Life insurance for over 70s

Yes, you can still buy life insurance in your 70s, but the age limits vary between insurers and types of cover. Your age decides which of the three main types of cover are still open to you.

• Term life insurance runs for a fixed period (the term) and pays a lump sum only if you die within it. Insurers ask about your health, lifestyle, and personal and family medical history to set your cover and price.
• Whole of life insurance pays out whenever you pass away, as long as you keep paying the premiums. Standard policies look at your health: at Aviva, the premium depends on your age, job, health, lifestyle, smoking and the cover amount. They typically cost more than shorter-term policies.
• Over 50s plans are guaranteed whole of life plans, in the ABI's words, usually for ages 50–85, with no health questions or medical checks. You pay a fixed monthly premium for a fixed cash lump sum that doesn't rise with inflation.

MoneyHelper says it's worth comparing an over 50s plan with regular life insurance first. Lots of health conditions are accepted for regular cover, and even with an existing condition, a regular policy may be cheaper.

Being retired doesn't stop you applying. The over 50s plans we checked set conditions on your age and where you live: the UK, or the UK and Isle of Man at Shepherds Friendly. National Friendly also asks whether you smoke. At Legal & General, you must be aged 50 to 80, live in the UK and have spent at least 183 days here in the last tax year.

How long might a policy run? On the ONS period life tables for 2022 to 2024, a man aged 70 has a life expectancy of another 14.97 years (to around 85). A woman has 17.09 years (to around 87). At 75, it's another 11.53 years for men (to around 86 to 87) and 13.27 years for women (to around 88).

These are period life expectancies (averages assuming the death rates of those years apply for the rest of a person's life). They aren't a forecast for any individual.

• Over 50s life insurance: how over 50s plans work
• Life insurance for over 60s: your options in your 60s
• Life insurance for over 80s: what is still available at 80 and over

Yes, up to each insurer's maximum entry age, which runs from 70 to 88 at the insurers we checked. Because each insurer also sets an age by which the policy must end, starting later means a shorter maximum term.

Insurers count age in different ways: Zurich says an age shown as 83 means before your 84th birthday. Age can cap the amount of cover too. At Post Office, the most you can take out is £50,000 at 65 to 69 and £25,000 at 70.

If you add critical illness cover to a life policy, the age limit is lower: 67 at Legal & General and 64 at Beagle Street. At Beagle Street, that cover must also end before the oldest person turns 80.

Regular life cover can be a joint policy or a single one. A joint policy usually costs less than two single policies. It typically pays out on the first death and then ends, while two single policies pay out on each death.

Yes. Underwritten whole of life cover (where the insurer weighs up your health) can start up to 83 at Zurich (single life), 84 at Vitality and 85 at Aviva. It pays out whenever you die, as long as you keep paying, and it's often used for Inheritance Tax planning.

Many policies also include terminal illness benefit, which lets you claim early if you're diagnosed with an illness and your life expectancy is under 12 months.

Aviva and Zurich sell these policies through advisers. The whole of life insurance Aviva sells directly is only for ages 50 to 80.

Joint cover can have different age limits. At Zurich, joint life first event cover pays out on the first person's death or terminal illness, and you can start it up to 69. Joint life second event cover pays out only when both people have died or been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and you can start it up to 83. Either way, the policy pays out once and then ends.

Check whether the premiums are fixed or reviewable. MoneyHelper warns that whole of life premiums are reviewed every five or ten years and can rise until they become unaffordable. It also warns that if you live longer than you expected, you could pay in more than the policy pays out. At Aviva and Zurich, whole of life premiums stay the same unless you choose increasing cover or change the policy.

Life insurance payouts aren't taxed, but they may be added to the value of your estate and be subject to Inheritance Tax. There's normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if your estate is below the £325,000 threshold. MoneyHelper says a policy written in trust isn't counted as part of your estate and can be paid outside probate and Inheritance Tax: see life insurance in trust. To estimate the Inheritance Tax on your own estate, try our whole of life insurance calculator.

• Whole of life insurance: how lifelong cover works
• Life insurance in trust: keeping a payout outside your estate

Yes, with an over 50s plan: there are no health questions or medical checks. These plans are usually for ages 50–85, with guaranteed acceptance. You pay a fixed monthly premium, and the policy pays a cash lump sum to your beneficiaries (the people you choose) when you pass away.

You'll still be asked your age and whether you smoke. Aviva asks for your date of birth and smoker status, and Legal & General for your date of birth and recent smoking habits. MoneyHelper says an over 50s plan might suit you if you're in poor health and don't expect to live long, since there's no medical check.

Can you get life insurance over 75?

Over 75, your choices narrow: Scottish Friendly accepts applicants only up to 74, and National Friendly accepts smokers only up to 75. The most you can choose falls with age too. At Post Office, it's £10,000 at 50 to 69, £9,000 at 70 to 74 and £6,000 at 75 to 80. For what's still available from 80, see life insurance for over 80s.

Waiting periods, when payments stop and joint cover

Every plan in the table has a waiting period (also called a qualifying or deferred period, or moratorium) of one or two years as standard. If you pass away from something other than an accident in that time, Aviva, Legal & General, National Friendly and Scottish Friendly refund the premiums you've paid. Post Office and Shepherds Friendly pay back 1.5 times your premiums (150%).

If an accident causes your death during the waiting period, Aviva, Legal & General, Scottish Friendly and Shepherds Friendly pay the full lump sum. Post Office and National Friendly pay double the cover from day one. Check the conditions. At Legal & General, a first-year accidental death is paid in full only if it happens within 90 days of the accident. National Friendly's double payout needs death within 30 days.

MoneyHelper suggests checking whether a policy covers death caused by drug or alcohol abuse. Aviva's first-year accidental death cover doesn't pay out for deaths caused by alcohol or drug misuse, suicide or intentional self-inflicted injury, a criminal act or hazardous pursuits. It also excludes flying other than as a paying passenger on a commercial airline, and deaths while you're living outside the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Five of the six plans we checked stop taking payments at a set point, and your cover carries on for life. At National Friendly, you keep paying for as long as you live.

• Aviva: after 30 years or at the policy anniversary after your 90th birthday, whichever comes first.
• Legal & General: at age 90.
• Post Office: at the policy anniversary on or after your 95th birthday.
• Scottish Friendly: at the policy anniversary after your 90th birthday, at the latest.
• Shepherds Friendly: after 30 years of payments or at 90, whichever comes first.

Each over 50s policy covers one person. Aviva, Legal & General and National Friendly don't offer joint over 50s policies, so partners take out one each. Post Office's joint plan is two policies, one for each of you, under one master policy number, and it pays out on each death.

• Aviva Over 50s Life Insurance
• Legal & General Over 50s Life Insurance
• Post Office Over 50s Life Cover
• Guaranteed life insurance (ages 50–85): cover with no health questions

There's no set price. Over 50s premiums depend on your age and whether you smoke (at Legal & General, for example). Regular cover also looks at your health, lifestyle, family medical history, the policy length and your job. Premiums vary, so MoneyHelper says it's worth shopping around and comparing quotes.

With an over 50s plan, the older you are when you apply, the more you pay each month for the same payout. At Aviva you pick either a cover amount or a monthly premium, and its June 2025 examples show what £25 a month buys at different ages. Aviva says over half of its over 50s customers pay £30 a month or less (March 2026 figures).

Legal & General's published example shows the same pattern. For a non-smoker paying £25 a month, the cash sum is £7,643 at 50, £6,046 at 60, £3,701 at 70 and £1,893 at 80. Post Office shows it the other way round, with the monthly premium for a fixed £5,000 of cover. A non-smoker starting at 70 pays £39.69 a month, and the chart shows the other ages.

If you're willing to answer lifestyle and medical questions, Legal & General says other products may give you more cover for the same price. A broker can compare several insurers at once. Reassured, the broker we work with, compares quotes from a panel of leading insurers.

• Over 50s life insurance calculator: work out how much cover you might want

Yes. MoneyHelper warns that you might pay more into an over 50s plan over time than your family gets back. The cash sum is fixed, but the payments go on for years: until 90 at Legal & General, for example, and for life at National Friendly.

MoneyHelper says over 50s plans usually aren't considered good value if you start one in your 50s and live to an average age of 80 or more. Starting later doesn't get round this: with a fixed premium, the cover falls as your starting age rises. In Legal & General's example, £25 a month buys £3,701 at 70 but £1,893 at 80.

The plan pays out whenever you die after the waiting period, as long as you keep paying. So if you pass away before your payments add up to the cover amount, your family gets more than you paid in. The ONS averages in the first section show how long people aged 70 and 75 tend to live.

• An Aviva over 50s quote shows the age you'd be when the premiums paid equal the cover amount, if that applies.
• If you cancel or stop paying, you usually lose your cover and everything you've paid in. Aviva cancels the policy 60 days after the last premium was due and doesn't return what you've paid. Legal & General also cancels unpaid plans and pays nothing back.
• Some plans keep part of the cover. Post Office's Protected Benefit still pays at least half the benefit if you stop paying once you're at least halfway through the payments. The halfway point counts the payments due up to the policy anniversary on or after your 95th birthday.
• The payout usually stays the same, so it won't keep up with rising prices. Post Office has an Increasing Benefit Option: each year the cover rises by 3% of the starting amount and the premium by 4.5% of the starting premium.

If the money is for a funeral, you could also save it yourself or buy a pre-paid funeral plan. An over 50s payout often goes towards funeral costs and can pay any funeral director, but your loved ones can spend it however they wish.

MoneyHelper calls putting a little aside each month one straightforward way to save for a funeral. It isn't risk-free: you might pass away before you've saved enough, and funeral costs are likely to rise faster than the interest on your savings. Most banks and building societies will release easy-access cash savings for funeral costs before probate is finalised.

A pre-paid funeral plan is a contract where the provider arranges your funeral in the UK when you die. If you cancel one, you don't lose the money in it as you would with most over 50s plans, though most providers charge a fee of a few hundred pounds.

• Funeral life insurance: life cover to help with funeral costs
• Life insurance or a funeral plan?: how the two compare

1. Decide what the money is for Support for your partner, an Inheritance Tax bill and funeral costs can each need a different type and amount of cover.
2. Compare regular cover first MoneyHelper says it's worth comparing an over 50s plan with regular life insurance, which may be cheaper even with a health condition.
3. Answer health questions carefully On underwritten policies, answer every question truthfully and in full, or the insurer might not pay out on a claim.
4. Check the waiting period and exclusions MoneyHelper suggests checking the waiting period on an over 50s plan and whether it covers death linked to drug or alcohol abuse.
5. Look at when premiums would pass the payout Add up what you'd pay over the years and compare it with the cash sum. An Aviva quote shows the age at which the two would be equal.
6. Think about a trust MoneyHelper says putting a policy in trust can help reduce Inheritance Tax. There are pros and cons, and many insurers offer it when you buy.