11th Mar 2010
Choose a Life Policy For Middle Age and Beyond
Can a person in their middle years or senior years still buy life insurance? If you are over 50, or if you are caring for an older person, you can find a wide choice of products. Since statistics show that Americans are living longer and healthier lives, insurers are willing to extend affordable coverage to older people. Most middle aged and older people can still find life insurance policies.
Why are baby boomers and seniors looking for policies? At thirty or forty, a lot of us bought a twenty or thirty year term life insurance policy. That seemed like plenty of time to save money, get our kids educated, and pay off our mortgage. We figured that by the time we were fifty or sixty, we would have everything in order, and we would not need coverage any more.
How did that idea work out for you? In many cases, it did not work all that well. Our kids took longer to get off on their own than we planned. Maybe they haven came back home, and maybe they have their own kids now. Those mortgages we planned to pay off are still there because we moved or took out another loan to cover some expenses. And job losses or other problems meant that our savings just never really grew like we thought they would.
How did we get to this point without any life insurance then? Some of us, thankfully, outlived our life insurance policy. It expired. Others thought they were taken care of by a group policy, but then left that job and lost it. A lot of us had coverage, but do not have it any more.
Who buys life insuramce after 50? People have different reasons for wanting a policy. You must understand your options, what different insurance can do for you, and then you will be able to buy the right coverage for you.
If a person is sure they just want coverage, they may consider another term policy. It will probably be much cheaper than whole life. A middle aged person, or even a younger senior, may still find affordable term life. These lower premiums are important to consider.
If you are sure you want term now, you may look for a policy you can convert to whole life later. This gives you the benefit of buying lower priced coverage today, but also being able to change your mind in a few years if things change. You should not have to answer more health questions to convert the policy. Since none of us are totally sure how things will be in 10 or 20 years, this is a good feature to have.
If you want to use your policy to build an asset for yourself, or for your family, you probably want to consider whole life. After time, it can build a cash value which can be handy. You could use it to borrow against, cash in, or in a life settlement transaction. In any case, you will have lifetime coverage.
You probably want to compare premiums too. No policy will do you any good if you cannot pay for it. A financial or insurance professional should be able to help you explore your options. They should be willing to listen to your needs, and then offer you alternatives.
We can even help you find Term for Old people. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
Posted by Mark Alter under
Insurance |
Tags: baby boomers, elder care, Estate planning, finance, financial planning, Insurance, life insurance, over 50, seniors, term life insurance, whole life insurance |
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