Insurance is one of the biggest odds games you’ll find outside of Las Vegas and the stock market.
People buy insurance so that, when bad things happen, they have coverage. No one intends to get into a car wreck, but they still buy auto insurance because they know that sooner or later the chips will fall against them. Read also: Why Seniors Need Life Insurance?
Insurance companies on the other hand are always figuring the odds of whether or not a given customer or potential customer is a risk. For instance, someone with a clean driving record and no parking or speeding tickets can expect lower rates than someone who has similar characteristics, but whom has gotten DUI arrests and who has been in accidents previously. Insurance companies charge more for bets they’re more likely to have to pay out on.
Life Insurance Rates for Seniors
That way of doing business explains the life insurance rates for seniors.
Seniors are, by and large, a group that’s more at risk of dying than younger, healthier people. Even seniors that are in good health for their age, and who lead a healthy lifestyle can still expect higher rates of life insurance. While individuals may defy the odds, seniors as a group are still more likely to die. And if they are covered for life insurance, that makes them more likely to represent money the company has to pay out. What Changes The Rates?
It might seem cold to think about it that way, but insurance is a game of odds. An insurance company sets its rates based on the risk factors involved in the individuals applying for insurance coverage. One of those factors is age, but others are;
- Health concerns
- Job and career
- Area of residence
- Personal habits
- Driving record
These are only a handful of things that can play into how much seniors pay for life insurance. All of these factors can, in one way or another, make a senior more or less likely to live longer. And that is what a life insurance company is trying to measure, in the end.
Senior Only Life Insurance Policies
For those seniors that need life insurance policies at rates they can afford, there are companies that offer life insurance policies that are only available to their demographic. These policies may not has as high a payout as policies that are available to younger people, but they offer more than seniors would be able to get with a standard life insurance policy. Of course the more the payoff is, the higher the monthly premiums will be. However, the monthly premium on a senior specific life insurance policy will always be lower than that of a standard one that wasn’t made with seniors in mind.
The Sooner The Better
There is one rule with life insurance for adults that applies strictly to seniors; the sooner the better. The older you get the less and less likely it is that you’ll be surviving what the future brings you, and the more firmly you’ll be wedged into the "higher risk" categories that come with older age. So the sooner you decide to buy your life insurance the lower the rates you can expect to have, and the higher the payout you can get for those rates.
It is important to remember that life insurance, like any kind of insurance, is always cheaper to get when you don’t need it. Once an event has happened that makes you certain you’re going to require it, that’s when it’s usually too late to get the coverage you need. So shop early and shop smart in order to get the best life insurance rates you can as a senior citizen.