Guaranteed life insurance

Life insurance with no medicals and no health questions. Acceptance is guaranteed for ages 50–85, whatever your health.

Life Cover Quotes editorial team Updated 6 October 2026

General information, not advice. If you ask for quotes, we pass your details to our broker partner, who pays us an introductory fee only.

Guaranteed acceptance for ages 50–85
No medicals
No health questions
From £5 per month*

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For ages 50–85. A broker will call you, usually within 1 hour.

Cover amount

£5,000 £10,000 £15,000 £20,000

Have you smoked in the last 12 months?

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What is guaranteed life insurance?

A woman in her seventies on the phone at home with a notepad

Guaranteed life insurance accepts you without asking about your health. There are no health questions and no medical checks. Most plans are sold as guaranteed over 50s plans, a type of whole of life plan that needs no medical or health information from people over 50.

You pay a fixed monthly premium, and the plan pays a cash lump sum to the people you choose when you die. MoneyHelper says these plans are for people usually aged 50 to 85, and each insurer sets its own limits.

What you give up is cover in the first year or two, and the size of the payout. Plans usually have a waiting period of 12 or 24 months, during which most insurers refund the premiums rather than pay the full amount. The cover is small, too: Legal & General’s maximum, for example, is £10,000 across all your over 50s policies with it.

Guaranteed cover with a health condition

A guaranteed plan doesn’t ask about your health, so a condition you have now or had in the past doesn’t stop you being accepted if you’re aged 50 to 85. Our guide to life insurance with no medical questions explains the difference between no questions and no exam. Each guide below covers one condition: what insurers ask about it and the cover you can get.

Life insurance with medical conditions
Applying for life insurance with a health condition: what to disclose, how underwriting works, the possible outcomes and guides for each condition.
Life insurance after cancer
Getting life insurance during or after cancer treatment, what insurers ask, and what existing cover pays.
Life insurance with a heart condition
Applying for life insurance after a heart attack or stroke, or with heart disease or high blood pressure: what insurers ask and what they may offer.
Life insurance for diabetics
What insurers ask if you have diabetes, how HbA1c and complications shape the terms, and where specialist cover fits in.
Life insurance with type 1 diabetes
Applying for life insurance with type 1 diabetes: what insurers ask, how HbA1c is used, children's cover, critical illness and income protection.
Life insurance and mental health
How insurers treat depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions, what to tell them and where to get support.
Life insurance with epilepsy
What insurers ask about epilepsy, how seizure control affects the terms and your options if you are declined.
Life insurance with MS
Applying for life insurance with multiple sclerosis: what insurers ask, how the type of MS matters and your options if you are declined.
HIV life insurance
Applying for life insurance with HIV: what insurers ask, how treatment and viral load matter, and your rights.
Life insurance for disabled people
Your rights, how insurers assess a disability, applying with support, benefits and payouts, and what to do if you are refused.
Life insurance with a high BMI
How BMI affects life insurance, what insurers' own BMI tables show and your options if you are declined.
Life insurance and alcohol
How insurers ask about alcohol, look at dependency and recovery, and check answers at claim time.
Life insurance for smokers
How smoking and vaping affect cover and the price.

Things to know before you compare

The waiting period

Plans usually give full cover only after an initial period: 12 months at Aviva and 3 years at Assurity. If you die of natural causes before then, most insurers refund the premiums instead.
Accidental death

Every plan in our table below covers an accidental death in full from the start, and some pay more. Post Office pays twice the cover from day one, and Smart pays three times the cover. The definitions are strict: at Legal & General, death must follow within 90 days of the accident.
Cover is capped

Limits are low, and at some insurers they fall with age. Post Office’s maximum is £10,000 at ages 50 to 69 and £6,000 at 75 to 80. Scottish Friendly lets you choose from £2,000 to £20,000.
You could pay in more

If you live a long time, your premiums could add up to more than the payout. Aviva’s quote shows the age at which your premiums would equal the cover amount, where this applies.
Smoking still counts

Most plans ask whether you smoke. At Legal & General, for example, the premium depends on your age and smoker status. Answer correctly: if medical records later show your answer was wrong, Shepherds Friendly reduces the payout to the smoker rate.
No cash-in value

The plans don’t build up a savings value. If you stop paying, your cover ends and you lose what you’ve paid in. The payout stays the same, so rising prices reduce what it’s worth.

Is guaranteed life insurance right for you?

MoneyHelper says an over 50s plan might suit you if you’re in poor health and don’t expect to live long, because there’s no medical check. It still suggests comparing it with regular life insurance first: lots of health conditions are accepted, and even with an existing condition a regular policy may be cheaper.

A 2025 market study found that for healthy customers, a guaranteed over 50s policy cost on average 12% to 22% more than a comparable whole of life policy with health questions. At lower levels of cover, particularly below £4,000, guaranteed policies were on average up to around £23 a year cheaper.

Pros

Acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions or medical checks.
There are few questions: Aviva asks about your date of birth and smoker status.
Your monthly premium is fixed.
An accidental death is covered from day one, and some plans pay double for it.

Cons

A death from natural causes in the first 12 or 24 months usually gets only a refund of premiums.
Cover is low: Legal & General’s maximum is £10,000, and Scottish Friendly’s is £20,000.
You could pay in more than your family gets back.
If you’re healthy, a policy with health questions may cost less.

How to choose a guaranteed plan

Guaranteed plans look alike, but the details differ. These are the points to check. The table below shows most of them for each plan in our reviews.

Whether you can apply at your age. Scottish Friendly takes people up to 74. Some plans have a lower limit for smokers: Assurity accepts smokers up to 75 and non-smokers up to 80.
How much cover you can have at your age. At Smart, the maximum falls from £20,000 at ages 30 to 54 to £6,000 at 75 to 80.
The length of the waiting period, and what’s paid for a death from natural causes during it. Most plans refund the premiums, but Shepherds Friendly pays 150% of them, and Post Office pays 1.5 times.
What counts as an accident. MoneyHelper suggests checking whether a plan covers death caused by drug or alcohol abuse. Aviva doesn’t pay the cover amount for an accidental death in the first 12 months if you’re living outside the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Who provides the plan. Some brands sell another insurer’s plan: Post Office’s is underwritten by Aviva, TSB’s is provided by Legal & General and Smart’s is underwritten by Scottish Friendly. The terms can still differ, so compare each plan on its own.
Whether you can put it in trust. Aviva says its over 50s plan can be. Our page on life insurance in trust explains why that can matter.

When premiums stop is covered on our page about over 50s life insurance.

Insurers that offer guaranteed life insurance

These are the guaranteed acceptance plans in our insurer reviews, listed alphabetically. Select a name to read about the plan in that insurer’s review. “Cover or premium limit” is the most you can take out; some insurers set it as a monthly premium instead of a cover amount.

Insurers that offer guaranteed life insurance
Insurer	Age to apply	What you’re asked	Cover or premium limit	Full cover after	Natural death before then	Accidental death
Assurity Over 50s Whole of Life	50–80 (smokers 50–75)	No health assessment or medical	Premiums up to £100 a month across all your plans	3 years	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
Aviva Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and smoker status; no health questions	Premiums £5–£100 a month across all your plans	12 months	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
British Seniors Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	No health questions; the price depends on smoker status	£1,000–£10,000 (up to £6,000 at 75–80)	12 months	Premiums refunded	Twice the cover, from the start
Co-op Insurance Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance, provided by L&G	50–80	Date of birth and smoking habits; no medical questions	Up to £10,000 across all L&G Over 50s plans	1 year	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start (death within 90 days of the accident)
Legal & General Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance	50–80	No medical questions; the price depends on smoker status	Up to £10,000 across all your plans	1 year	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start (death within 90 days)
National Assurance Simple Over 50s Life Product	50–80 (smokers 50–75)	No health assessment or medical	Up to £20,000	2 years	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
National Friendly Over 50s Life Cover	50–80 (smokers 50–75)	Smoking in the last 12 months, plus 2 optional medical questions	Premiums £10–£100 a month	2 years, or 6 months if you answer the medical questions	Premiums refunded	Twice the cover, from the start (death within 30 days)
NatWest Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and smoker status; no health questions	Premiums £5–£100 a month across all your plans	12 months	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
Post Office Over 50s Life Cover	50–80	No health questions, GP reports or medical exams; the price depends on smoker status	£1,000–£10,000 (up to £6,000 at 75–80)	12 months	1.5 times premiums	Twice the cover, from day one
Royal Bank of Scotland Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and smoker status; no health questions	Premiums £5–£100 a month across all your plans	12 months	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
Sainsbury’s Fixed Plan or Increasing Plan	50–80	Date of birth and recent smoking habits; no medical questions	Up to £10,000 across all your Legal & General plans	1 year	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start (death within 90 days)
Santander Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and smoker status; no health questions	Premiums £5–£100 a month across all your plans	12 months	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
Scottish Friendly My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan	50–74	Only your smoker status	£2,000–£20,000	2 years	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start
Shepherds Friendly Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Your age, whether you smoke and the cover you want	Premiums £10–£50 a month across all your plans	2 years	150% of premiums	Full cover from the start
Smart Insurance Smart Guaranteed Life Insurance	30–80	No questions about your health or medical conditions	£2,000–£20,000 (up to £6,000 at 75–80)	24 months	Premiums refunded	3 times the cover, from the start
TSB Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and recent smoking habits; no medical questions	Up to £10,000 across all your Legal & General plans	1 year	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start (death within 90 days)
Ulster Bank Over 50s Life Insurance	50–80	Date of birth and smoker status; no health questions	Premiums £5–£100 a month across all your plans	12 months	Premiums refunded	Full cover from the start

Listed alphabetically, not ranked. Compiled on 3 October 2026 from each insurer’s published information, checked on 24 September 2026, 25 September 2026 and 3 October 2026. The documents behind each row are listed in our review of that insurer.

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Guaranteed over 50s plans for ages 50–85. Rates are for a non-smoker and subject to individual status — see the examples for ages 50 to 85 at the bottom of this page.

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Compare guaranteed life insurance plans for ages 50–85

Guaranteed acceptance for ages 50–85, with no medicals and no health questions.

Fill in one quick form and a broker will call you to compare plans from a panel of UK insurers. Free quotes, no obligation.

From £5 per month*

Our broker partner Reassured is rated Excellent on Trustpilot (opens in a new tab): 4.8 out of 5 from 105,367 reviews (checked 2 October 2026).***

Over 1 million families helped**

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Guaranteed life insurance questions

Yes. Guaranteed acceptance plans don’t ask about your health or need a medical check. You may be asked only your date of birth and whether you smoke, as at Aviva. In return, the cover is lower and the full amount is paid only after a waiting period, usually 12 or 24 months.

If the death is from natural causes, most plans refund the premiums instead of paying the cover. Shepherds Friendly pays 150% of them. An accidental death is covered from the start: Aviva, for example, pays the full cover amount for an accidental death in the first 12 months.

The amounts are modest. Scottish Friendly and Smart go up to £20,000, and at some insurers the limit falls with age: Post Office’s maximum is £10,000 at ages 50 to 69 and £6,000 at 75 to 80.

You won’t be asked about your health, but you will be asked about your age and usually whether you smoke. Answer carefully. If your smoker status was wrong when you applied, Aviva bases any claim on the correct status, and British Seniors cancels the policy and reissues it on the terms that would have applied. Our page on life insurance for smokers explains how insurers define smoking.

Not to decide whether to accept you: a guaranteed plan asks nothing about your health. Records can be checked when a claim is made: Scottish Friendly can ask for medical records to verify a claim.

Under the Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance, insurers don’t ask for or use the results of predictive genetic tests, except a test for Huntington’s disease when life cover is over £500,000. A guaranteed plan doesn’t ask about your health at all.

Many guaranteed plans cover one person only, such as NatWest’s and Scottish Friendly’s, so you would each need a plan. Some offer joint cover: Smart’s plan can be a joint policy with a partner.

Fill in the short form. A broker partner will usually call you within 1 hour to compare plans from a panel of UK insurers. Outside office hours, this could be the next working day.

This page is for general information only and should not be considered financial advice. The right cover depends on your personal circumstances.