Burial insurance is an excellent option if you want to seek to protect your family from the event of an unexpected death. It is a form of life insurance which gives you a limited amount of coverage typically ranging between $2,000 to $25,000. It covers costs associated with your burial from the casket you want to be buried in, the service you want to be rendered to you by the funeral home, the place you wanted to be buried in, and even your headstone, among others. This money is intended as a last resort in relation to the other life insurance policies on offer.
People usually opt for burial insurance when they don’t need a larger form of death benefit. Burial insurance usually costs less than other insurance policies. Moreover, it is the only insurance policy that covers new applicants at 85 years old. With that said, burial insurance may be the only form of life insurance an applicant qualifies to. Anyone from an early age to 85 years old can be covered by some insurance companies.
Burial insurance plans can include excess money in the payout to whomever the insured will give it to that can be used for expenses associated with the burial process or for other purposes.
On the other hand, some burial insurance policies offered by other companies typically specify that your beneficiaries are only allowed to use the payout money for cost associated only for your burial. There may be cases that you can take out burial insurance with an insurance company ahead of time. This is called a pre-need contract. This type of contract is not common in all states. It is very important that you always read a preneed contract carefully to make sure you understand each provision before you sign. Every preneed contract should include the following components to protect both you and the insurance company: identification of the seller (which usually means the funeral home), purchaser, and person for whom the contract is purchased; identification of trustee or insurer when applicable; rights and obligations of all parties; complete description of all goods and services purchased and their specific prices; how the contract is to be funded; how substitutions may be made if goods or services are unavailable at time of need; ability-to-transfer agreement or funding to another funeral home; and effect of a change in beneficiaries.
The Difference Between No Waiting Period and Partial Waiting Period Types (or Modified Type) of Burial Insurance Policies
A waiting period refers to an agreement between you and your insurance company that does not go into effect immediately. Instead, there is an amount of time that will have to elapse after the purchase of the agreement before the payout is made. This means you don’t get full access to the death benefits for the first, second, or third year even if you were to die now. The amount of time you have to wait depends on which company you purchased the policy from or is going to be based on how you answered the health questions provided to you.
First, let us share a warning. There are insurance companies that trumpet a guaranteed “no waiting period”. These companies lie just to get you to enter their website. Guaranteed acceptance life insurance is a term used to describe a policy that has no health questions or any medical underwriting. It is also guaranteed that they will always come with a 24-month waiting period.
Partial Waiting Period or Modified Burial Insurance Type:
Partial waiting period or Modified burial insurance type, as the name suggests, means you have to wait. You need to inform your beneficiaries that if you pass away now, they do not get access to your full death benefits. The terms of the payout vary among companies. Depending on the examination results and the company, for example, they might allot 40% of your total death benefit during the first year, and then another 35% during the second year, only allowing your beneficiaries to receive the full death benefit only by the third year.
Some companies might not even give you any coverage for the first two years instead only returning the premiums you paid to your beneficiaries. Interest rates are usually applied if the company decides to do this in the form of 10% of the total premium on top of the premiums paid.
The partial waiting period is applied if you choose not to answer questions or answer questions only about your health when you apply. If you opt to answer just a few questions you don’t have to go into full details regarding your medical situation or histories of addiction. This will give your insurance company something to work with, giving them some idea of what your current situation is and some idea of how quickly you are going to die. But this could be a problem. Answering health questions accurately will help your payout in the future. The insurer has a right to withhold payment if their investigation after your death yielded inaccuracies in your health questionnaire answers.
Some illnesses and conditions may not qualify you for any form of insurance. For instance, if you have been diagnosed by a physician as having AIDS or a life expectancy of 12 months or less, currently bedridden, hospitalized, in a care facility, or receiving hospice care.
No Waiting Period Burial Insurance Type:
This is the preferred option for all funeral funding and burial plans, as it gives you immediate coverage within 100% payout to your beneficiaries of the funds from the day you die. With no waiting period, the insurance company is exposed for a huge amount of risk. Note that they must pay out 100% of your death benefit even if you only had your policy for 1 day. In order for an insurance company to be willing to take this risk, they need to make sure that you are not statistically going to die immediately. If insurance companies don’t filter their applicants, the business model where a payout of tens of thousands of dollars after having collected a few hundred dollars does not make for a good business model.
But companies do offer no waiting period burial insurance. As for the insured, here are the following people this type of burial insurance is best for: People who need immediate life insurance coverage, and people who want life insurance that pays immediately. In fact, in most cases, burial insurance is the only option you will have. If you require immediate life insurance coverage, burial insurance products can provide you with this. There may come a point in your life when you receive a diagnosis that makes you think harder about your own mortality. The next thought that would come is your financial situation now and after you die. Burial insurance could ensure that your loved ones are not burdened with the huge financial requirements of unexpected death and burial. Burial insurance can pay immediately if the insured was able to answer the required health questions and complete the examinations for immediate and higher dollar amounts of coverage.
What Conditions Will Qualify Me For No Waiting Period Burial Insurance?
To qualify for no waiting period burial insurance, you need to make sure you do not have the following conditions that will prohibit you (aside from having AIDS or being in hospice care, for instance, which in those cases may not qualify you for any insurance coverage). If you currently have any of the conditions stated below, then you would have to wait for the full death benefit amount for at least two years:
1. Heart disease, including heart attack, heart surgery, or congestive heart failure
2. Circulatory system disease, including stroke, aneurysm, or been advised to have surgery to improve circulation
3. Cancer, other than basal skin cancer
4. Disease of the lungs, including COPD or emphysema, other than asthma
5. Disease of the liver or kidney, or had an organ transplant
6. Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, organic brain syndrome, or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
7. Alcohol or drug abuse
8. Complications of diabetes, including amputation, diabetic coma, blindness, or kidney disorder
9. Has been advised to have a diagnostic test relating to any of the items above, except for AIDS, for which the results have not yet been received
Note that there are certain illnesses and medical conditions that are not in the list. However, this may not mean they will qualify immediately for the no waiting period burial insurance. Here below is an example:
A 65-year-old woman who just had neuropathy and currently has liver cirrhosis applies for burial insurance. One insurance company stated that if she only had either neuropathy or liver cirrhosis she can qualify for a no waiting burial insurance type. She tried ten more companies and all those companies stated the same thing: despite having either liver cirrhosis and having had neuropathy not being on the list, the combination of these will not qualify her for partial or no waiting period burial insurance type.
To sum it up, the best condition to qualify for the no waiting period type of burial insurance is to get it now or while you do not have any of the medical conditions listed previously. However, if none of the conditions listed above are what you are suffering now, companies still treat combinations of several diseases to qualify you to at least a modified or partial burial insurance type coverage (that is, your beneficiaries can get the full benefit after 12 months of your death). We can make a long list of combinations to cover all possible conditions that will disqualify you from the no waiting list burial insurance type.
Whether you deal with one or multiple health conditions, you need to speak to the Insurance Guy if you want to have a chance of qualifying for a senior or burial life insurance with no waiting period. The Insurance Guy will gather important information about your health to determine what is the best package for you. Remember that, it is our mission to make sure your family is protected from unexpected death. But don’t wait. The earlier you take our insurance policy, the better terms you will get.