If you’ve seen the television commercials, or an agent sat at your kitchen table and left you holding a quote, one question matters more than the rest: is this a fair price for what I’m getting? This Lincoln Heritage life insurance review answers that.
Lincoln Heritage is a large, established final expense company, and Funeral Advantage is real coverage from a financially strong insurer. This isn’t a warning article. It’s a straight look at what the policy does, what comes with it, and how to tell whether the number on your quote is competitive with the rest of the burial insurance market for seniors.
RyCo Life Solutions does not sell Lincoln Heritage. RyCo is an independent brokerage, and Lincoln Heritage distributes Funeral Advantage through its own agents, so there is no Funeral Advantage policy we could write for you and no commission we could earn on one. What RyCo Life Solutions can do is show you what the rest of the market charges, so you have something to measure against.
Quick answer: Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage is whole life insurance with no medical exam — eligibility and benefit tier are based on health questions on the application, coverage up to $35,000, and issue ages up to 85. Lincoln Heritage states that premiums never increase and the policy can’t be cancelled as long as you pay, subject to policy terms. It’s backed by an A (Excellent) rating from AM Best — upgraded from A- on July 24, 2025, which many older reviews still haven’t caught up to. Every policy includes membership in the Funeral Consumer Guardian Society, which price-shops funeral homes for your family. For comparison, a $10,000 level-benefit policy from RyCo’s carrier network typically runs about $50 to $75 a month at age 65 and $95 to $140 at age 75 for a non-smoker. Lincoln Heritage agents represent Lincoln Heritage, so seeing a second quote means asking someone else. Funeral Advantage is not sold in New York or Washington. RyCo Life Solutions is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company.
Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage at a Glance
| Policy type | Whole life (final expense) |
| Maximum benefit | Up to $35,000 |
| Medical exam | None — eligibility and benefit tier are based on health questions on the application |
| Maximum issue age | Up to 85 |
| Immediate coverage | Most applicants qualify, according to Lincoln Heritage |
| Modified coverage | Offered to applicants who don’t meet the medical qualifications; limited benefits for non-accidental death in the early years |
| AM Best rating | A (Excellent), stable — upgraded from A- on July 24, 2025 |
| Funeral Consumer Guardian Society | Included with every Funeral Advantage policy, which Lincoln Heritage says is provided at no additional charge to the policyholder |
| Contestability | Two years |
| Where it isn’t sold | New York and Washington |
| Can RyCo sell it? | No — Lincoln Heritage sells through its own agents |
How We Researched This Review
RyCo Life Solutions does not sell Lincoln Heritage. Product details in this review were checked against Lincoln Heritage’s own published Funeral Advantage materials, and financial-strength information was checked directly with AM Best. We did not use competitor-agency estimates for Lincoln Heritage premiums, because those figures are not primary-sourced and don’t agree with each other. The market premium ranges shown further down come from carriers RyCo represents and do not include Lincoln Heritage.
What Is Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage?
Funeral Advantage is whole life insurance underwritten by Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company. Whole life means there’s no term limit and no expiration date. However long you live, the policy stays in force as long as the premium is paid, and Lincoln Heritage states the premium is locked at the day you buy rather than climbing as you age.
The company operates out of Phoenix, Arizona, and its legal home state is Illinois. It’s part of Londen Insurance Group. AM Best has rated it since 1976.
Here are the mechanics that matter:
- Coverage up to $35,000. Most people shopping this market buy somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000. For context, several carriers RyCo represents write up to $50,000 on their level plans.
- No medical exam. You answer health questions on the application. No nurse visit, no blood draw.
- Issue ages up to 85. Lincoln Heritage describes the coverage as accessible to most adults up to age 85.
- The money isn’t restricted. The death benefit goes to your beneficiary and can be used for anything. It isn’t tied to a particular funeral home, which is what separates this from a pre-need plan bought through a funeral director.
- Not sold in New York or Washington. This comes straight from Lincoln Heritage’s own disclosure, and a number of published reviews leave it out.
Does Lincoln Heritage Have a Waiting Period?
It depends which version you qualify for, and this is the part of any final expense policy worth reading twice. Two people can buy what looks like the same policy and own very different things.
Lincoln Heritage says most applicants qualify for full, immediate coverage based on their answers to the health questions. Applicants who don’t meet those medical qualifications may instead be offered modified coverage, which the company describes as providing limited benefits for non-accidental death during the first years of the policy.
In plain English: with immediate coverage, if you pass away in month three, your family receives the full death benefit. With modified coverage, if you pass away from natural causes early in the policy, they receive a limited amount instead. Lincoln Heritage’s published description says limited benefits for non-accidental death during the first years; the exact schedule is set by the policy, so ask to see it in writing.
Neither one is a trick. This kind of tiered underwriting is common across the final expense market, and you can read how the same structure works in our guide to how burial insurance for seniors works. What matters is that the tier you’re offered drives what your family actually receives, and it deserves more attention than the monthly premium does. Ask directly which one you’re being sold, and get the answer in writing before you sign.
Two more contract details, both from Lincoln Heritage’s published disclosure. The policy carries a two-year contestability period. During that window, a claim may be contested if the application contained a material misstatement, subject to the policy and applicable state law. In practice that means an inaccurate health answer can cost your family the benefit. There’s also a two-year suicide exclusion with a refund of premium, shortened to one year in Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, and North Dakota. Both provisions are standard across the industry. Both are good reasons to answer every health question accurately rather than optimistically.
What Lincoln Heritage Does Well
Lincoln Heritage wouldn’t have lasted this long if they didn’t do several things right.
The financial strength is strong, and it just improved. AM Best rates Lincoln Heritage A (Excellent) with a stable outlook. That was an upgrade effective July 24, 2025; the company had been rated A- for the four years before that. If you’re reading a review that still lists them at A-, it hasn’t been updated in over a year. AM Best also lists the company in Financial Size Category VIII, representing $100 million to less than $250 million in adjusted policyholders’ surplus. That is a size classification rather than a claims reserve, and it puts Lincoln Heritage in mid-sized-specialist territory rather than among the giants, which is normal for a company built around one product line.
They pay claims quickly, and speed matters more here than in most insurance. Lincoln Heritage states that benefits are paid within 24 hours of claim approval. Read that precisely: it’s 24 hours from approval, not 24 hours from the death, and the approval step still takes what it takes. Even so, funeral homes generally want payment before services, and a family waiting weeks is a family putting a funeral on a credit card.
Somebody sits down with you. Their agents meet people in person and walk them through it. For a lot of buyers in their seventies and eighties, that isn’t a small thing.
The underwriting is built to be accessible. Lincoln Heritage states that Funeral Advantage accepts 99% of all applicants, including people with pre-existing conditions and people who have been declined elsewhere. That figure is Lincoln Heritage’s own marketing number, not an independently audited one, so treat it as the company’s claim rather than a verified statistic. The underlying point still holds: this is coverage built for people who have been told no before.
The service that comes with the policy is unusual. Some carriers now bundle a funeral-planning or concierge benefit. Lincoln Heritage’s version is the most developed one in this market.
What Is the Funeral Consumer Guardian Society?
Every Funeral Advantage policy includes membership in the Funeral Consumer Guardian Society (FCGS), an organization founded in 2000 by a former funeral director. Buying a Lincoln Heritage policy is the only way to get a membership. FCGS describes itself as an independent consumer advocate organization; worth knowing that Lincoln Heritage is the only insurance company it works with, so the two are closely tied.
What it does, according to the organization: when someone passes, the family makes one phone call to a 24-hour line and is assigned a Personal Funeral Advisor. That advisor calls multiple funeral homes on the family’s behalf to compare prices, reviews the funeral contract line by line for charges that shouldn’t be there, and works from a final wishes form the policyholder filled out ahead of time. Lincoln Heritage says the service is provided at no additional charge to the policyholder, and the advisors aren’t tied to any funeral home.
Lincoln Heritage and FCGS say the service saves families an average of $1,850 on a traditional funeral and up to $1,100 on cremation. Those are their figures, not an outside study, so weigh them accordingly. The premise underneath them is sound, though, and worth understanding on its own. Funeral pricing varies enormously between homes in the same town for identical services, and a grieving family calling one funeral home on the worst day of their life has no way to know whether the number they’re quoted is fair. If you want to see the spread for yourself, our funeral cost calculator walks through what the individual line items actually run.
The question is what it’s worth to you per month. If Lincoln Heritage costs more than another comparable policy, FCGS is one of the additional things you’re getting for that money — though you can’t assume the whole gap is the price of the service, since premiums reflect a lot of moving parts. Some people will consider it money well spent for the certainty that someone competent picks up the phone. Others would rather hold the difference and have a family member call three funeral homes, which anyone can do for free. Both answers work. Just make sure you know you’re making the trade.
How Lincoln Heritage Is Sold: One Company’s Products
Lincoln Heritage distributes Funeral Advantage through its own agent force. Those agents are appointed to sell Lincoln Heritage products. This is a common and perfectly legitimate way to build an insurance company, and plenty of well-known insurers work the same way.
What that means at your kitchen table is simple. A Lincoln Heritage agent is appointed to sell Lincoln Heritage, so there is one set of rates and one underwriting decision available in that conversation. Nobody is comparing your health history against other companies, because there is nothing there to compare it against. If another carrier would price your history more favorably, or offer immediate coverage where this application lands you in a modified plan, that isn’t information anyone in the room has.
And the differences between carriers are not small. Each company sets its own rules about which health conditions matter and how much, so they reach genuinely different conclusions about identical medical histories. The same person, with the same medications and the same history, can be offered immediate coverage by one carrier and a modified plan by another. That’s a real gap, and the only way to find out which side of it you’re on is to have your file looked at by more than one company.
So the useful question isn’t whether Lincoln Heritage is a good company. It’s whether the specific offer in your hand is the best one available to you.
How Much Does Burial Insurance Cost in 2026?
To judge any quote you need something to measure it against. Below are the ranges RyCo Life Solutions sees across its carrier network for a non-smoker with a stable health file at level, immediate benefit. Compare them against whatever number you’re holding.
Typical monthly premium — $10,000 level-benefit policy
| Age | Typical monthly range (non-smoker) |
|---|---|
| 55 | $30 to $50/mo |
| 60 | $40 to $60/mo |
| 65 | $50 to $75/mo |
| 70 | $70 to $105/mo |
| 75 | $95 to $140/mo |
| 80 | $135 to $195/mo |
Typical monthly premium — $15,000 level-benefit policy
| Age band | Typical monthly range (non-smoker) |
|---|---|
| 50 to 59 | $45 to $75/mo |
| 60 to 69 | $65 to $115/mo |
| 70 to 79 | $115 to $195/mo |
| 80+ | $205 to $325/mo |
Sample ranges only, current as of July 2026 — not a rate card, not quotes, and not approved or provided by any carrier. These are illustrative monthly premiums for a non-smoker at level benefit across RyCo Life Solutions’ carrier network. Actual quotes vary by state, age, sex, tobacco use, underwriting profile, benefit tier, and product selection. Your own number can only come from an application.
Two adjustments to keep in mind when you compare. Tobacco users typically pay 50 to 80 percent more at the same age and coverage amount — an illustrative range from the same carrier network as the tables above, not a published rate differential. And female applicants generally pay less than males at the same age, so a rate you heard from a neighbor may not translate to you.
So where does Lincoln Heritage land against these ranges? From what RyCo Life Solutions sees comparing rates, Lincoln Heritage generally falls inside the market range and toward the higher end of it, on a product that bundles the FCGS service most policies don’t include. That comparison is an impression from day-to-day quoting, not a rate study, and you shouldn’t assume the whole difference is the price of FCGS — premiums also reflect underwriting, commissions, overhead, persistency, and product design. What it does mean is that a second quote is worth ten minutes of your time.
Make sure you’re comparing the same thing, too. A modified or graded plan isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison with a level plan, because the death benefit in the early years is different. If your quote sits above these ranges, that by itself doesn’t mean it’s a bad price. It may mean you were offered a modified plan, or a larger face amount than you realized, or that your health history is priced differently than a standard file. Find out which before you draw a conclusion.
Why Comparing Quotes Matters
This section isn’t about Lincoln Heritage. It applies to any policy from any company, including the ones RyCo Life Solutions sells. People underestimate the arithmetic because the monthly numbers look small. Run them out over the life of the policy and they stop looking small.
A whole life policy is meant to be held for the rest of your life. Someone who buys at 68 may pay premiums for fifteen or twenty years. So a difference of:
- $15 a month, held 15 years, comes to $2,700.
- $20 a month, held 15 years, comes to $3,600.
- $25 a month, held 20 years, comes to $6,000.
The National Funeral Directors Association put the median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial at about $8,300 in its 2023 study. So a $20 monthly difference held fifteen years is more than 40 percent of a funeral, paid out slowly enough that nobody notices it happening.
The benefit tier can matter even more than the premium. If one carrier offers immediate coverage and another puts you in a modified plan, and you pass away in year one, the difference to your family isn’t a few thousand dollars of premium. It’s most of the death benefit.
How to Price-Check the Quote You’re Holding
If an agent has already left you with a proposal, you can check it in about ten minutes. Write down these six things:
- The face amount. The exact death benefit, in dollars.
- The monthly premium. The full amount, including any policy fee.
- The benefit tier. Immediate or modified. This is the one people skip, and it’s the most important item on the list.
- What happens if you pass in the first two years from natural causes. Full benefit, or a limited amount? Get the specific answer.
- The tobacco status used. Confirm it’s right. This moves the price more than almost anything else.
- Any riders or extra benefits included, and whether they add cost.
With those six items, any independent brokerage can give you a real apples-to-apples comparison, RyCo Life Solutions included. Take whichever offer comes out better. If the one you already have wins, you’ll buy it knowing more than you did.
One thing not to do: don’t cancel existing coverage before new coverage is approved and in force. A new policy begins its own contestability period, and if it carries a graded or modified benefit, that benefit period starts over too. If your health has changed since you bought, you may not qualify for what you already have. Compare first, cancel last, and only when you’re clearly better off.
Who Funeral Advantage Fits — and Who Should Compare First
Funeral Advantage is a strong fit if…
- You place real value on the FCGS funeral-planning service and want someone else to handle that call for your family.
- You’ve been declined elsewhere and want a company with a low health bar and a long track record.
- You’d rather sit across from a person than fill out a form, and you like the agent you met.
- Fast claim payment is a priority because your family has no cash cushion for a funeral.
You should compare other carriers first if…
- You were offered a modified plan. Another carrier may read the same health history differently and offer immediate coverage.
- Your quote sits well above the ranges in the tables above and nobody has explained why.
- You’re in reasonably good health. Healthy applicants have the most to gain from comparing, because more carriers will compete for the file.
- You wouldn’t use the funeral-planning service, and it’s one of the things you’d be weighing against price.
- You need more than $35,000 of coverage.
- You live in New York or Washington, where Funeral Advantage isn’t sold at all.
Where RyCo Life Solutions Fits In
RyCo Life Solutions is a family-owned independent brokerage, with agents licensed in 47 states and Washington, D.C., shopping your file across 30+ carriers. No call center, and nobody works from a script.
RyCo Life Solutions doesn’t sell Lincoln Heritage and earns nothing from a Funeral Advantage policy. What we can do is take the six items from the checklist above, run your health history across the carriers we do represent, and tell you honestly whether we can beat what you’re holding. Sometimes we can’t. When that happens we say so, and you keep the policy you were already leaning toward.
To be straight about how we’re paid: like any brokerage, if you buy coverage through RyCo, the insurance company that issues the policy pays us a commission. You don’t pay RyCo a separate fee for the comparison. We’re telling you because you should know how we’re paid when you weigh anything we’ve said about a competitor.
If you’d rather talk it through than fill anything out, call (314) 876-0334 and a licensed broker picks up.
RyCo Life Solutions is an independent insurance brokerage and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lincoln Heritage a legitimate insurance company?
Yes. Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company has been rated by AM Best since 1976 and currently holds an A (Excellent) financial strength rating with a stable outlook, upgraded from A- in July 2025. Lincoln Heritage also states it holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. It is a real, licensed, financially sound insurer.
What is Lincoln Heritage’s AM Best rating?
A (Excellent), with a stable outlook. AM Best upgraded the company from A- effective July 24, 2025. Many published reviews still list the older A- rating. Its Financial Size Category is VIII, a financial-size classification representing $100 million to less than $250 million in adjusted policyholders’ surplus.
How much does Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage cost?
Lincoln Heritage does not publish a rate chart, and premiums depend on your age, sex, tobacco use, health answers, the benefit amount, and your state, so the only way to learn your number is to request a quote from them. To judge whether that number is competitive, compare it against typical market ranges for the same face amount and benefit tier. For a non-smoker at level benefit, $10,000 of coverage commonly runs about $50 to $75 a month at 65 and $95 to $140 at 75 across RyCo Life Solutions’ carrier network. From what RyCo Life Solutions sees comparing rates, Lincoln Heritage generally falls in line with the market and toward the higher end of it.
Does Lincoln Heritage have a waiting period?
It depends which version you qualify for. Lincoln Heritage says most applicants receive full, immediate coverage. Applicants who don’t meet the medical qualifications may be offered modified coverage, which provides limited benefits for non-accidental death during the first years of the policy. Ask which one you’re being offered before you sign.
How much coverage can you get from Lincoln Heritage?
Up to $35,000, with no medical exam, and Lincoln Heritage describes the coverage as available to most adults up to age 85. The amount you qualify for depends on your age and your answers to the health questions. If you need more than $35,000, other final expense carriers write up to $50,000.
What is the Funeral Consumer Guardian Society?
It’s a funeral-planning service included with every Funeral Advantage policy, founded in 2000 by a former funeral director. When a policyholder passes, the family calls one 24-hour number and a Personal Funeral Advisor price-shops multiple funeral homes on their behalf, reviews the funeral contract for errors, and follows the final wishes the policyholder recorded. Buying a Lincoln Heritage policy is the only way to become a member, and Lincoln Heritage is the only insurance company the organization works with.
Where can I check Lincoln Heritage complaints?
Lincoln Heritage states that it holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, which is the BBB’s highest. For an independent look at any insurer’s complaint record, the NAIC maintains a public complaint index at naic.org, and your own state department of insurance publishes complaint data for companies licensed in your state. Those are the official sources, and they’re worth checking on any carrier before you buy, not just this one.
Is Lincoln Heritage available in every state?
No. Funeral Advantage is not available in New York or Washington, according to Lincoln Heritage’s own disclosure. Some benefits also vary by state.
Can a Lincoln Heritage agent show me other companies’ rates?
Not for Funeral Advantage. Lincoln Heritage distributes the product through agents appointed to sell Lincoln Heritage, so the quote presented to you is that company’s offer. To see how other carriers would price your health history, you would ask an independent brokerage that represents multiple companies to run the comparison.
Does Lincoln Heritage require a medical exam?
No. There’s no exam, no blood draw, and no nurse visit. Qualification is based on your answers to health questions on the application.
Should I cancel my Lincoln Heritage policy if I find something cheaper?
Not before the new coverage is approved and in force. A new policy begins its own contestability period, and if it carries a graded or modified benefit, that benefit period starts over too. If your health has changed since you first bought, you may no longer qualify for what you currently have. Compare first, and switch only once the new policy is actually issued and you’re clearly better off.
Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Review: Our Verdict
Lincoln Heritage sells a legitimate product from a financially strong company that just earned a ratings upgrade, pays claims quickly, accepts most applicants, and includes a funeral-planning service with real depth behind it. If those things line up with what you need, it’s a reasonable place to put your money.
The limitation worth understanding isn’t about the company’s quality. It’s that a single carrier can only give you a single answer, and no way to know whether it was the best answer available to you.
So get a second number before you sign. It costs nothing and takes about ten minutes. Either you find something better, or you buy the policy you were already going to buy with your eyes open.
Get a second quote before you decide. A licensed RyCo Life Solutions broker will run your health history across 30+ carriers and tell you straight whether we can beat the quote you’re holding. See your comparison quote, or call (314) 876-0334 and talk it over with a real broker.
Take the Next Step
- How burial insurance for seniors actually works — the full guide, start to finish.
- Funeral cost calculator — work out how much coverage you actually need.
- How much does a funeral cost? — what the individual line items really run in 2026.
- Globe Life insurance review — what the $1 offer really buys, and why the term rate climbs with each age band.
Sources
- AM Best, Best’s Credit Rating Center — Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company profile and rating history (AMB #006694, NAIC #65927); financial strength rating upgraded to A (Excellent) effective July 24, 2025. ratings.ambest.com. Accessed July 30, 2026.
- Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage — product FAQs and published policy disclosure (coverage maximum, issue ages, state availability, contestability period, suicide exclusion, modified coverage, premium and cancellation terms). funeraladvantage.com/faqs. Accessed July 30, 2026.
- Funeral Consumer Guardian Society overview, including founding year and stated average savings figures. funeraladvantage.com. Accessed July 30, 2026.
- National Funeral Directors Association, 2023 General Price List Study — median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial, approximately $8,300. nfda.org.
About the Author
Ryan Vallett is a licensed life insurance broker and the founder of RyCo Life Solutions, a family-owned independent brokerage with agents licensed in 47 states and Washington, D.C. He works with seniors and their families on burial insurance, final expense, and whole life coverage across 30+ A-rated carriers, in plain English, with no call center and no pressure.
Last updated: August 6, 2026.
This article is for general educational purposes and is not insurance, medical, tax, or legal advice. Product details, rates, riders, and availability are current as of publication, are subject to change, and vary by state and by carrier. Premium ranges shown are illustrative, are not quotes, and have not been provided or approved by any carrier; coverage is subject to underwriting approval where applicable. Statements about Lincoln Heritage products reflect that company’s own published materials as of the date above. Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage and Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company are registered trademarks of Londen Insurance Group, Inc. RyCo Life Solutions is an independent insurance brokerage, is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company, and does not offer or sell its products. For advice about your specific situation, speak with a licensed broker, physician, or qualified professional.