Can I Get Whole Life Insurance Without a Medical Exam?

If you’ve started searching for life insurance, you have likely noticed that you will need to get a medical exam for most policies. This gives the insurer some insight on how healthy—or unhealthy—you are. This then affects your policy rate based on how risky it may be for a company to insure you.

Whole life insurance with a medical exam is pretty standard across the board, but it’s not your only option. You have a few options for life insurance without a medical exam if you want to go that route.

Let’s take a look at whole life insurance and a couple of no exam possibilities.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance includes policies that last for the duration of your life. This is different than term life insurance, which is purchased in designated terms, such as 10, 20, or 30 year periods. There are a handful of other differences between the two. It’s good to be familiar with each one and what they entail so that you can make an informed decision.

Whole life insurance is known as permanent life insurance because it is in place for your whole life. It pays the benefit at the time of death. Its cash value accumulates over time as well. This cash value is tax-deferred, which means that it will work in your favor. You will get a guaranteed rate of return on your policy too, which can help you to plan ahead.

With whole life insurance, you can count on fixed premiums and a fixed death benefit. This means that your policy will be predictable over time. You won’t have to do any guessing about what you’ll get out of it. In addition, you will be able to take out loans from your life insurance.

Most whole life insurance policies require a medical exam. This is so that the insurer knows how much of a risk it is to insure you. The medical exam is covered by the insurance company. It usually includes things like height, weight, blood pressure, and more. The insurance company will find out everything that they need to so they can accurately insure you.

As mentioned before, you can get away without a medical exam in some cases. This is helpful if you are uninsurable with an exam. Some people choose a no exam policy for its convenience. Keep in mind that you may still be asked some questions about your health. You simply won’t have to go through a full medical exam. There are a couple of options for this purpose. Next, we’ll go into detail about these no exam policies and see how they may work for you.

2 Types of Whole Life No Exam Policies

There are two main types of whole life policies that don’t require a medical exam. You may want to forgo the exam if you have a serious health condition that may make you uninsurable. For some people, the exam is seen as a waste of time or is simply inconvenient.

In general, it’s a good idea to try to get insured before attempting to get a no exam policy, which costs more money. Some insurance companies won’t insure you if you have a serious health concern, but it’s best to check with a life insurance company before ruling them out completely.

Keep in mind that the policy you choose should be based on your own specific needs. There is no best life insurance company overall. You will have to do your research and think about what’s best for you personally. You should talk to an insurance agent to learn more about each one and to see which will work best for you.

If you decide to go with a no exam policy, these are your options:

Final Expense

A final expense life insurance policy will give you up to $50,000 worth of coverage. In general, most people use this type of life insurance to cover their final expenses. This would include funeral and burial expenses. This insurance won’t give your family a monthly income or a benefit so keep that in mind. They won’t have to worry about having to pay for the funeral though, which can remove a lot of stress.

As mentioned, this is a no exam policy, which means you won’t have to go through with the standard medical exam. You will still have to go through with a background health check. This background health check usually isn’t too intense. There are some requirements, but they aren’t too strict.

Even though you won’t have to deal with an exam, you will still have to meet some requirements in order to get coverage. This is easier than a full medical exam, but it’s still something to keep in mind as you continue your life insurance search. In addition, no exam life insurance policies are pricier than the ones with an exam.

Guaranteed Issue

Your second option is guaranteed issue life insurance. This is another type of whole life insurance that doesn’t require a medical exam. This one doesn’t require a background check like final expense does, but there are some drawbacks.

First, you will have to go through a waiting period of two years. During this two-year period, a claim cannot be paid out. If there is a death within those first two years, an insurance company won’t pay anything. This can put the insured individual’s family in a tough place financially if you don’t have a backup plan.

Next, you should be prepared to pay a bit more for a no exam policy. This is just because the insurance company doesn’t know how risky it is to insure you so they need to charge you enough to cover those risks. Life insurance policies with medical exams are more affordable, but not everyone can be insured with those.

What’s most important about guaranteed issue life insurance is that you are guaranteed coverage no matter what. As the name suggests, you are guaranteed life insurance with this policy. This is ideal if you can’t get coverage with any other policy due to your current health status.

Simplified Issue Not Available

There is another type of no exam life insurance that you might be interested in. This type is called simplified issue life insurance. Unfortunately, it is not available for whole life insurance. You can only get simplified issue life insurance with term life insurance policies. You can get simplified issue life insurance with permanent guaranteed universal life insurance as well.

Simplified issue coverage ranges from $250,000 to $1,000,000. This is a good option for no exam life insurance if you’re willing to get term life or guaranteed universal life instead of whole life. If you’re set on whole life insurance, you’re out of luck with a simplified issue policy.

With simplified issue life insurance, you may be asked a few health questions. As its name suggests, it’s simpler than a full medical exam. This is much quicker than regular life insurance underwriting processes with medical exams.

Companies That Offer Final Expense Coverage

When you’re looking for life insurance companies that offer final expense coverage, it can be helpful to have some examples to reference. We’ve compiled a list of companies that currently offer final expense coverage.

Mutual of Omaha
Transamerica
Illinois Mutual
Foresters Financial
Liberty Bankers Life
American Amicable
Fidelity Life
Gerber
Phoenix Life
Americo
AIG
Settlers Life
United Home Life
Assurity
Royal Neighbors of America
Baltimore Life
Aetna
Sagicor
Oxford
Sentinel Security Life

Companies That Offer Guaranteed Issue

This next list features the companies that will give you guaranteed issue life insurance. This is helpful so that you can narrow your search without wasting time looking for only the companies that offer guaranteed issue.

AAA
Mutual of Omaha
MetLife
AIG
Americo
MassMutual
Vantis Life
Great Western
Colonial Penn
Columbian Financial
Gerber
New York Life
Kemper
Fidelity Life
United Home Life
Physicians Mutual
AARP

Conclusion

You can get whole life insurance without a medical exam, but you should be prepared to pay more. This is simply because, without a medical exam, the insurer doesn’t know how much of a risk it is to insure you. There are plenty of whole life insurance companies that offer final expense and guaranteed issue policies.

Be sure to do your research before you commit to a life insurance policy. This will help you to know exactly what you’re signing up for and what your coverage is like. For best results, you should work with an independent life insurance who can help you out without being biased. They represent multiple companies so they won’t push you to go with a specific one to get a commission or anything.

Ultimately, the final decision about life insurance is up to you and should meet your needs. If you’re uninsurable with a medical exam, it’s a good idea to go through with a no exam policy. Be prepared to pay a little more money though.

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