Guaranteed Issue

What Is Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance?

Guaranteed issue life insurance, or guaranteed acceptance life insurance, is a type of whole life insurance policy that does not require you to answer health questions, undergo a medical exam, or allow an insurance company to review your medical and prescription records. You may also see it referred to as “no questions life insurance” or “no questions final expense insurance.”1 

Sounds great, right? Here’s the catch. Guaranteed issue life insurance always has a waiting period. If you die during the waiting period, your beneficiaries will not receive the policy’s death benefit. With most policies the waiting period is two years. With some it's three.1

This is not some kind of scam. In fact, if you die during the waiting period, the insurance company will repay (to your beneficiaries) all your insurance premiums plus interest, usually at a rate of 10%.1 

Your beneficiaries will still get something; it will just be less than you’d like. Insurance companies put this waiting period in place because if they didn’t, everyone could apply for insurance on their deathbed and pay a few hundred dollars to secure a $25,000 benefit for their family. No insurance company could stay in business this way. Guaranteed issue life insurance provides coverage to sick people who otherwise couldn’t get it.

These policies get their name because the insurance company guarantees they will issue a policy to you as long as you are within the allowed age range when you apply. In other words, they are guaranteeing that they will accept you as a policyholder. The typical age range to qualify is 50 to 80 years o