You know by now that burial insurance is a type of life insurance policy. Typically, life insurance policies only cover one person. While each plan and company is different, typically there’s no family plan for a burial policy. Normally, each burial policy will cover one person.
However, family members or other interested parties can apply for policies for other people on their behalf. Read more about how you can protect your family members with a burial policy by purchasing one on their behalf below.
How Burial Insurance Works
Burial insurance is a small life insurance policy. You purchase a policy and then your beneficiaries receive the policy amount—called the death benefit—upon your passing. Burial insurance policies are generally small, meaning the death benefit is anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000. This keeps the monthly premiums small.
Just like a regular life insurance policy, these burial policies can be used on any costs the family needs covered. People typically use the funds on things like funerals and medical debt. However, the insurance company doesn’t restrict what you can do with these funds.
Purchasing a Plan for Someone Else
You can, in fact, purchase a plan for someone else. However, there are a few requirements to do so. You must be able to demonstrate insurable interest, meaning that you must show the insurance company that you’d be financially impacted by the death of the policyholder. You must also have the consent of the person you’re buying the insurance on. They must also be of sound mind. Depending on what type of plan you’re buying, that person may need to present for medical exams to better evaluate their application.
Benefits of Burial Insurance
Compared to life insurance, there are a few major benefits of burial insurance. First, burial insurance is relatively easy to qualify for compared to life insurance. There are guaranteed issue policies in which people who would normally be excluded due to severe pre-existing conditions are guaranteed to be accepted. The second major advantage of burial insurance is affordability.
For most people, burial insurance is significantly cheaper than a life insurance policy. The last major advantage is that burial insurance doesn’t have a term limit. Some life insurance policies have a limit where they only cover the policyholder until a certain age. If the person lives past that age, the insurance company won’t pay a death benefit. Burial insurance policies have no term limit, so they’ll always pay—regardless of how long the policyholder lives.
The Bottom Line
While most plans only allow one policyholder per policy, family members can still get involved with burial insurance by purchasing a policy on behalf of their loved one with their consent. For more information on how to do so, please contact us at Senior Life Services.
