Burial Insurance With High Blood Pressure: What You May Qualify For (2026)

Last updated: August 3, 2026 by Ryan Vallett

Maybe you take a pill every morning for your blood pressure. Maybe you have been putting off buying coverage because you assume it will cost a fortune, or get you turned down flat. Here is the short version: high blood pressure by itself usually is not what stops people. As a category, burial insurance with high blood pressure is one of the more routine approvals in this business, and many people who ask about it are worrying about a problem they do not have. Your own outcome still depends on your full health picture and on the carrier.

Blood pressure that is diagnosed, treated, and reasonably stable is so common among people over 60 that carriers built their underwriting around expecting it. What gets people into trouble is usually not the condition itself. It is buying the wrong kind of policy because someone told them their blood pressure made them a risk.

You may also be reading this for a parent. The rules below work the same either way, though a policy on someone else has a few extra requirements — we cover that in the FAQ and in our guide to buying burial insurance for a parent.

For context on how normal this is: during August 2021 through August 2023, 71.6% of U.S. adults age 60 and older had hypertension, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. You are not an outlier. You are the majority of the market.

This guide covers what carriers ask, what “controlled” actually means to an underwriter, when high blood pressure genuinely does change your options, what no-exam coverage costs, and the specific mistakes that cost people money on an approval they should have sailed through.

Can You Get Burial Insurance With High Blood Pressure?

Yes, and most people in this situation have a real shot at the best version of it.

Burial insurance comes in three general shapes, and the whole game is landing in the first one:

• Level Benefit (day-one coverage) — the full face amount is payable for a covered death once the policy is in force, subject to the policy terms, including the suicide and contestability provisions, payment of premiums, and any outstanding policy loans. Lowest cost per $1,000 of coverage. Most applicants with treated, stable blood pressure and no other major conditions land here.
• Graded or Modified Benefit — the natural-death benefit is limited for the first two or three policy years, depending on the product, then the full amount applies. Blood pressure alone rarely puts you here. It usually takes blood pressure plus a recent hospitalization, or blood pressure plus a second serious condition.
• Guaranteed Issue — no health questions and no health-based decline. Higher monthly cost and a limited natural-death benefit for the first two or three policy years, depending on the product. Few people with only high blood pressure need this, and being steered into it is the most expensive mistake in this category.

One point worth making early: “day-one coverage” means coverage that begins when the policy is issued and placed in force — not when you request a quote and not when you start an application. Nothing is in effect until the carrier issues the policy and the first premium requirement is satisfied.

The biggest assumption people make is that any diagnosis on their record means they have to take whatever they are offered, and it is worth letting go of. Because hypertension is so common in this age group, carriers build it into their standard underwriting rather than treating it as an exception. If you want the full picture of how the product works generally, our burial insurance for seniors guide covers the basics.

What “Controlled” Means to an Underwriter

“Controlled” is a word your doctor and an insurance underwriter use differently, and the gap between the two definitions causes a lot of unnecessary worry.

Your doctor is measuring you against a clinical target. Under the current guideline used by the CDC, hypertension is defined as a reading at or above 130/80, or taking medication to lower blood pressure. By that standard, the same CDC report found that only 29.2% of adults 60 and older who have hypertension have it fully controlled below 130/80. If “controlled” meant hitting that clinical number, most applicants would fail.

An underwriter is asking something much simpler. For simplified issue burial insurance, controlled generally means:

• You have been diagnosed and you are being treated for it, rather than ignoring it
• You see a doctor about it with some regularity
• Your medication has not been added to or increased sharply in the very recent past
• You have not been hospitalized or sent to an emergency room for a blood pressure crisis
• Your blood pressure has not already caused damage to another organ — no kidney disease, heart failure, or stroke tied to it

Notice what is not on that list: a specific number. Most simplified issue burial insurance applications do not ask you to report a blood pressure reading at all, because there is no exam and no nurse taking your vitals. The carrier is assessing your pattern of care, not your Tuesday morning reading.

Lookback periods vary by question and by carrier. Some questions reach back a year, some two, some further, and the same event can be asked about differently on two different applications. What is consistent is the emphasis: recent hospitalizations and recent medication changes usually get more attention than remote, stable history. Something from six years ago that has been quiet ever since generally carries less weight than something from last month.

How Carriers Underwrite High Blood Pressure for Burial Insurance

Burial insurance uses what is called simplified issue underwriting — no medical exam, no blood draw, no nurse visit, no blood pressure cuff. The carrier asks a series of yes or no health questions, checks industry databases, and makes a decision in minutes, often while you are still on the phone.

No medical exam. Approval, rate class and benefit type may still depend on your answers to health questions and on information obtained during underwriting.

Those database checks are not a mystery. Depending on the carrier, underwriting may draw on MIB, Inc., which makes coded information from prior insurance applications available to participating member companies, on a prescription-history service such as Milliman IntelliScript or ScriptCheck, which returns filled-prescription records, and on motor vehicle records. Some carriers use all three. Some use only one. These are the mechanisms behind the phrase “instant decision.”

For people with high blood pressure, depending on the carrier, the application or follow-up interview may ask about some version of:

• Have you been diagnosed with or treated for high blood pressure?
• What medications do you currently take for it, and at what dosage?
• Has any blood pressure medication been added, changed, or increased in the last 6 or 12 months?
• Have you been hospitalized or treated in an emergency room for high blood pressure?
• Have you been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart?
• Have you been diagnosed with kidney disease, or has a doctor told you your kidney function is reduced?
• Have you had a heart attack, stroke, or transient ischemic attack?
• Have you been advised to have a heart or vascular procedure that has not been completed?
• Do you use tobacco or nicotine in any form?

The prescription database check is the part people underestimate. The carrier can see your filled prescriptions, so there is no version of this where leaving a medication off the application works in your favor. If lisinopril, amlodipine, losartan, metoprolol, or hydrochlorothiazide shows up on the report and not on your application, the carrier does not conclude you forgot. It concludes the application is unreliable, and that is a far worse problem than the blood pressure ever was.

There is a wrinkle worth knowing about. Several blood pressure medications are also prescribed for heart failure and other cardiac conditions. Carvedilol, furosemide, and spironolactone are common examples. When one of those appears on a prescription report, some carriers ask follow-up questions to determine which condition it is treating. Answering accurately helps the underwriter distinguish routine blood pressure treatment from treatment for a more serious condition — a follow-up question is not by itself a red flag.

Blood Thinners Are Not Blood Pressure Medication

This one comes up on nearly every call. People describe warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban, or clopidogrel as their “blood pressure pill” because it is a pill and it has to do with blood. Underwriters do not read them that way at all. Anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs do not lower blood pressure, and they are underwritten on the basis of why they were prescribed.

That reason matters far more than the drug name. A blood thinner prescribed after a knee or hip replacement, or for a short course following a procedure, is generally a minor item. The same drug prescribed for atrial fibrillation, a prior stroke or TIA, a mechanical heart valve, or a history of blood clots pulls the cardiac and stroke questions into the decision, and those are what drive the tier. Expect to be asked what condition the blood thinner is treating, when it started, and whether it is ongoing. Have that answer ready, and never stop taking one to make an application look cleaner.

Height and Weight Get Checked Too

Simplified issue applications ask for your height and weight, and many simplified-issue carriers run it against a build chart. Guaranteed issue products do not use build this way at all, and not every simplified-issue product does either. There is no exam, so the figures come from you, but where a build chart is used they are part of the decision. Build outside a carrier’s accepted range can affect the rate class, move an applicant to a graded offer, or in some cases result in a decline — and build charts differ meaningfully from one carrier to the next.

For a fair number of applicants, build is what actually limits the options, not the blood pressure. Someone with well-controlled hypertension and one medication may find that their height and weight, not their diagnosis, is the reason one carrier grades the case while another issues level benefit coverage. It is another reason a single application to a single company tells you very little.

What Underwriters Actually Look At

Carriers do not underwrite blood pressure identically. One carrier’s standard-rate approval is another carrier’s graded offer, and the difference is worth real money over the life of a policy.

The table below is an illustrative guide to how common situations tend to land across the simplified-issue market. It is not a rate chart or a promise from any particular carrier.

Your Situation	Most Common Tier	Best Case With the Right Carrier
High blood pressure, one medication, stable for years, no other conditions	Level benefit, standard rate	Level benefit, best available rate class
High blood pressure, two or three medications, stable	Level benefit, standard rate	Level benefit, standard rate
Medication increased or added within the last 6 months	Level benefit at most carriers; a few ask you to wait	Level benefit, standard rate, issued now
Newly diagnosed within the last 3 months, treatment just started	Level benefit or brief postpone	Level benefit, standard rate, issued now
Emergency room visit for a blood pressure crisis in the last 12 months	Graded benefit	Level benefit with the right carrier
High blood pressure plus controlled type 2 diabetes	Level benefit, standard rate	Level benefit, best available rate class
High blood pressure plus a heart attack more than 2 years ago	Varies widely — the cardiac history drives this, not elapsed time alone	Level benefit, day-one coverage
High blood pressure plus congestive heart failure	Graded or guaranteed issue	Graded benefit
High blood pressure plus chronic kidney disease, no dialysis	Graded benefit	Graded benefit, shorter waiting period
High blood pressure plus dialysis	Guaranteed issue	Guaranteed issue

The table above reflects general observations from the simplified-issue market, not the rules of any carrier. Eligibility, lookback periods, rate classes, and benefit classifications vary by carrier, by state, and by the version of the application in use. Nothing here is a prediction of what any specific company will offer you.

The top half of that table is where most people actually live, and the top half is all day-one coverage. Look at what the bottom rows have in common: almost every situation that drops to graded or guaranteed issue does so because of a second condition, not because of the blood pressure.

Three Tiers of Coverage Available to People With High Blood Pressure

The three tiers are defined earlier in this guide. What follows is the detail that actually matters once you are choosing between them.

Level Benefit

Level benefit is the cheapest of the three per dollar of coverage, which is the practical argument for it. The same person can often buy noticeably more coverage for the same monthly premium by qualifying for level instead of accepting guaranteed issue — which is why it is worth ten minutes of shopping before signing anything. Understand what “full benefit” means in the contract: the face amount is payable for a covered death once the policy is in force, subject to the policy terms, which typically include a contestability period of about two years and a separate suicide provision, along with continued premium payment and deduction of any outstanding policy loan.

Graded or Modified Benefit

The important detail here is that there is no single graded structure. Guaranteed-issue and graded policies generally limit the natural-death benefit for the first two or three policy years, depending on the product. Some return the premiums paid plus interest during the limited period. Some pay a stated percentage of the face amount that steps up each year. Accidental death is commonly covered in full from the start, though that too is a policy-by-policy question. Read the schedule on the specific product before you accept it, because two graded policies with the same premium can pay very differently in year two.

High blood pressure by itself rarely lands you here. It generally takes a recent hospitalization or a second serious condition alongside it.

Guaranteed Issue

Guaranteed issue exists for people who genuinely cannot qualify any other way, and for them it is a good product — there is no version of the health questionnaire they can fail. The trade is cost and the limited early benefit. If your only health issue is treated blood pressure, you are probably not the applicant this was designed for, and buying it anyway means paying more for less while waiting out a benefit limitation you did not need to accept. If you already own one, that is worth re-shopping rather than regretting.

Can You Get Burial Insurance With High Blood Pressure and No Waiting Period?

Usually, yes. This is the most common question on this topic and the answer is more encouraging than most people expect.

No waiting period means level benefit — full coverage from day one. If your blood pressure is diagnosed and treated, you have not been hospitalized for it recently, and it has not damaged your kidneys or your heart, day-one coverage is the normal outcome rather than the exception.

Where it gets less certain is the edge cases: a very recent diagnosis, a sharp medication increase in the last few months, or an emergency room visit for a hypertensive episode. Even then, carriers disagree with each other enough that a decline or a graded offer from one company tells you very little about what the next one will do. That disagreement is the entire value of shopping the case rather than applying to whichever company advertised during the evening news.

How Long After a Change in Your Blood Pressure Can You Apply?

There is no universal waiting rule for blood pressure the way there is after a stroke or a cancer diagnosis. Most people can apply immediately. The table below reflects general patterns where timing does come into play.

Situation and Timing	Most Common Tier Range
Stable on the same medication for 12 months or more	Level benefit
Medication adjusted 6 to 12 months ago	Level benefit
Medication adjusted within the last 6 months	Level benefit at most carriers
Diagnosed within the last 3 months	Level benefit to brief postpone
Hospitalized for a hypertensive crisis 12 or more months ago	Level to graded benefit
Hospitalized for a hypertensive crisis within the last 12 months	Graded benefit

These are general observations, not carrier rules. Eligibility, lookback periods, and benefit classifications vary by carrier, by state, and by application version, and any individual company may treat the same timeline differently.

Two practical notes. If a doctor has recommended a test or a procedure that you have not completed yet, most carriers want it resolved before they will issue — that pending item, not the blood pressure, is what holds up the file. And if you were postponed by one carrier because of a recent medication change, that is worth a second opinion the same week rather than a six-month wait.

What Burial Insurance With High Blood Pressure Costs

Here is the part that surprises people: controlled high blood pressure usually does not add anything to your premium. Unlike some conditions that carry a rate-up, blood pressure that is treated and stable is generally priced at the carrier’s standard rates for your age and tobacco status. In most cases you end up paying close to what someone your age without it would pay, though that depends on the carrier and on your full health picture, and no broker can promise a specific rate before underwriting.

The ranges below are for a level benefit $10,000 policy, non-smoker, with no medical exam.

No medical exam. Approval, rate class and benefit type may still depend on your answers to health questions and on information obtained during underwriting.

Age	Typical $10,000 Burial Policy Range (Non-Smoker)
55	$30–$50/mo
60	$40–$60/mo
65	$50–$75/mo
70	$70–$105/mo
75	$95–$140/mo
80	$135–$195/mo

Examples are educational ranges only, not guaranteed quotes. Actual rates vary by state, sex, tobacco use, carrier, and benefit type, and final premiums depend on full underwriting. Female applicants generally pay less than males at the same age. Tobacco use raises the rate substantially at every age. Graded and guaranteed-issue plans cost more than level benefit at the same age.

How these ranges were built: they are illustrative composite ranges for $10,000 of level-benefit coverage on a non-tobacco applicant, drawn from general simplified-issue market pricing rather than from any single company. They combine male and female rates into one range, and they may include policy fees, which differ by product. Not all products are available in every state. Rates are subject to change. This table is not an offer, a quote, or a solicitation of a specific policy, and no rate is available to you until a carrier underwrites and issues.

For scale on what the coverage is for: the national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300 in 2023, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. A funeral with cremation was $6,280. Those figures cover funeral home services and do not include a cemetery plot, a vault, or a headstone, so families often need more than the median suggests. If you want a working number for your own situation, our funeral cost calculator breaks it down by state.

One thing to be clear about, because the name confuses people: burial insurance is life insurance. It is not a prepaid funeral contract and not a cemetery or preneed agreement with a funeral home. The carrier does not arrange or pay for a service. The death benefit is paid in cash to the beneficiary you name, and that person can use it for a funeral, a burial plot, a headstone, outstanding medical bills, or anything else. If you also want goods and services locked in at today’s price, that is a separate arrangement made directly with a funeral home.

When High Blood Pressure Comes With Something Else

This is the section that actually matters, because blood pressure on its own is straightforward and combinations are where the real decisions live.

Underwriters are not adding up conditions on a scorecard. They are asking whether the combination suggests your blood pressure has started causing damage. High blood pressure alongside something unrelated tends to be treated as two separate, manageable items. High blood pressure alongside a condition it is known to cause is read as one bigger picture.

• Blood pressure plus type 2 diabetes — extremely common, and when both are controlled this pairing routinely gets level benefit coverage. See our guide to burial insurance with diabetes for how the diabetes side is underwritten.
• Blood pressure plus high cholesterol — effectively a non-issue at most carriers. Statin use alone does not change tiers.
• Blood pressure plus a past heart attack or stent — timing drives this. Once you are a couple of years out and stable, day-one coverage is common. Our burial insurance with heart disease guide covers the specifics.
• Blood pressure plus a stroke or TIA — the stroke drives the decision, not the blood pressure. See our guide to burial insurance after a stroke.
• Blood pressure plus congestive heart failure — this is the combination that most often moves people to graded or guaranteed issue. Heart failure is underwritten seriously across the market.
• Blood pressure plus kidney disease — also significant, and the stage matters. Reduced kidney function often means a graded benefit at many carriers; dialysis usually points toward guaranteed issue.

Why Carrier Choice Matters Here

Because hypertension is so common, most final expense carriers will consider it. The differences are not about whether blood pressure is allowed — they are about the edges. How recently a medication changed before it triggers a postpone, how a hospitalization in the file is weighted, how detailed the cardiac and kidney follow-up questions are, and where the build chart cuts off. Each company sets those thresholds independently, and two carriers can read the same application and reach different conclusions without either being wrong.

That is why the outcome depends heavily on where the application is sent. A graded offer or a postpone from one company is information about that company’s rules, not a verdict on your health, and the same file frequently gets a different answer elsewhere. It is also why applying blind to whichever company you saw advertised is the wrong first move: you get one company’s threshold instead of the best fit among many, and you may end up with a record of that outcome on file.

Common Mistakes People With High Blood Pressure Make When Applying

1. Assuming Blood Pressure Means You Cannot Get Real Coverage

This is the expensive one. People self-select into guaranteed issue because they assume they will be declined, never apply for level benefit, and end up paying more for a policy with a limited benefit in the early years. Aim for the better coverage first — but do it deliberately. Have a broker pre-screen your health history against carrier guidelines before anything is submitted, so you are not creating a decline record unnecessarily. Later applications commonly ask whether you have ever been declined, postponed, or offered a modified policy, and that answer follows you.

2. Applying to the First Big-Name Carrier You Recognize

The companies advertising on daytime television are not necessarily the ones with the friendliest underwriting for your situation, and the price you see quoted is often for a much smaller benefit than you assume. One company’s answer is one data point, not the market’s answer.

3. Forgetting to Mention Everyday Medications

People routinely leave off a water pill or a low-dose beta blocker because it does not feel like a real medication. The prescription database will surface it. A medication you disclosed is a routine underwriting fact. A medication you omitted is a credibility problem that can put the whole application in doubt.

4. Applying the Week After a Medication Change

If your doctor just added or increased something, a handful of carriers will want to see a little stability first. This does not mean waiting six months and it does not mean settling for graded coverage. It means letting a broker route the application to a carrier that does not care.

5. Accepting Guaranteed Issue When You Would Qualify for Level

Guaranteed issue is a legitimate product for the people who genuinely need it. Paying guaranteed issue prices and living with a limited early benefit when you would likely have been approved for day-one coverage is money and protection thrown away, and it happens often in this category.

6. Not Disclosing All Conditions Upfront

Blood pressure by itself is easy. Blood pressure with an undisclosed kidney or cardiac history is a claim investigation waiting to happen. Complete disclosure lets the carrier evaluate the application accurately and reduces the risk of a later dispute over a material omission. Everything you leave out is something they can revisit later, at the worst possible moment for your family.

7. Going With a Captive Agent Instead of an Independent Broker

A captive agent’s job is to fit you to their product. A broker’s job is to fit a product to you. With a condition this common and this variably underwritten, that difference decides which tier you end up in.

What to Have Ready Before You Apply

Ten minutes of preparation makes the call go faster and the answer come back cleaner.

• Your current blood pressure medications — names and dosages. Reading them off the bottles is easiest.
• When each was started or last changed — even approximate months help.
• Any hospitalizations in the last 12 to 24 months and the reason.
• Whether a doctor has ever told you your blood pressure affected your heart or kidneys — this is the question that most changes the answer.
• Other major health conditions — diabetes, COPD, kidney disease, stroke history, cancer history, heart disease.
• Any pending tests or procedures a doctor has recommended but you have not completed.
• Tobacco use status — current, former, or never.
• Desired coverage amount — common amounts are $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, or $25,000. Not sure how much you need? Estimate funeral and burial costs in your state to get a working number.
• Approximate monthly budget — helpful for balancing coverage against premium.
• Date of birth and state of residence — both affect underwriting and pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you get life insurance with high blood pressure?

Yes. High blood pressure is one of the most common conditions in the senior market and nearly every carrier accepts it. Treated, stable blood pressure with no related organ damage typically qualifies for level benefit coverage that pays in full from day one, usually at standard rates.

Does high blood pressure raise your life insurance rates?

Usually not for burial insurance. Controlled blood pressure is generally priced at the carrier’s standard rates for your age and tobacco status. Rates change when blood pressure appears alongside something else, such as heart failure or kidney disease, or when there has been a recent hospitalization.

Will taking blood pressure medication hurt my application?

No, and it often helps. Carriers generally view treated blood pressure more favorably than untreated blood pressure, because treatment shows the condition is being managed. Never stop or skip medication to try to improve an application — the prescription history is visible either way, and the health risk is real.

Can you get no-exam burial insurance with high blood pressure?

Yes, and no-exam is the standard for this product. Burial insurance is sold as simplified issue, which means no medical exam, no blood draw, no nurse visit, and no blood pressure cuff. The carrier asks health questions and runs a prescription database check, and most decisions come back in minutes. No medical exam does not mean no underwriting: approval, rate class and benefit type may still depend on your answers to health questions and on information obtained during underwriting.

What blood pressure reading is too high to get insurance?

For simplified issue burial insurance there is generally no cutoff reading, because nobody takes your blood pressure during the application. What the carrier weighs instead is whether you are diagnosed and treated, whether you have been hospitalized for it, and whether it has affected your heart or kidneys. Fully underwritten life insurance policies that do require an exam may apply specific reading-based limits, but that is a different product with a different process.

Can I get burial insurance with high blood pressure and no waiting period?

In most cases yes. No waiting period means level benefit coverage, and treated, stable blood pressure without related complications routinely qualifies. Recent hospitalizations or a very recent diagnosis can make it harder at some carriers but not all, which is why shopping the case matters.

What if my blood pressure medication was just changed?

Many carriers will still consider day-one coverage. Some prefer to see a period of stability after a change or an increase. This is a routing question rather than a disqualifier, and a broker can send the application to a carrier whose rules do not flag it.

Does high blood pressure with diabetes change my options?

Less than most people expect. When both conditions are controlled, this pairing routinely qualifies for level benefit coverage. The combinations that genuinely change your options are blood pressure with congestive heart failure or with kidney disease.

What if I have high blood pressure and kidney disease?

Kidney disease drives this decision. Reduced kidney function without dialysis often means a graded benefit at many carriers, with a limited benefit for the first two or three policy years, depending on the product. Dialysis usually points toward guaranteed issue. The blood pressure itself is the smaller factor.

Will my premiums go up if my blood pressure gets worse later?

No. Burial insurance is whole life insurance with a level premium. Once the policy is issued, the rate is locked and cannot be raised because your health changes. The coverage also cannot be canceled because of a change in your health as long as premiums are paid, subject to the policy terms. Note that these contracts typically mature or endow at a stated age set out in the policy, and the contract explains what happens at that point.

What happens if I forget to mention a blood pressure medication?

The carrier will likely find it through the prescription database, either at underwriting or at claim time. During the contestability period, typically the first two years, the carrier can review the application and act on a material misrepresentation — a misstatement significant enough that it would have changed the underwriting decision. Carriers act on material misstatements, not on trivial omissions, but you do not want to be the one deciding which is which. Disclose everything. Blood pressure medication is not what puts an application at risk.

Do I need medical records to apply?

Almost never for burial insurance. The process runs on your answers plus a prescription database check. Occasionally a carrier requests records when there is a complicated cardiac or kidney history, but blood pressure alone does not trigger that.

Can I buy burial insurance for a parent with high blood pressure?

Yes. You need your parent’s knowledge and consent, they must answer the health questions themselves, and you need an insurable interest, which an adult child has. You can be the owner and payer. Our guide to buying burial insurance for a parent covers ownership, beneficiaries, and consent in detail.

Can I buy burial insurance for a parent with dementia?

A dementia diagnosis by itself does not settle the question, but it does change what has to be sorted out first. What matters is legal capacity: your parent generally has to understand what they are signing and consent to it, and they normally have to answer the health questions themselves. Carriers also have their own rules about cognitive impairment, and a diagnosis is disclosed on the application either way. If your parent no longer has capacity, whether a policy can be applied for at all depends on the specific power-of-attorney or guardianship arrangement in place and on whether the carrier will accept it. This needs to be reviewed with a broker before an application goes in, not after.

Is burial insurance with high blood pressure whole life insurance?

Yes. Burial insurance is small-face-amount whole life insurance. It does not expire at a certain age, the premium never increases, and it builds modest cash value over time. That is what separates it from term insurance, which ends at the end of the term.

Take the Next Step

If you have been sitting on this because you assumed your blood pressure would be a problem, the fastest way to find out is to let someone actually check. It takes a few minutes, there is no exam, and there is no obligation on the other side of the answer. Many people in your situation find out they qualify for the level benefit version of the coverage rather than the waiting-period version they assumed they were stuck with.

Related reading: how burial insurance for seniors works · burial insurance with heart disease · burial insurance with diabetes · burial insurance after a stroke · buying burial insurance for a parent · get your free quote.

Insurance is offered through individually licensed agents. Coverage availability, rates, and policy terms vary by state and carrier. Rate examples in this article are illustrative; final premiums depend on full underwriting based on age, sex, tobacco use, health history, and other factors. Underwriting outcomes described here reflect general industry patterns and are not a guarantee of approval, tier, or price from any carrier. All underwriting decisions, including approval, rate class, and benefit type, are made solely by the issuing insurance carrier and not by RyCo Life Solutions. If anything in this article differs from the policy you are issued, the policy and any attached riders or endorsements control. Burial insurance is life insurance; it is not a prepaid funeral, preneed, or cemetery contract, and the benefit is paid in cash to the named beneficiary. Do not start, stop, or change any medication for insurance purposes — discuss all medication decisions with your physician. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute insurance, medical, tax, or legal advice. Consult a licensed broker, physician, or qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.