How To Get Final Expense Life Insurance With A Terminal Illness
If you have any terminal illness, your only life insurance option would be a guaranteed acceptance final expense policy with no health questions. Often referred to as guaranteed acceptance, this option has no health or lifestyle questions.
While you won’t be denied due to your terminal illness (or any other health condition), there is a drawback to consider- the waiting period.
All guaranteed acceptance life insurance policies (no exceptions) have a mandatory two-year waiting period. If you die during this time, the insurer will refund only your premiums, not pay a death benefit.
The only exception to this rule is accidental death. If you die from an accident even during the waiting period, the insurance company will indeed pay out the full death benefit.
If you have a terminal illness, this news is likely disappointing to you, which is understandable. Sadly, there is no other life insurance alternative given your health situation.
Can Someone With A Terminal Illness Get No Waiting Period Life Insurance?
Someone with a terminal illness cannot get any form of life insurance with no waiting period. There are companies and websites that will say otherwise, but they are 100% lying.
Immediate coverage life or burial insurance for someone with a terminal illness does not exist.
Sample Premiums For Guaranteed Acceptance Coverage
Below are some sample rates for guaranteed acceptance policies.
Best Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance Policies For Someone With A Terminal Illness
If you’re okay moving forward with the policy, knowing about the waiting period, below are three of the best guaranteed acceptance final expense policies to consider.
- $10K Policy Cost$55.00/month*
- New Applicant Ages45-85
- Death Benefit Options$3,000-$25,000
- 2-Year Waiting PeriodYes
- $10K Policy Cost$41.01/month*
- New Applicant Ages45-85 (50-75 in NY)
- Death Benefit Options$2,000-$25,000
- 2-Year Waiting PeriodYes
- $10K Policy Cost$48.00/month*
- New Applicant Ages45-85 (varies by state)
- Death Benefit Options$3,000-$20,000
- 2-Year Waiting PeriodYes
What Is The Maximum Coverage You Can Buy?
Generally speaking, $25,000 is the maximum coverage you can buy for policies without health questions. The only company that goes beyond $25,000 is the AARP life insurance program (its guaranteed-issue policy goes up to $30,000).
While most companies that sell guaranteed issue life insurance cap coverage at $25K, you can absolutely buy multiple policies from various insurers.
For example, you could buy $25K from Mutual of Omaha, AAA, and Gerber Life to yield a net total of $75,000 in coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
An insurer cannot offer immediate coverage life insurance to people with a terminal illness because it would be a financial catastrophe for them. The median life expectancy for terminal illnesses is 55 days. Imagine if an insurer agreed to issue an immediate benefit policy for $20,000, with the understanding that, 55 days after it began, they would receive only about $200-$300 in premiums. That would be a near $24,700 loss. They would go out of business very quickly.
One of the primary advantages of group life insurance is that there is generally no requirement to qualify for coverage. In other words, there aren’t health questions or underwriting to endure. That would be ideal for someone with a terminal illness. However, if you’re not actively a part of said group, there is no way to access the insurance products available to it. There are indeed companies that offer group burial insurance, but not to outside members.
The answer to this question is truly subjective. Some people find it fruitless and forgo buying a policy, which makes sense for many reasons. However, many folks decide to buy coverage anyway, knowing that A) their money will get refunded should they die within the waiting period, B) the full death benefit would pay out if death happened to be from an accident, and C) if they really beat the odds and live for two years or more, they would then be fully covered for the rest of their life.
Our Insurance Review Methodology
Every company we review has an overall score that illustrates how well it stands out in the market relative to its competitors. These scores are not subjective. Instead, we utilize a defined 5-star scoring system that applies a weighted average of particular factors, all of which are outlined below and on our review methodology page.
Coverage
Strength
Complaint Index
Hold Time
We measure the price of a company’s most popular policy relative to its competitors’. The closeness of their cost to other companies determines the final score. Read a full breakdown of the price of coverage factor on our review methodology page.
Coverage
Coverage
Strength
Complaint Index
Hold Time
This factor assesses whether a company offers immediate coverage and, if so, how difficult it is to qualify for it. Read a full breakdown of the no waiting period coverage factor on our review methodology page.
Strength
Coverage
Strength
Complaint Index
Hold Time
A company’s financial strength is based on its rating with A.M. Best. Read a full breakdown of the financial strength factor on our review methodology page.
Complaint Index
Coverage
Strength
Complaint Index
Hold Time
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint index measures an insurer’s frequency of consumer complaints compared to the rest of the market. The score the insurer receives is based on how it stacks up to the median score of other insurers. Read a full breakdown of the NAIC complaint index factor on our review methodology page.
Hold Time
Coverage
Strength
Complaint Index
Hold Time
The customer support hold time score is based on the average amount of time it takes a company to connect an existing policyholder to a human customer service agent. Read a full breakdown of the customer support hold time factor in our review methodology page.
Why trust Choice Mutual?
When we review products, our findings are unbiased and free of any influence from partnerships or methods of compensation. All findings, good or bad, are solely the derivative of our objective analysis of any given product or company.
As noted on our review methodology page, our researchers evaluate the financial stability of the insurer, policy costs, product limitations, state availability, customer satisfaction, waiting periods (if applicable), and other relevant factors. We aggregate all this cumulative data to develop objective overall scores based on predefined weighted factors.
In addition, a qualified expert who is well-qualified to speak on the matter will provide opinion-based feedback about the company or product being reviewed.
For over a decade, Choice Mutual has been an insurance agency specializing in final expense life insurance. Our expertise in this type of insurance is well documented in numerous authoritative publications, some of which are listed below:
Choice Mutual’s mission is to provide consumers with unbiased, expert commentary and explanations of the topics under discussion. We want our readers to be armed with information and tools not found anywhere else on the internet, so they can make an informed decision.
All content on this website is written by Anthony Martin, a licensed life insurance agent with over a decade of industry expertise, who has been quoted hundreds of times as an expert source by reputable news outlets.
Per our editorial guidelines, we have never used and will never use artificial intelligence to create our content. Every word printed on this website is produced and curated entirely by human beings who have firsthand experience with the subject matter.
- Nationally licensed life insurance agent with over 16 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 16 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 20 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author.
Jeff Root is a nationally licensed life insurance expert with over 20 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 15 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author of five insurance sales books.
David Duford is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 15 years of experience. He has personally helped more than 1,500 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 20 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author.
Jeff Root is a nationally licensed life insurance expert with over 20 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 15 years of experience
- Best selling Amazon author of five insurance sales books.
David Duford is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 15 years of experience. He has personally helped more than 1,500 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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55 days. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27720788/
