Are you too old for life insurance?

At some point, the term life policy may not make sense.

You often hear that the more you apply for life insurance and the younger you are, the more affordable your premiums should be. You may also have a greater need for life insurance when you are younger.

Let’s say you’re in your 30s with your husband and two young children, and you’re the sole breadwinner in your family. In this scenario, if you died suddenly, you would undoubtedly leave your family in financial trouble.

Your need for life insurance may not be as urgent once you reach your fifties or sixties. At this point, your children may have grown up and moved out of the house, leaving you with fewer people to support.

But you may get to a point later in life when you decide you first want to put life insurance in place. Life insurance can be a much more affordable option than whole life insurance, because it only covers you for a predetermined period of time and does not accumulate cash value.

But is there such a thing as advanced age in life insurance? Or you can apply at any age?

Your age matters

It is possible to apply for life insurance at an older age. But you may struggle to do so depending on your age.

Insure.com says that most life insurance companies will not sell the policy to applicants over the age of 75. And if you’re over 60, you may be able to get a short-term insurance policy, but you may have a hard time finding an insurance company to write you a 20- or 30-year policy.

See, life insurance companies try to limit your risk. Writing a 20-year life insurance policy for someone at 65 or 70 could mean the ease of paying it off. There is a higher chance of death benefit being paid in this scenario than in an applicant in their 30s or 40s.

Even if you can find a life insurance company that will write you a term life insurance policy at a later age, you may face very expensive premiums in return. And at this point, you may be better off wasting the money in a savings or investment account for beneficiaries than paying for a life insurance policy.

What about whole life insurance?

Just as you can pay more for life insurance if you apply at a later age, you are also likely to pay more for whole life insurance. However, the difference is that whole life insurance tends to be more expensive to begin with, so you may find that the cost is quite prohibitive.

However, whole life insurance covers you for the rest of your life. If you are 70 and can only get an insurance company to write you a 10-year policy, you may decide to opt for whole life insurance if you want coverage that will continue beyond that point.

Finally, your options for purchasing life insurance become more limited as you get older. So it’s a good idea to consider taking out life insurance at a younger age. And if you’re really older—for example, or approaching retirement age—you may want to consider whether you really need life insurance in the first place.

If you’re concerned about your loved ones having to bear the cost of the funeral and final expenses, you can always set aside money from your savings or Social Security benefits for this. And you may find that doing so makes more financial sense than paying for life insurance.