Benefit Information For Tennessee Citizens Only

You may qualify for a state-regulated program to pay for your final expenses. It is important you know how to qualify for this life insurance benefit available to you. This benefit will pay for 100% of all funeral expenses up to $35,000. This payment is tax free for Tennessee residents. You are entitled to receive no-cost information as a resident of Tennessee. IMPORTANT – Return this postage paid card within 5 days.

You or one of your senior parents may have received one of these post cards in the mail. It’s not a scam. It may have come from one of many outreach programs this site and many others like it use to reach senior citizens here in the great State of Tennessee that need state regulated final expense life insurance programs and burial plans.

Many seniors that receive these cards do not have a dedicated amount of money that can be used to pay for their funeral or final expenses. It’s possible they’ve recently checked into the pricing on what they currently have and want to see if they can find more benefits than what they currently have in place. Or they might want to leave behind a legacy like income for a surviving spouse, money for grandkids, or to a charitable organization or church.

These programs have the following guarantees

1. First Day Coverage. You are fully protected the very first day your coverage goes into effect with no exclusions and no waiting period.
2. Ease of issue. No physical exams.
3. Your premiums will never go up. Lock into a rate at your current age and the cost will never increase regardless of changes to your health and age.
4. You benefits will never go down. Regardless of changes to your health and age.
5. All programs build cash values.
6. The benefit is paid to your beneficiary tax free on the worst week of their life.
7. Your policy can never be cancelled as long as premium payments are made.
8. This is a protected asset that you will never be forced to liquidate.

Seniors looking for state regulated final expense life insurance and burial plans often have medical impairments and conditions that may raise the cost of these benefits. There’s a lot of work to keep track of these medical impairments and conditions and knowing where the sweet spots are to find seniors the most death benefits for the amount of money spent.

Helping Seniors Watch Increase Their Death Benefits from Mail-order Plans

When we sit down and look at the life insurance policies seniors have in place, most are shocked to find their payments go up and their coverage expires when they need it most. Many seniors are placed on modified plans with a 2 year waiting period before their family would be eligible to receive a full death benefit, even when their health clearly qualifies them for first day coverage.

As a general rule, any policy bought through the mail or sold directly to the consumer has gimmicks built inside the fine print. We review these policies with seniors and show them how they can increase the amount of death benefits for the same amount of money spent. In most cases this review results in finding an increase in death benefits.
Here’s a review of some common offers that we hear about as we visit seniors and go through the information companies send out.
We typically see mail-order life insurance products from:

New York Life – AARP

Globe Life

Stonebridge Life Insurance

AARP Life Insurance Program

Group whole and term life coverage plans for AARP members to help protect your loved ones.

AARP selected New York Life Insurance Company to develop a group life insurance program specifically designed to help AARP members protect their families. The program offers whole and term life insurance coverage that feature affordable premiums and valuable benefits designed for people age 50 and older. Coverage is available in a wide range of amounts—from $2,500 up to $100,000.

AARP members age 50-80 and their spouses age 45-80 are eligible to apply. No medical exam is required to qualify for coverage. For most products, acceptance is based on your health information. You can apply online or by mail in just minutes. And if you’re not already an AARP member, it’s easy to join and apply at the same time.
We find that many seniors have signed up for Life Insurance through the mail from AARP. There are a couple different types of plans. AARP sells for New York Life. This is the most popular mail order life insurance offer by far.

During a visit with seniors with this plan it’s good to review the policy and go through the contract. In some cases the owner of the policy thinks they own a whole-life policy, when the fine print describes something different. What they really have is a term life plan that raises their premium every 5 years. Their premiums increase when their age ends with a 0 or a 5. (when they turn 55, 60, 65, 70, etc.) The premiums will go up in the policy anniversary month not their birthday month. Some products offered by AARP ends when they reach their 80th birthday. In that case all the money they paid into the policy is lost.

If you have one of these policies where the price has gone up as you’ve reached one of these age bands, take a look at a modest final expense whole life policy that will provide permanent protection for your family with payments that never increase.

Globe Life

Globe Life sells an increasing premium term policy to age 90 directly to the public mainly through direct mail. The rates increase every time the insured has a birthday that ends with a 1 or a 6. In the case of a policy like this the coverage simply ends at age 90 with no cash value. All money paid into the policy is lost.
Smokers and non-smokers pay the same rates with this Globe plan.

It’s helpful to review the application and double check to make sure you medically qualify for 1st day coverage. Some policies like this do not accept individuals who were treated (including medicines) for any form of cancer, any disorder or disease of the heart or coronary artery disease, kidney disease, COPD, and some other described conditions going back 3-years from the application date. It’s helpful to review these applications to ensure you know the status of your coverage and when it ends.

Stonebridge (Direct to Consumer) Life Insurance

Stonebridge Life offers Guaranteed Issue policies sold by mail and telemarketers directly to consumers. They are two year ROP (return of premium) regardless of health. That means some people who are healthy enough to qualify for whole life coverage might have been sold a two-year graded policy. Without a review by an Independent Life Insurance Agent a consumer might not understand this feature. A review of the policies in force might reveal a chance to put a permanent policy in place for the same or at a better rate.

As a general rule, any policy bought through the mail sold directly to the consumer is risky for the consumer. It always helps to have a second set of eyes to help understand what a policy contract says so one can fully understand what kind of coverage is being purchased. Nothing’s worse than someone owning a policy only to find out it’s not the coverage they thought they had. Unfortunately in this case it’s the family and loved ones that get to endure this bad news.

This site and many others throughout the 54 states and territories are in place to help seniors get the most death benefits for the dollar spent. If you have questions about your or your senior parent life insurance policy fill out the quote engine and let us help.

About the Author.

Terry Biddle helps seniors get the most death benefits for their money in Virginia and Washington DC.

You can find out more about how to qualify for simplified issue whole life insurance and articles for various health conditions at http://www.lifepolicyshopper.com/category/benefit-information-for-virginia-citizens-only/