Best Life Insurance for People Over 50: Compare Top Providers

Why You Should Trust Us

All of Investopedia’s life insurance reviews are based on extensive research and analysis by a team of expert researchers, editors, and writers. To create this list of the best life insurance companies for people over 50, we collected data on dozens of criteria from 45 companies. The criteria helped us score each company’s costs, coverage options, financial stability, and other features and come up with objective evaluations to help you choose the best provider for you.

Investopedia has been publishing trustworthy financial information since 1999 and has been reviewing life insurance companies since 2020. 

Why Should People Over 50 Consider Getting Life Insurance?

People over age 50 should consider getting life insurance if they have a spouse, children, or other dependents who rely on them financially. It can be useful if you want to assist your spouse or child in paying off a mortgage, covering funeral costs, supporting your favorite charity, or funding a grandchild’s education after you’ve passed away. 

But life insurance can be costly as you get older. When insurance companies determine an individual's premium, they’ll look at factors like age, health status, gender, medical history, and more. So life insurance premiums for a healthy 30-year-old will generally cost less than premiums for a 50-year-old who has a higher risk of death.3

When narrowing down what type of life insurance to purchase, you’ll want to think about why you need life insurance,  how much coverage you want, and how much you’re willing to pay.

Types of Life Insurance For People Over 50

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance offers policyholders coverage for a set period of time (typically between 10 and 30 years). If the policyholder passes away while they’re covered, their beneficiaries will receive a death benefit. However, if they die after their insurance has expired, the death benefit won’t be paid out. Term life insurance is much more affordable than other types of lifelong permanent coverage.

For people who have temporary financial obligations, like a mortgage, term life insurance may be a better option than permanent life insurance. Someone might purchase a term life insurance policy that ends shortly after they’ve paid off their mortgage. If they pass away while still owing the mortgage, their beneficiary can use the death benefit to help pay off the remaining debt. 

Term life insurance can also replace your income if you pass away while still working. You can buy a policy that lasts until you retire. People over 50 might still plan on working a decade or longer and could set up term coverage that lasts until they retire.

Plus, there are some term life insurance policies that offer policyholders the option of converting their policy to a permanent life insurance policy without undergoing an additional medical exam. Convertible policies can be beneficial for people who initially opt for term life because it’s more affordable but want the option of switching to permanent life insurance later on.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance. It provides lifelong coverage and includes cash value that policyholders can withdraw, borrow from, or use to cover premiums. With whole life insurance, premiums and the death benefit are fixed. Additionally, the interest rate that policyholders receive on cash value is fixed, which means you receive a guaranteed return on your money.

Whole life insurance can make sense for needs that never go away, like covering your final expenses or leaving an inheritance. You could also use whole life insurance to build up cash value that you could spend in retirement. 

Final Expense Insurance

Final expense insurance is a kind of permanent life insurance policy that provides a smaller death benefit, typically between $10,000 and $50,000.4 In other words, just enough to cover a funeral and other final expenses. Final expense life insurance has fixed premiums and can include cash value.

These policies typically do not require a medical exam. In exchange, they are more expensive than a regular whole life policy with the same death benefit. There could also be a waiting period before the coverage begins, such as one to three years after the date of purchase. If you pass away during the waiting period, your heirs usually get the premiums back but not the death benefit.

Unlike the name suggests, final expense life insurance does not have to be used exclusively to cover costs associated with a funeral—beneficiaries can use the funds as they see fit, whether that’s to pay off a mortgage or medical expenses.

Final expense life insurance may also be a better option for people who prefer not having to undertake a medical exam for underwriting—since the death benefit is smaller, the underwriting process is more straightforward.

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance is also a type of permanent life insurance that has cash value. Yet unlike whole life insurance, which has fixed premiums and a fixed death benefit, universal life insurance offers more flexibility—policyholders pay flexible premiums and can adjust their death benefit.

With universal life insurance, premiums increase as a policyholder ages to make up for the higher insurance costs. You are supposed to build up cash value while younger to help cover the premiums later in life.5

Universal life is less expensive than whole life insurance. It can be a more affordable way for someone over 50 to buy permanent coverage. However, they must budget carefully to ensure they build enough cash value for the higher future premiums.

Pros & Cons of Life Insurance for People Over 50

Pros Explained

• Applicants may still be eligible for plans with a large payout: While you’ll pay more for a life insurance plan over age 50 than you would at age 35, you can still enroll in life insurance plans that offer generous coverage, provided you are healthy enough to qualify.
• Wide selection of plan types still available: People over 50 have a range of financial needs. Most life insurance products should still be available, ranging from temporary term to permanent policies for lifelong coverage.
• Can provide living benefits in retirement: Some policies include riders that pay out while you are still alive if you develop a chronic or terminal illness, so you have more money for medical bills. You could also buy life insurance that helps pay for long-term care in a nursing home. Plus, cash-value policies build savings you can use while alive.

Cons Explained

• Premiums are more costly: As you get older, your risk of death increases—insurance companies will generally charge higher premiums for older applicants.
• Applicants may be in poorer health: Generally, health declines as you age, so you may be in worse health in your 50s than you were 20 years earlier. This means that if you have poor health and opt for a plan that requires a medical exam, you could end up paying some hefty premiums. 
• Qualifying can take more work: Life insurers tend to have tougher medical underwriting as people get older. Someone over 50 may need to pass more health testing hurdles, such as seeing a doctor for a full physical or taking an EKG. If you have a pre-existing health condition, you may need to apply with several insurers to find one that is more accepting of your situation.
  

How We Chose the Best Life Insurance Companies for People Over 50

Investopedia’s list of the best life insurance companies for people over 50 is based on extensive research into the top providers. We first commissioned a consumer survey about life insurance and consulted information about market share and popularity to understand which companies to consider. We then removed providers who didn’t meet our baseline standards for online transparency, financial strength, and customer satisfaction, leaving us with 45 companies to research further. 

Between May 20 and July 3, 2024, our experts gathered 3,150 data points related to 70 criteria. The data came from company webpages, media representatives, rating agencies (AM Best, NAIC, and J.D. Power), and customer service calls.

Then, staff editors and research analysts created a quantitative model that scores each company based on six major categories, which we weighted as such:

• Policy Features and Riders: 34%
• Application and Online Service Features: 20%
• Policy Types: 16%
• Cost: 14%
• Customer Satisfaction: 10%
• Financial Stability: 6%