with AARP which offers permanent and term life insurance with no medical exam, making them an easy choice for our best option in this category.

AARP has the highest possible A++ rating with AM Best, and their policies are underwritten by the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States, New York Life.

You will need to be an AARP member or spouse between the ages of 50 and 74 to buy a policy. AARP offerings include the level benefit term life policy, permanent life, and the guaranteed acceptance life insurance. There is no refusal of coverage for any pre-existing health conditions with the easy acceptance option, although one exception is a terminal illness. Coverage on this policy is limited to $25,000 and there is a two-year waiting period.

The website provides simple quotation tools for their policies. People looking to customize their policy with different add-ons may be disappointed as AARP only offers accelerated benefit and waiver of premium riders.

However, those who value customer service will be pleasantly surprised. New York Life’s complaint index, which is the company’s share of all complaints from the U.S. market, divided by its share of premiums, is just 0.16. This is much lower than the industry national complaint index of 1.0.