Best Life Insurance for Seniors Without Medical Exams in 2024

Plans, Pricing, and Benefits

Highlights

• None of AARP’s life insurance plans require medical exams
• Whole life premiums never increase
• Benefits for term life up to $150,000

If you like the freedom to customize your policy and benefits without going to the doctor, AARP is probably your best option. AARP offers four flexible, affordable plans — Term Life, Permanent Life (i.e. whole life), Permanent Life with Living Benefits, and Guaranteed Acceptance — all with no medical exams. Each plan differs in a few important ways.

AARP’s term life plan automatically expires when you turn 80 (though it can be converted into a whole life plan before it expires). However, you’ll also get access to higher benefits than most other plan types, ranging from $10,000 to $150,000. And while AARP’s term life plan doesn’t require a medical exam, you will have to answer some health questions to ensure eligibility, like comparable plans from Fidelity Life and Globe Life. Rates tend to start lower with term life policies, but they will increase over time.

» Learn More: The best term life insurance for seniors in 2024

Both of AARP’s Permanent Life plans are whole life policies with no expiration date. The standard Permanent Life is available in all 50 states. The Permanent Life with Living Benefits plan, which offers up to half of the benefit amount if chronic care is required during your lifetime, is only available in select states. The standard whole life plan has a maximum benefit of $50,000, while the Living Benefits alternative maximum benefit of $100,000. Like the term life plan, both Permanent Life plans only require applicants to answer a few health-related questions. Unlike the term life plan, Permanent Life premiums are locked for life.

The Guaranteed Issue plan requires no health questions to be accepted, but it comes with a maximum benefit of $25,000, similar to the no-exam plans from Mutual of Omaha. The premium and benefits are guaranteed for life, but benefits are limited during the first two years. While you can get online quotes for most AARP plans, you’ll need to reach out to an agent to get a quote on a Guaranteed Acceptance plan.

To give you an idea of what AARP life insurance costs, we got quotes based on 65-year-old, nonsmoking applicants (male and female) based in Miami, Florida. Here are the results:

Customer Testimonials

Like Mutual of Omaha, AARP’s life insurance via New York Life is frequently praised for their customer service and fast payouts, but criticized for the lack of clarity on certain policy stipulations. For example, a 96-year-old woman in Illinois wanted to cash out her $5,000 life insurance policy to help pay for medical care. Despite having paid $8,803.00 in premiums, AARP would only pay her $4,417.00.

Many policyholders have reported positive experiences with AARP’s life insurance plans. For example, an older man in Iowa passed away and missed his final premium as a result. Despite the missed payment, AARP honored it and paid out the benefit to his beneficiary, which helped the family cover the final expenses. An older woman in North Carolina praised AARP for skipping medical exams and accepting applicants with preexisting conditions.

Plans, Pricing, and Benefits

Highlights

• Depending on your state, term life plans expire when you turn either 80 or 90 years old
• The “$1 for life insurance” only applies to the first month’s premium
• Death benefits are relatively high and can be increased with accidental death riders

Term life insurance is one of Globe Life’s most popular products, as you can get a quote online and choose benefits ranging from $5,000 to a maximum of $100,000. Like AARP, these term plans expire at a specific age, which is 80 or 90, depending on your location. This makes term life a good choice for adults who are younger than 70 and want coverage that will last for at least a decade or two. Even if you’re closing in on 75, you can start out with a term life plan and convert it to a whole life or final expense plan before it expires.

Whole life and final expense, on the other hand, are a little more complicated because you have to apply by mail, which makes it more difficult to get a quote. Unfortunately, Globe Life doesn’t publish the benefit amounts for their final expense plans, but whole life benefits range from $5,000 to $50,000. You can also add an accidental death rider benefit, increasing the benefit amount on a whole life plan by as much as $100,000.

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Even if you ignore the $1 promotion, Globe Life’s premiums are pretty competitive and lower than most other carriers, including AARP and Fidelity Life. We researched average quotes for 65-year-old applicants in Miami and here’s what we found:

Remember that while these prices seem pretty good (especially with the $1 first-month promotion), Globe Life implements automatic premium hikes once every five years. This is not as good as AARP or TruStage, which offer plans that guarantee the same premium for life.

We could also add an accidental death benefit to our Globe Life plan, and here are the quotes we got:

Customer Testimonials

We read through many reviews and came to the consensus that most Globe Life policyholders are happy with their plans, but not always as happy with Globe Life’s customer support. An older woman in California waited 20 minutes just to get a customer representative on the line, only to be put on hold and met with rude responses. A different woman in New Jersey wrote that it took Globe Life five months from the date of her husband’s death to process the claim and issue a check. Despite the back-and-forth she went through, she was ultimately happy that the benefit was paid in full.

One thing that many reviewers like about Globe Life is the simplicity of acquiring a plan with no medical exam. Some reviewers also like the variety of payment options. An older man in New Jersey found that it was very easy to apply for a new policy, and he liked that he could choose to pay monthly, every six months, or once per year.

Plans, Pricing, and Benefits

Highlights

• Term life, whole life, and guaranteed acceptance plans don’t require medical exams
• Simple and fast process for getting quotes online
• As an insurance broker, TruStage offers higher coverage than insurance carriers like Globe Life and Fidelity Life

While TruStage may not win our top spot for offering the most affordable life insurance, they do a great job of keeping things simple and straightforward. There are three plans to choose from: whole life, term life, and guaranteed acceptance. None of these plans require a medical exam, and guaranteed acceptance doesn’t require any health questions. It’s easy to finish the entire process online, which is great when you compare it to carriers like Globe Life, which only lets older adults apply for whole life insurance by mail.

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Like AARP, TruStage offers term life insurance policies that last until the policyholder turns 80. Once again, this may not be ideal for seniors who are already approaching 80, but you can start with a term policy and convert it to whole life or final expense before it expires, like you can with comparable AARP or Globe Life plans.

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To help compare prices, we researched the latest quotes for 65-year-old applicants in Miami. The first table is for female applicants, and doesn’t show all of the options TruStage offered, as there were dozens of benefit amounts to choose from. Instead, here are a few different options at lower, medium, and high price points:

Here are the results we got for male applicants in Miami:

Customer Testimonials

Many reviews commend TruStage for offering various plans without medical exams and for not increasing prices too often (once every five years). Seniors who want more time to plan for premium hikes should consider TruStage, as the increases are not annual or, even worse, seemingly random.

However, not all reviews for TruStage are positive. Many reviewers have complained about the lack of online systems, particularly for payments. Since TruStage offers insurance through different carriers, some policyholders have to pay their premiums the old-fashioned way — with a check sent by snail mail. Some policyholders have even complained that getting TruStage to finalize a claim request can be frustrating and time-consuming.

Plans, Pricing, and Benefits

Highlights

• Benefits up to $25,000 on whole life insurance plans without medical exams
• Applicants can customize their plan based on their budget and desired benefit
• Premiums are not as low as carriers like Globe Life and AARP

Though Mutual of Omaha offers three plan types (whole life, term life, and universal life), whole life insurance is the only one that doesn’t require a medical exam. Whole life is also available to seniors up to age 85 in most states where Mutual of Omaha is offered. We appreciate these high age limits. Plus, it’s easy to customize your plan based on your budget and needs.

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It’s easy to find a life insurance plan to fit your needs on Mutual of Omaha’s website. You just pick your age range and select the features you want, like no premium increases, type of plan, cash value withdrawals, and no medical exams. As you pick different options (including age ranges), the available plans will change. For example, as soon as you choose “No Medical Exams,” you’ll see that whole life insurance is your only option.

We researched premiums for male and female applicants seeking whole life insurance without medical exams in Miami, Florida. While you can choose from 24 different death benefits between $2,000 and $25,000 (in $1,000 increments), here’s a snapshot of what you can expect to pay at a few different intervals:

Mutual of Omaha’s prices are not as competitive as Global Life, but they make it easy to adjust the benefit amount until the premium fits your budget. Since the maximum benefit is $25,000, Mutual of Omaha is best suited for seniors who just want a final expense plan or an affordable plan without any medical exams.

Customer Testimonials

While Mutual of Omaha generally gets positive feedback for their high age limits and plans without medical exams, some customers have felt misinformed about their policies. After reading through dozens of reviews for people who bought whole life policies, we noticed a trend of people thinking that they could get the full cash value if they withdrew after a certain number of years, though many were told much later that they could only cash out the full value at the age of 100.

An 89-year-old woman in North Carolina, for example, reported paying $8,360 on a whole life policy with a death benefit of $5,000. Even though the policy was nearly 30 years old at the time of the withdrawal request, Mutual of Omaha would only pay $4,000 because she was not old enough to qualify for the full amount. This meant the policyholder would get less than half of what they had already paid into it.

Many whole life insurance policyholders have been happy with Mutual of Omaha’s care and service. In fact, we noticed that most of the complaints seem to be a misunderstanding of the fine print on Mutual of Omaha’s whole life insurance policies. Those who are well-informed about their policies typically praise the company for offering fast payouts and friendly customer service. For instance, a senior in Maryland was very happy with how easy it was to acquire a new policy — everything was done after two emails and a brief phone call.

Plans, Pricing, and Benefits

Highlights

• Offers same-day approval and coverage on the first day, even without a medical exam
• Eligible seniors can get the highest benefits with a 10-year term life plan
• Final expense plans are similar to Mutual of Omaha in both benefits and pricing

Similar to Mutual of Omaha’s whole life plans, Fidelity Life’s whole life plans for seniors are essentially low-benefit final expense policies. Nonetheless, we checked out the quotes for 65-year-old applicants in Miami. The first table shows the quoted premiums for female applicants:

Here are the quoted premiums for 65-year-old male applicants in Miami: 

The earlier you apply, the better your chance of qualifying for lower starting premiums and higher benefits. Unlike AARP and Mutual of Omaha, Fidelity Life limits most seniors to final expense plans. For example, the maximum issue age for the RAPIDecision Life policy is 65 and the maximum issue age for the RAPIDecision Senior Life Term policy is 70. This can limit the types of plans older adults can access. That said, if you’re still in your 60s and looking for a term or whole life plan, especially one that will at least cover final expenses, Fidelity Life offers competitive rates. 

Customer Testimonials

Fidelity Life is among the best-reviewed insurance companies on this list. Policyholders and beneficiaries are consistently pleased with Fidelity Life’s customer service team, their variety of policies, and the ability to get life insurance in as little as an hour without a medical exam. 

However, as with any major company, there are some detractors. An older woman in Florida gave negative feedback, citing the long process for getting a death claim approved, even when she provided all the necessary paperwork. An older man in Texas liked the plans available for Fidelity Life, but due to his advanced age, the monthly prices were outside his budget. 

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