Introduction Medicare and life insurance are sometimes discussed around the same stage of life, which can make them seem more closely related than they actually are. They solve very different problems. Medicare is health insurance that helps pay for covered healthcare while you are alive. Life insurance is a separate contract designed primarily to provide…

Introduction If you bought a 20- or 30-year term life insurance policy in your 30s or 40s, its level-premium period may end around the same time you are approaching retirement. That makes this a useful moment to review the policy — but reaching the end of a term does not automatically mean you should convert…

Introduction Final expense insurance — often marketed as burial insurance or funeral insurance — is life insurance designed around relatively small end-of-life expenses. The name can be misleading, however, because “final expense” does not describe one single type of underwriting. Some final expense policies ask health questions and use simplified underwriting. Others use guaranteed acceptance…

Introduction Buying life insurance later in life is different from buying it at 30. Age can reduce the term lengths available, health conditions can affect underwriting, and a policy designed for $20,000 of final expenses solves a very different problem from a $500,000 term policy intended to protect a spouse or pay off a mortgage.…

Introduction Having a health condition does not automatically mean you cannot buy life insurance after age 60. It can affect the price, available coverage, underwriting process and companies worth considering, but insurers do not necessarily evaluate the same medical history in the same way. A senior with well-managed diabetes, for example, may have very different…

Introduction Life insurance is primarily designed to provide money to beneficiaries after the insured person dies. But some policies also include features that may allow the policyowner or insured to access benefits while still alive. These are commonly called living benefits. The term sounds simple, but it can refer to several very different policy features.…

Introduction After 70, the life insurance market narrows considerably. Most fully underwritten term policies stop being an option, and guaranteed issue whole life becomes the primary path for anyone who hasn’t secured coverage earlier. This is also the age range most targeted by the “$9.95 a month” TV ads — which aren’t a scam, but…

Introduction Turning 60 doesn’t close the door on life insurance — it just changes which door you walk through. The market shifts noticeably at this age: fewer companies offer traditional term coverage, premiums rise, and health questions start to matter more. But between term, simplified issue, and guaranteed issue policies, most seniors in their 60s…