What Are The Best Over 70 Life Insurance Policies?

Are you over 70 years old and wondering if you should subscribe to a life insurance plan?

You’ve come to the right place!

In this guide, we will explain everything you need to know about life insurance for the over 70: which cover you should get, what life insurance terms you should pay attention to, etc.

Stay tuned!

What is over 70s life insurance?

As simple as the name suggests, over 70s life insurance is a specialized life insurance for people who are more than 70 years old.

This allows you to protect your family and loved ones, leaving them with an amount of money that keeps them secure. This can include funeral costs and other expenses.

This is different from a standard life insurance policy.

How do over 70 life insurance plans work?

Over 70s life insurance is a whole-of-life insurance policy.The idea is to pay your life insurance with monthly installments. The day you pass away, it pays out a lump sum to pay different expenses, such as your funeral. You can also leave a sum of money to your loved ones.

This table summarises the key points to know before taking out an over 70 life insurance policy:

Over 70 life insurance policy terms	Over 70 life insurance general conditions
Fixed premium over 70 life insurance policy	The premium to pay is fixed, meaning that you can choose the amount you want to pay monthly to suit your budget and to guarantee a minimum protection. You can find life insurance starting from £10 to £50 per month.
No medical condition required when taking out an over 70 life insurance policy	A good point to bear in mind when taking out an over 70 life insurance policy is that you don’t have to fill out medical conditions to be able to subscribe to over 70 life insurance. In fact, you don’t even have to pass a medical exam.
Fixed lump sum	Usually, life insurance for over 70s pays out a fixed amount between £20000 and £30000. It is possible that you pay more for your life insurance policy than you will receive at the end. This is a risk, and you can’t really know the right answer.
Over 70 life insurance policy requiring a minimum payment	Indeed, you must pay a monthly payment during a given time to be able to benefit from this insurance. If you pass away before this given time, usually one or two years, the full sum won’t be released. Your loved ones will recover the equivalent that you have already paid.

What else should I know when taking out over 70 life insurance?

There are also secondary points to know when subscribing to an over 70 life insurance policy:

Your premium depends on your age: the older you are, the higher your premium will be for the same pay-out.

• Free cover from a certain age depending on insurance companies, usually after 90 years old.
• You can choose a flexible over 70 life insurance policy, meaning that your premium will be reduced if you are in financial difficulty.
• Life insurance has no financial value: once you start paying your life insurance, it’s wise to continue, because it has no cash value and you would have paid your premium for nothing.
• Never miss a monthly premium: when you miss a payment, you may no longer be covered.

What is covered by my over 70 life insurance policy?

Your loved ones will receive a cash sum that can help towards:

• Funeral expenses
• A gift to loved-ones
• Unpaid bills, mortgages

Your insurance can’t say anything about the way your relatives spend this money.

You can also have the following benefits when taking life insurance over 70:

• Accidental benefit: almost every provider proposes this feature. If an accident happens to you within the first year or second year (if it is two years before you get totally covered), your relatives will receive the cash sum.
• Funeral expenses: this is a free service. It means that the money will go directly to a funeral director. It is approximately 10% of the cash sum.
• Insurance companies also offer welcome gifts.

In this table, you can see the best over 70 life insurance policies with a free gift and insurance companies who offer free funeral expenses services.

Insurance companies	Funeral expenses contribution	Over 70 life insurance with free gift
	£300	£100
	£250	£110
	No	£50
	£300	£100 Gift
	£300	£85 gift card
	£300	£50
	£300	£30 gift card
	£300	£75 gift card

What are the best over 70 life insurance?

Here are the best over 70 life insurance plans and their main features:

Insurance companies	Time insured before receiving lump sum	Monthly payment	Total pay-out	Free cover
	One year fully insured	No flexible payment Minimum payment £5 Up to £100	Up to schedule	Yes
	One year fully insured	Flexible payment. You can reduce your monthly payment £3.95 minimum payment Up to £100	£10000 max	90 years old
	One year fully insured	Flexible payment: You can reduce your monthly premium (once, and this is permanent) £3.70 minimum Up to £74 max	Not stated	No
	One year fully insured	Flexible payment: no From £7 minimum	Not stated	90 years old
	One year fully insured	Flexible payment: yes (reduce cover to reduce your payment) From £7 minimum Up to £100	£10000 max	90 years old
	One year fully insured	Flexible payment: Yes, flexible, but after a year and reducing to the minimum cover From £5 Up to £75	£10000 max	90 years old
	Two years fully insured	Flexible payment: Flexibility to reduce premium at any time (not under the minimum £10) From £10 Up to £50	Not stated	Premiums can be stopped after 30 years – so it can be 80 years old
	After two years fully insured	Flexible payment: Flexibility to claim 20% of the cover if you become seriously ill From £8 a month Up to £75 a month	Not stated	90 years old
	Not stated	From £3.72 a month minimum	£10000	95 years old

How much is over 70s life insurance?

How much you will pay for your over 70 life insurance policy depends on a lot of factors:

• Your age
• How much cover your want
• Some insurers will ask if you are a smoker or not.

The older you are, the more you will pay monthly. A minimum monthly premium is offered by AXA SunLife’s life insurance, of £3.70 per month, and the maximum payment is £100, offered by Aviva’s life insurance and Royal London life insurance, among others.

Here is an example for AXA’s life insurance of how much the policy can pay out:

Age	Total pay-out with £10 monthly payment	Total pay-out with £30 monthly payment
50 years old	£2855	£9150
55 years old	£2526	£8077
60 years old	£2198	£7004
65 years old	£1870	£5930
70 years old	£1532,5	£4864,5
75 years old	£1195	£3799
80 years old	£857	£2733,5
85 years old	£520	£1670

Usually, senior over 70 life insurance plans last until you pass away, but you must pay your monthly premium. If you don’t, you no longer have life insurance, even if you have paid your premium for your whole life. This system is quite hard for people who have cash flow problems for a month or two, so be sure you can pay your premium in the long term.

Is over 70s life insurance different than standard life insurance?

Yes, over 70s life insurance is different than standard life insurance because:

• Over senior over 70 life insurance policies, the monthly premium and your age will define how much your pay-out will be.

• Standard life insurance: the premium is calculated by your age, your medical condition and your lifestyle.

What are the alternatives to over 70s life insurance?

There are other types of insurance that can be worthwhile for over as:

• Critical illness insurance: this insurance pays you a cash sum if you are diagnosed with cancer, or certain other critical diseases.
• Terminal illness insurance: if you have a life expectancy of no more than 12 months, you can claim your life insurance early.
• Income protection insurance: pays a monthly sum if you are unable to work because of a disease, illness, injury or unemployment.

What happens if I miss one payment of my over 70s life insurance?

If you stop paying your premium, your over 70 life insurance policy will be cancelled. This table summarises providers’ policies on late premium payments:

Providers	Cancellation of your over 70 life insurance
	After 60 days without paying your premiums, your policy will be cancelled.
	If you stop making your payments before you're halfway through your payment term, your insurance will end and you'll get nothing back. If you stop after the halfway point, your family will get some money when you die.
	You won’t be insured anymore.
	You’ll have 60 days starting from the date of the missed payment to pay it.
	Legal & General, after 30 days, your policy will be cancelled.
	Plan cancelled if two successive premiums are not paid.
	60-day grace Period. After this your policy will be cancelled.

What is usually not included in over 70s life insurance?

There are a few elements that are not covered by your over 70s life insurance, such as:

• You are not covered within the first or two years of the policy if you die from another cause than an accident.
• No cash in value: only pays out on your death.
• No joint account: usually you can have one each.

Can I cancel my over 70 life insurance policy?

From the moment you subscribe to an over 70 life insurance policy, you will receive a “right to change your mind” form. This means that you have 30 days to decide if you want to cancel your over 70 life insurance policy.

After this, it's too late. You can stop paying for your over 70 life insurance policy, but because you won’t get a refund and you won’t be covered anymore, your payments will have been for nothing.

Is taking out an over 70 life insurance policy worth it?

At Safe, we studied whether it is a good idea or not to take out an over 70 life insurance policy. We’ve compiled a list of pros and cons that summarise this article: