Login or Sign up
Start Now

Life Insurance for Parents

Written by Aaron Pinkston, Thu, Dec 17 2009

Recent Postings

Featured in Alltop The Yakezie Challenge

Topics

 

Thinking about buying life insurance for your parents? There are a few things to consider. You might even want to consider if you need insurance on them at all.

As we move from being a child to an adult, sometimes the roles we play shift. Maybe it’s the increased sense of responsibility that makes us think about our parents and financial responsibilities. Certainly as we grow older and gray hairs start to appear, we can’t help but think about our own parents’ mortality along with our own.

As this shift happens in our life stages, we want to over-prepare for the future. I know for me, nothing quite captures this feeling like John Mayer’s “Stop This Train”. Seriously, my wife just asked me to turn it off before she gets emotional.

Why would your parents need life insurance?

Life insurance for your parents is sometimes on your list of things to look at. Whether you are worried about your own well&endash;being or that of your parents, sometimes life insurance fills an emotional need.

As a quick note, I should point out that most debts cannot be inherited in most states and provinces. If you have specific questions about your situation, nothing will substitute for personalized advice from a professional in your area. Life insurance for your parents only makes sense from a legacy creation, preservation, or emotional need. Still, those can be very real desires.

How do you get life insurance for your parents?

How do you get life insurance for your parents? Well, the short answer is that you don’t. They have to.

You can be the owner and payer of the life policy, if you like. But in order to get insurance, your parents will have to give you permission and complete the application process themselves. The risk the life insurance company is insuring is that of your parents. In order to offer a policy, they must first access risks.

Gone are the days of insuring anybody and everybody without permission. That was never the intent of life insurance companies. There are only a few very rare circumstances this can happen &emdash; and a parent/child relationship is not one of them.

How do I get started?

Still want to get life insurance on your mom or dad? The first step is to get quotes from many competitive insurance agents to compare. You can help them do this easily online.

If you are looking for life insurance with no physical, try searching for policies with a quick turn-around time. For most of these policies, there won’t even be enough time to schedule a visit with a nurse.

But if you want the best deal, try searching for policies that might take a little longer. The policies that take longer often offer more sophisticated underwriting, which usually means they can handle risks of older age easier &emdash; like heart disease, diabetes, and blood pressure.

Also, you may want to experiment by searching for policies with face amounts over $50,000 or $100,000. More companies offer policies above this range. More competition often means lower prices for higher quality. Sometimes more life insurance costs less.

Once you find the right quote for you and your parents, go ahead and apply. Hopefully, you received low-pressure quotes. The application process should be low-pressure too.

I hope your new life policy solves the problems between generations and makes the shifting life roles easier to bear. Whatever your reason for getting life insurance on your parents, whether it’s to preserve their estate, to make sure you can afford the final arrangements they want, or for more emotional reasons, I hope this process is easier for you now and brings you peace.