Your guide to smarter money moves.

Key takeaways

• Term life insurance is the lowest-cost option and fits time-bound needs. Permanent options, whole life, guaranteed universal life, and guaranteed issue, fit needs that don't have an end date.
• A 20-year, $1,000,000 term policy costs roughly $167 to $234 a month at 50 for a healthy applicant, and rates climb sharply from there, which is why timing the purchase matters⁽³⁾.
• Guaranteed issue and simplified issue policies exist specifically for people who can't qualify for traditional underwriting, usually to cover final expenses.

If you're over 50 and wondering whether life insurance is still worth thinking about, you're not alone in not knowing the answer. According to a Corebridge Financial survey reported by Forbes Advisor, about 24% of Americans believe premiums cost three times more than they really do and that kind of misconception is a big part of why people skip pricing it out⁽¹⁾.

Your need for coverage may have changed, but not necessarily gone away. It might now be tied to a mortgage, a spouse's income, a business, or final expenses instead of young kids. This article covers what the different types of coverage look like at this stage, and what each one is for.

Why the need doesn't just disappear at 50

The classic case for life insurance, replacing income for young kids, tends to fade with age. But a second set of reasons tends to show up right around the same time, and they get less attention.

A second set of reasons tends to show up right around 50, and they get less attention than the classic case. People in this age range are more likely to be carrying a mortgage into their 50s and 60s than earlier generations were at the same age, more likely to have a spouse who depends on their income or pension continuing, and more likely to be thinking seriously about what they'll leave behind, whether that's an inheritance, a paid funeral, or simply the absence of a financial mess.

At the same time, premiums rise every year you wait, and they rise faster in your 50s and 60s than they did in your 30s and 40s.

Some term lengths become harder to find, and a handful of carriers stop issuing new term policies to applicants past a certain age altogether. Health conditions that didn't exist a decade ago such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, or even a joint replacement, may start showing up and affect what rate class you land in. None of that means coverage isn't worth it. It just means the decision has more moving parts than it did the first time around, and the type of policy is just as important as the amount of coverage.

There's also a practical reason to move sooner rather than later if you already know you want coverage. Underwriting outcomes tend to only get harder with time, not easier. A health question that would have been a minor footnote at 52 can become a rate class downgrade at 58, simply because more time has passed for something to show up on a medical record.

If you're leaning toward buying health insurance, the version of you that applies this year is, generally speaking, the healthiest version of you that will ever apply again.

The four types of life insurance, and how they work

Life insurance splits into two broad categories:

1. Term life insurance covers you for a set period
2. Permanent life insurance is designed to last your entire life as long as premiums are paid⁽²⁾

Permanent life insurance further splits into a few common structures. Here's what each one does, what it costs relative to the others, and who it tends to fit.

Term life insurance

Term life insurance covers you for a fixed period, typically 10, 15, or 20 years, and pays a death benefit only if you die during that window⁽²⁾. If the term ends and you're still alive, the policy simply expires. There's no payout, no refund, and usually no coverage left unless you renew at a much higher rate or convert to a permanent policy.

The appeal after 50 is straightforward. It's the cheapest way to buy a substantial amount of coverage, and it matches a specific, time-bound need rather than insuring you forever. For a healthy 50-year-old man, a $1,000,000, 20-year term policy runs about $234 a month, according to 2025 published rate table. The same coverage for a healthy 50-year-old woman runs about $167 a month⁽³⁾. Rates climb fast from there, and the difference between applying at 50 versus 60 is large enough that timing the purchase matters more than almost anything else in this decision.

The tradeoff is that term life insurance doesn't build cash value, and coverage isn't guaranteed to be renewable at an affordable rate once the term ends. It's designed to solve a problem with an expiration date, not to be a permanent piece of your estate.

Best for: Someone with a specific, time-bound obligation, a mortgage with years left on it, an income gap that closes once a pension or Social Security kicks in, or a set number of years until a spouse is financially independent.

Permanent life insurance is any policy designed to last your entire life instead of a fixed term, and breaks down into 3 categories.

Whole life insurance

Whole life insurance is permanent coverage. It lasts your entire life as long as you keep paying, the premium is generally fixed for life, and part of each payment builds cash value you can borrow against or, in some cases, withdraw⁽²⁾. The death benefit and premium are guaranteed at issue, which is part of what makes whole life the most predictable form of permanent coverage.

That predictability comes at a real cost. For a $250,000 policy at age 50, Forbes Advisor's own rate research puts whole life at roughly $382 a month for a healthy man and $340 for a healthy woman, well above what the same person would pay for term coverage⁽⁸⁾. For someone in their 50s buying a modest policy purely to cover final expenses or leave a small legacy, that cost can still make sense. For someone trying to replace a large amount of income for a limited number of years, it usually doesn't.

Best for: Someone with a permanent need, funding a bequest, covering estate costs, or providing for a dependent with lifelong needs, who wants a guaranteed premium and a guaranteed death benefit and is comfortable paying more for that certainty.

Guaranteed universal life

Guaranteed universal life sits between term and whole life. Like whole life, it's designed to last your entire life, often illustrated to a specific age like 90, 95, or 121, and the death benefit is guaranteed as long as you pay the required premium.

Unlike whole life, it typically builds little to no cash value, because the pricing is designed around the guarantee rather than around an investment component.

Giving up the cash value feature in exchange for a lower guaranteed premium is what makes guaranteed universal life attractive to people who want permanent coverage without paying whole life prices. Universal life products as a category, which includes guaranteed universal life along with other variants, run cheaper than whole life. Forbes Advisor's rate research puts universal life at roughly $220 a month for a healthy 50-year-old man and $196 for a healthy woman on a $250,000 policy, compared to $382 and $340 for whole life at the same age and amount⁽⁸⁾. Guaranteed universal life specifically tends to sit toward the lower end of that range, since it's priced around the guarantee rather than around cash value growth, but get a specific quote rather than assuming a single number applies to every universal life variant.

It's worth being specific about one thing when comparing any universal life illustration. Only the guaranteed elements such as the premium, the guaranteed death benefit, and the guaranteed values, are locked in at issue. Any non-guaranteed projection shown alongside them isn't promised and can perform differently than illustrated⁽⁴⁾. If a policy is pitched to you with a friendlier-looking non-guaranteed column, ask specifically what's guaranteed and price the policy off that number.

Best for: Someone who wants lifetime coverage and a locked-in premium, without needing the cash value feature whole life provides, often for estate liquidity or a final expense guarantee that has to hold regardless of how long you live.

Guaranteed issue and final expense policies

Guaranteed issue and simplified issue policies are smaller permanent policies, usually $5,000 to $25,000 in coverage, designed for people who can't easily qualify for traditional underwriting because of age or health history. Guaranteed issue means there's no medical exam and no health questions at all. Simplified issue means there are a handful of health questions but no exam. Both usually come with a graded death benefit for the first two to three years, meaning if you die of natural causes during that window, beneficiaries receive a refund of premiums plus interest rather than the full face amount.

These policies exist to solve one specific problem, final expenses. The National Funeral Directors Association's (NFDA) most recent complete price study put the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial at $8,300, and a funeral with viewing and cremation at $6,280⁽⁵⁾. Those figures don't include a cemetery plot, a vault, a headstone, or a reception, all of which push the real number higher. A modest guaranteed issue policy is designed to cover exactly that and nothing more.

The cost per dollar of coverage on these policies is high compared to term or even whole life, because the insurer is accepting risk with little to no health information. That's the tradeoff, guaranteed acceptance in exchange for a higher price and a smaller face amount.

Best for: Someone who has been declined for traditional coverage, has a serious health condition, or simply wants a small, no-hassle policy dedicated to funeral and final expense costs rather than income replacement.

Can you convert a term policy into permanent coverage?

Many term policies include a conversion privilege, letting you convert some or all of the coverage into a permanent policy, usually whole life or guaranteed universal life, without a new medical exam. This matters most if your health changes during the term. Someone who bought term coverage at 45 and develops a health condition at 58 may not qualify for a new policy at an affordable rate, but if the original term policy has a conversion option still open, they can move into permanent coverage using their health status from years earlier.

Not every term policy offers this, and the ones that do usually cap how long the conversion window stays open, often to a specific age or a set number of years into the term. If preserving that option matters to you, it's worth confirming in writing before you buy, not after you need it.

How the four types compare

When coverage still makes sense after 50

You're carrying a mortgage with years left on it. If a 15-year mortgage balance would be a serious burden for your spouse to cover alone, a term policy sized to that balance and timed to the remaining years is one of the more straightforward reasons to keep or buy coverage.

There's an income difference between you and your spouse. Social Security survivor benefits help, but they don't fully replace a spouse's income if you die before your survivor's full retirement age. A surviving spouse who claims at 60 receives about 71.5 percent of the deceased worker's benefit, rising to 100 percent only at their own survivor full retirement age, which falls between 66 and 67 depending on birth year⁽⁶⁾. If your household depends on both incomes, these are numbers you’ll want to understand, because it can affect your monthly budget.

You want final expenses handled without question. Whether that's a term policy, a small whole life policy, or a guaranteed issue plan depends on your health and budget, but the underlying goal, keeping a funeral bill or medical debt off your family's plate, is a reasonable one at any age.

You have a business partner or a dependent with lifelong needs. If you co-own a business, a buy-sell agreement funded by life insurance lets a surviving partner buy out your share instead of being forced into a partnership with your family or a forced sale of the business. If you have a dependent who will need lifelong financial support, that's also a permanent obligation, not a time-bound one. Both are usually where whole life or guaranteed universal life fits better than term, because the need doesn't have a natural end date the way a mortgage or an income-replacement window does.

You want to leave a clean, tax-advantaged inheritance instead of liquidating assets. For some people in their 50s and 60s, a permanent policy isn't about replacing lost income at all. It's a way to pass on a set amount to heirs without forcing the sale of a house, a business, or an investment account to cover estate costs or simply to divide things evenly among children. That's a legacy and liquidity decision, not a protection decision, and it's worth naming explicitly rather than assuming it applies to you by default.

When it may not make sense

If your mortgage is paid off, your kids are financially independent, and your spouse has enough income or savings to stand on their own, the case for a large new policy gets thin. In that situation, a smaller final expense policy, or no new policy at all, is often the more honest answer than a large term or permanent policy sized for a need that no longer exists.

What are the most common mistakes people make with life insurance after 50?

Relying only on employer-provided coverage. Most group life insurance through work provides basic coverage equal to one to two times your salary, and it typically ends the day your employment does, whether that's a layoff or retirement⁽⁷⁾. If that's your only policy, a job change or retirement can leave you with a coverage gap at exactly the point in life when new coverage costs the most and should be addressed before your employer provided coverage ends.

Assuming you can't qualify because of one health condition. People with diabetes, past cancer treatment, or heart conditions frequently assume they've been priced out entirely, then are surprised to find guaranteed issue or simplified issue options exist specifically for this situation.

Treating the first quote as the market rate. Pricing for applicants over 50 varies more between carriers than it does at younger ages, because each insurer weighs age and health history differently. Two people with nearly identical profiles can get quotes that differ by hundreds of dollars a year for the same coverage.

Buying permanent coverage for a temporary need, or the reverse. A 10-year term policy doesn't help with a permanent final expense goal, and a whole life policy is often more coverage, and more cost, than a purely time-bound need requires. Matching the policy type to the actual timeline of the need is most of the decision.

Letting a policy lapse over a missed payment instead of calling the carrier first. Most policies include a grace period, typically 30 days, before a missed premium causes a lapse. If a payment slips through the cracks, especially on a policy that's been in force for years and may have accumulated cash value, calling the insurer before assuming the coverage is gone can save a policy that would otherwise have to be reapplied for from scratch, at a new age and a new rate.

Pricing across carriers varies more after 50 than at any other age, and the only way to know where you stand is to compare real quotes rather than estimate from a single source.

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Whether you're looking to help protect a mortgage, help cover future tuition costs, or simply give your family peace of mind, Ethos lets you customize your coverage and term length to fit your life, and your budget. It won't replace a full estate plan, but it's a real head start for anyone who's been putting it off.

Learn more about Ethos here.

Nothing in this article constitutes personalized insurance advice. Coverage availability, underwriting requirements, and pricing vary by carrier, state, and individual health history. Contact a licensed insurance professional to review options specific to your situation.

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