As your parents age, you might adopt more caregiving responsibilities, like tidying their homes, taking them to doctors’ appointments, or helping them manage their finances. It can be difficult juggling new financial responsibilities while also planning for your parent’s futures. Fortunately, a life insurance policy can help, even if your parents are in their 80s. If they have trouble navigating the process on their own, you can get a life insurance policy for them. Discussing life insurance can be difficult, but it can assuage your worries about the future so you and your parents can enjoy this phase of your lives together.

Can you get life insurance for older parents?

You can take out life insurance policies on your parents’ behalf as long as you have their consent. Senior life insurance can offer financial protection well into your parents’ 80s.

Before you decide on a life insurance plan for your parents, make sure you’ve talked to them extensively. Ask about their financial situations, savings, plans for the future, and end-of-life wishes. It’s also essential to ensure they understand how their policies will work and have given you consent to purchase them. These conversations are never easy, but they’re critical for ensuring you get a policy that meets their needs.

To buy life insurance for your elderly parents, you’ll have to show proof of insurable interest. That means you must demonstrate that your parents’ deaths would impact your finances. Of course, if you depend on your parents’ income at all, you have an insurable interest. But some other examples might not be as obvious.

For instance, if you cosigned a loan for your father so he could buy a more accessible car, you have an insurable interest because you’d inherit that loan if he passes away. In fact, if any of your parent’s financial responsibilities, like a mortgage or caring for a dependent, will fall into your lap when they’re gone, you have insurable interest and can buy life insurance coverage for your parents.

Why should you consider a life insurance policy for your elderly parents? 

You’ve likely seen your parents’ needs and priorities change as they grow older. Maybe they’ve slowed down or shifted focus from working and taking care of you to spending meaningful time with you and caring for their health. Their financial needs have likely changed too. A life insurance policy can help your parents plan for the future, whatever it brings.

Cover the cost of end-of-life care

As your parents grow older, their medical needs may become more intensive. They might need in-home care to help them live independently, or they may need to move into an assisted living facility. Some permanent life insurance policies can help you afford these resources when you need them. Permanent life insurance accumulates cash value that your parents can borrow from during their lives to pay for medical care or emergencies. You can also purchase riders with some policies that offer coverage for long-term care.

Pay remaining debts

After your parents pass away, you or other family members could, unfortunately, inherit some of their debts, especially if anyone has joint accounts with them. Even if no one inherits the debt directly, outstanding unpaid loans typically come out of the deceased’s estate. The payout from a life insurance policy could cover any remaining bills, so you and your loved ones don’t have to worry about them.

Cover final expenses

Funerals, celebrations of life, and other memorial services bring comfort and healing when you lose someone as dear as a parent. However, final expenses often come at a very high price, with funerals costing around $9,000 on average in the United States. You and your loved ones might struggle to cover the cost, adding stress during an already painful time. Life insurance can cover not only funerals but also all the expenses that emerge when someone passes away, including burial costs, travel for family members, and reception expenses. The death benefit can even cover estate taxes, which could otherwise eat away at your parents’ estates, and in turn, your inheritance.

Help elderly parents leave a legacy

Your parents may want to continue caring for their children or grandchildren after they’re gone by leaving a financial legacy. While inheritance funds through a traditional estate are subject to taxes, life insurance death benefits are not. Your parents can leave their beneficiaries with funds for college, a mortgage, travel, and more. They can also choose a nonprofit close to their hearts as a beneficiary and donate their death benefits.

Choosing a life insurance policy

It’s a misconception that older adults can’t receive life insurance coverage. You can choose from an array of policy types to suit your parents’ needs and their budget.

Term life

Term life insurance offers substantial coverage for a period you and your parents can choose before applying. Premiums for term life insurance are usually lower than permanent life plans for the same amount of coverage.

Fidelity Life offers older adults between 50 and 70 RAPIDecision® Senior Life Term policies. You can choose between 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year plans. After the term ends, your parents can renew coverage as needed up to age 95 without reapplying, so premiums only increase based on age requirements.

Fidelity Life offers term life policies specifically for seniors. However, the maximum age for a term policy is 70, so you should look into different plans for older parents.

Whole life 

Whole life insurance is a type of permanent policy, meaning coverage continues through the end of one’s life. Whole life policies accrue cash value over time through a portion of your premium payments. Your parents can borrow from that cash value during their lives to cover sudden medical expenses or other emergencies. Any amount not repaid comes out of the death benefit.

Fidelity Life’s specialized RAPIDecision® Senior Whole Life insurance is available for older adults up to age 85. That makes it a good life insurance policy for elderly parents. With these plans, parents could qualify for up to $150,000 in coverage, depending on age and health. Your parents will not have to complete a medical exam to receive senior whole life coverage but will have to answer some medical questions.

Final expense 

Maybe you’d like to get your parents permanent coverage, but they don’t need a big death benefit. If that’s the case, a final expense plan could address their life insurance needs. Final expense policies provide smaller coverage amounts to cover any end-of-life expenses, though beneficiaries can also use them for other expenses.

Fidelity Life’s RAPIDecision® Final Expense policies offer up to $40,000 in coverage. Policy approval is quick, typically taking no more than a few days, and coverage begins right away. The application includes a medical questionnaire but no exam. Because final expense insurance offers a lower death benefit, it’s a more affordable form of permanent insurance than whole life.

Guaranteed issue 

You and your parents may want to avoid health questions altogether if they have complex medical concerns that might disqualify them from coverage. Fortunately, even if that’s the case, they still have a life insurance option. Guaranteed issue policies require no health information — as long as your parents meet the policies’ age requirements, they should qualify.

Fidelity Life offers RAPIDecision® Guaranteed Issue coverage to seniors between 50 and 85. They can receive up to $25,000 in coverage to alleviate debts and end-of-life costs after they pass away. Full coverage begins after three years, but partial coverage starts immediately.

How to buy life insurance for elderly parents 

Now that you’ve done some preliminary research, having a conversation with your parents is the next step in buying them life insurance. It’s important to make sure they consent to a life insurance policy and that you understand their wishes and specific financial circumstances.

Next, you can select specific plans for each parent, as their individual circumstances might differ. The following questions can give you a starting point:

• What are your parents’ incomes, and how will they change?
• What ongoing expenses, like mortgages, do they still pay?
• What are their funeral and burial wishes?
• Does anyone depend on their income?
• Will they leave behind any debts?
• Do they plan on leaving an inheritance?

You’ll also have to determine one or more beneficiaries, like you and your siblings, grandchildren, other loved ones, or even nonprofits.

Finally, make sure you or your parents make monthly premium payments to keep the policy active. Missed payments can lead to a lapsed policy, so it’s important to stay on top of them.

Life insurance for older parents can be complex, and it’s never easy to talk to people you love about end-of-life financial planning. Fidelity Life can help you throughout the process. Reach out to one of our licensed insurance agents via phone or get a quote online to get started.