Does Any Company Offer Group Burial Insurance?
Group life insurance is coverage that is offered through an employer or via membership in an organization. Under one master policy, numerous people (members of the group) are covered.
No life insurance company in the nation offers individuals access to group burial insurance unless the coverage was offered by their employer or organization to which they belong.
If you were to call insurance companies seeking access to a group final expense policy, their response would always be something like “Sorry, but you would need to find an employer or organization that offers such a benefit.”
If ultimately, you’re seeking to insure yourself and other adults, such as your family, you will need to buy each person their own policy.
How To Get Final Expense Insurance For Your Family Members
To get burial insurance for a family member, you’ll need to buy them their own policy. Even if you’re the one paying for the coverage, here’s what you need to know:
- They must answer the health questions (if there are any). You cannot answer the questions for them, even if you have a POA over them.
- They must sign the application verbally, physically, or electronically. You cannot sign for them, even if you have a POA over them.
Keep in mind that you can absolutely speak with an agent or company to get quotes and ask questions in a preliminary call. When you go to formally apply, they must be involved in the process.
Survivorship & First To Die Policies Are Not Group Burial Policies
Sadly, some dishonest insurance agents will try to sell you a survivorship or first-to-die life insurance policy, making you think it’s a type of group final expense insurance that covers multiple people under one policy. That is not true. Here’s a breakdown of how each of these policies works:
- Survivorship life insurance: This is a type of policy that covers both spouses under one policy. It’s often also called a “second-to-die” policy. The key thing to understand is that it will only pay out a single death benefit once both spouses have died. When the first spouse dies, nothing pays out. Only after both are decreased will it pay out the death benefit. This type of coverage is most often utilized for estate planning.
- First-to-die life insurance: This is a type of policy that also covers two spouses under one policy. It’s also commonly referred to as “joint life insurance” or “married couple life insurance”. Where this policy differs from a survivorship policy is that it will pay one death benefit when the first spouse dies. After the first spouse dies, the policy terminates, leaving the remaining spouse without insurance coverage. Also, if both spouses died simultaneously, it would still only pay out a single death benefit.
To be clear, there is no type of burial insurance plan that covers two adults (married or not), where it would pay out a death benefit when each person dies.
How Does Burial Insurance Work?
Final expense insurance is a type of whole life insurance typically designed to cover funeral expenses. It’s also commonly known as burial or funeral insurance. These policies have some very unique features, such as:
- Small coverage options– Coverage amounts typically range from $2,000-$50,000
- Quick payouts– Approved claims are usually paid out within 48 hours.
- Lenient underwriting– Applicants with a wide variety of pre-existing conditions are still eligible, and you never have to take a medical exam. There are even guaranteed acceptance options that don’t require you to answer health questions.
Since these are whole life policies, the rate will never increase, the coverage won’t decrease, it builds cash value, and the policy lasts forever.
When you die, the insurer will pay out the death benefit as a tax-free cash payment to your beneficiaries. They are entitled to spend that money however they want and get to keep whatever is left over.
Frequently Asked Questions
Life insurance companies that offer group insurance plans (not all do) will only create a group policy for employers or large, well-established organizations. They will not allow a collection of individuals to band together to form a group so they can, in turn, get an insurer to create them a group burial insurance plan.
Ultimately, you have to buy burial insurance through a licensed agent or directly from an insurer. The overwhelming majority of final expense insurance companies sell their products through licensed agents rather than selling them directly to consumers. In most cases, products sold directly by the insurer, such as Colonial Penn, sell guaranteed issue policies, which all have a two-year waiting period. That’s not always the case, but it is most of the time. Regardless of how you purchase your policy, it’s critically important to evaluate 5-10 policies before making any final decisions. Every insurer has different prices, product limits, and waiting periods. By comparing many plans side by side, you can identify which provider will give you the greatest value.
Burial insurance with no waiting period kicks in right away for either natural or accidental death. That means you’re fully insured from the first day of the policy for any cause of death except suicide. However, if you get a burial policy that has a waiting period (it’s always 24-36 months), it will only refund your premiums plus roughly 10% interest should you die during this time.
Yes, you can buy final expense insurance for a parent, provided that they participate in the process. Your parent will have to answer the health questions and sign the application. That is true even if you’re paying for the policy. It’s also true even if you have power of attorney over them.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 15 years of experience
- Personal annual production that puts him in the top .001% out of all life insurance agents in the nation.
Anthony Martin is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 15 years of experience and has personally served over 10,000 clients with their life insurance needs. He frequently authors entrepreneurial and life insurance content for Forbes, Inc.com, Newsweek, Kiplinger, and Entreprenuer.com. Anthony has been consulted as an expert life insurance source for dozens of high-profile websites such as Forbes, Bankrate, Reuters, Fox Business, CNBC, Investopedia, Insurance.com, Yahoo Finance, and many more.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 19 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author.
Jeff Root is a nationally licensed life insurance expert with over 19 years of experience. He has personally helped over 3000 clients with their life insurance needs. Jeff is a best-selling Amazon author and the managing partner of a highly successful insurance brokerage that manages over 2,500 licensed insurance agents across the USA. He has been a featured life insurance source for prestigious websites such as Forbes, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Nerdwallet, and many more.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 14 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author of five insurance sales books.
David Duford is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 14 years of experience. He has personally helped more than 15,000 clients buy life insurance. David has been featured as an expert source for highly authoritative publications such as A.M. Best and Insurancenewsnet. He also runs one of the largest Youtube channels to help aspiring insurance agents serve their clients better.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 19 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author.
Jeff Root is a nationally licensed life insurance expert with over 19 years of experience. He has personally helped over 3000 clients with their life insurance needs. Jeff is a best-selling Amazon author and the managing partner of a highly successful insurance brokerage that manages over 2,500 licensed insurance agents across the USA. He has been a featured life insurance source for prestigious websites such as Forbes, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Nerdwallet, and many more.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 14 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author of five insurance sales books.
David Duford is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 14 years of experience. He has personally helped more than 15,000 clients buy life insurance. David has been featured as an expert source for highly authoritative publications such as A.M. Best and Insurancenewsnet. He also runs one of the largest Youtube channels to help aspiring insurance agents serve their clients better.
Choice Mutual often cites third-party websites to provide context and verification for specific claims made in our work. We only link to authoritative websites that provide accurate information. You can learn more about our editorial standards, which guide our mission of delivering factual and impartial content.
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Group life insurance. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/group-life-insurance.asp
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survivorship. https://www.progressive.com/answers/survivorship-life-insurance/
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first-to-die. https://www.newyorklife.com/articles/joint-life-insurance
