There are life insurance products on the market that are guarantee issue.  This means that it is guaranteed that you will be able to get covered by the plan even with health concerns.   This is obviously a good option for clients who have serious health issues and can’t qualify for a regular life insurance plan that is fully underwritten.   If you can qualify for an underwritten product, it will allow you to buy larger amounts of insurance and it will be much more cost effective.   With a guaranteed issue product you can expect to pay at least twice as much and be limited to purchasing about 50,000 in death benefit.   AARP offers a very popular guaranteed issue program.   Often times through group insurance you can get a larger amount of guarantee issue, but 50,000 is usually about the max in the individual market.   The caveat to most guarantee issue life insurance policies, is that they may not pay a death benefit in the first two or three years.  If something were to happen to the insured in the first couple years, the beneficiary would get all premiums paid in, plus interest.  While that is better than a sharp stick in the eye, it obviously provides no leverage in the first couple years.

Typically, we will work with clients on their specific underwriting situation and help them find the carrier (s) that will underwrite there issue the most favorably.   If they can qualify for the fully underwritten product, than we will go with that route.  If not, then we will go to guaranteed issue products and figure out the best fit.   Some clients don’t want to take the medical exam and we have options for that too.  This is more expensive than underwritten, but it is available.