Burial Insurance After a Heart Attack: What You Need to Know

Are you wondering if you can get burial insurance after a heart attack? Yes you can get burial insurance if you had a previous heart attack. If it has been over 2 years since your heart attack with no complications you could get funeral insurance with no waiting period. If it has been inside of 2 years you will have to apply to a graded policy with a 2 year waiting period and pay higher premiums.

In this article we will list the best companies to apply with, cover features & benefits, How much coverage you need and steps to apply.

According to www.cdc.gov

Every year 805,000 in the United States have a heart attack.

We encounter clients every day with this and other health conditions. We specialize in helping clients with these health issues and more qualify for affordable coverage.

Understanding Burial Insurance After a Heart Attack

Final expense life insurance(funeral insurance, burial insurance, cremation insurance etc.) is either a simplified issue whole life policy or guaranteed issue whole life policy. Simplified issue has no waiting periods for policy payout and guaranteed issue always has a 2 year waiting period before policy payout.

Both have level premiums(premiums never increase) and level death benefits(death benefit never decreases). Simplified issue offers a maximum of $50,000 in coverage(depending on the company) and guaranteed issue offers a maximum of $40,000 in coverage(depending on the company).

In addition to this there are no medical exams for either type of burial insurance & heart attack. Simplified issue only has health questions for you to answer along with medical and prescription history checks. Guaranteed issue has no health questions and no medical or prescription history checks which is why it has a waiting period.

These policies payout a lump sum death benefit to your beneficiary that they can use to pay your funeral, burial and end of life expenses. That is what funeral insurance is designed to do and provides peace of mind for your family.

If any money is leftover after the payout your beneficiary can keep it for any purpose they choose. In addition to this the death benefit is tax free and since burial insurance is permanent whole life insurance that never expires it builds cash value.

Cash value is a small savings that builds in the policy over time while premiums are being paid. You can borrow against the cash value in your policy if you choose to.

Life Insurance After a Heart Attack Simpler Than you Think

When it comes to final expense insurance yes you can get life insurance after a heart attack in most cases this will be a life insurance policy with a waiting period if the heart attack was within the last 2 years.

This is because life insurance companies see this as a high risk scenario since the heart attack was so recent but you can still get graded life insurance after a heart attack.

Now a big medication that can make it tough to get life insurance after a heart attack would be Nitroglycerin this is because in most cases the medication is prescribed to patients as an emergency medication incase of a heart attack.

If you have been prescribed this medication and never taken it this is am important piece of information to tell your life insurance agent about so they can let the life insurance company know it was only prescribed for emergencies.

This in most cases can overturn the underwriting decision to deny you life insurance after a heart attack.

Keep in mind with final expense whole life insurance there are no medical exams required to be approved for the coverage you only answer health questions on the life insurance application and they look at your medical and prescription history to cross refrence with your answers. If everything checks out they will approve you for the coverage.

Can I Get Life Insurance After a Heart Attack? 2 Scenarios

Scenario 1

Yes you can get life insurance after a heart attack if it has been over 2 years since your heart attack occured and the medications you are on are acceptable medications. This will get you life insurance with no waiting periods.

Scenario 2

Yes you can get life insurance after a heart attack within 2 years since the heart attack occured and even with some unacceptable medications but it will always have a 1 – 2 year waiting period every single time.

That is the main rules for final expense life insurance for after a heart attack it depends on the timeline of when your condition occured. This also applies to all other health conditions regarding final expense whole life insurance.

Best Life Insurance After a Heart Attack Several Companies

There are several life insurance companies we work with that will provide life insurance after a heart attack. The best thing about these burial insurance companies is that they are all simplified issue life insurance which means no medical exams ever.

Company List

• Prosperity Life Insurance Company
• American Amicable Life Insurance Company
• Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company
• American General Life Insurance Company (AIG)
• Gerber Life Insurance

Prosperity final expense insurance is hands down the best life insurance company for getting burial insurance for after a heart attack or any heart condition for that matter. They require a telehealth interview between you and your agent and will ask you about your medications live on the call. The best part is they only ask if your medications are for any extreme conditions related to their health questions. If you answer “no” truthfully they will approve you on the spot with your agent 95% of the time.

American Amicable final expense insurance has an instant decision feature during their application process where they will ask your agent about any medications that come up on your underwriting. For example if Nitroglycerin comes up on your application and you only used it for emergencies tell this to your agent. The agent can then submit comments along with any documentation you can provide to prove you have not used the Nitroglycerin.

In most cases this will result in American Amicable overturning their decision to put you in a waiting period and change it to a non waiting period policy. This is the beauty of working with an agent like us we are advocates to help you get the best coverage.

Burial Insurance Heart Attack No Medical Exam

Above all, these are simplified issue plans.

This means that unlike fully underwritten policies the carrier will not send out a medical professional to your home to draw blood from you or perform physical tests. In many cases, depending on your health this can result in higher premiums if you are approved or a flat-out decline.

If this happens they may even recommend a guaranteed issue policy with a 2 year waiting period that you may not need considering there’s still the possibility of securing day one coverage.

This is why fully underwritten types of insurance coverage are not ideal for consumers with pre existing conditions.

In today’s world with simplified underwriting this makes securing affordable day one burial insurance with heart attack very possible. It all comes down to how exactly is the condition been treated and how long has it been since the occurence and what medications are you taking?

The carrier simply looks at your Medical Information Bureau Health Report and Prescriptions. A decision can be reached in minutes right over the phone, not days or weeks.

Burial Insurance After a Heart Attack

The biggest factor in securing the right coverage is how long ago was your last heart attack?

When someone has had a previous heart attack it is very common for another one to occur. This is why these companies typically ask within the past 12 months or 24 months on their applications.

The longer you have managed to not have another heart attack the more the carrier sees that you manage your condition very well.

This can go for other conditions as well like heart disease. In conjunction with time, there are also what kinds of medications have you been prescribed, and are you still taking them?

Let’s start with time:

Have you had a Heart Attack within the Past Year?

If you have, then your options are either a Modified Plan or a Guaranteed Issue Policy.

Modified Plan

A Modified Plan would pay 110% of the premiums paid into the policy if death occurs within the 1st year. If death occurs in the 2nd year 231% of the premiums would be paid to the beneficiary. After year 2 the full death benefit is paid to the beneficiary.

Guaranteed Issue Plan

If death occurs within 2 years 110% of the premiums are paid to the beneficiary. After 2 years the full death benefit is paid.

Both plans offer a return on the money paid in with the modified plan being more substantial.

Have you had a Heart Attack over 2 Years Ago?

If you have, then your options are depending on medications and any other health conditions, Level day one coverage.

Level Benefit

The policy pays out 100% of the face amount instantly from day 1 if death were to occur.

Acceptable Medications

Medications have different uses therefore the carriers will look at them as acceptable. These are a few examples of medications that can be looked at as prescribed for heart conditions but also used for high blood pressure.

• Lisinopril
• Atorvastatin
• Moexipril
• Metoprolol
• Fosinopril Sodium
• Atenolol
• Pindolol

Medications that may be looked at more closely

These medications may be looked at differently this would be something one of our agents would assist you with at the time of the application some carriers may decline you based on these this is why it is important to let our agent that you work with know about them so they can help you select the right company.

• Nitroglycerin
• Furosemide
• Carvedilol

With all these factors considered finding the best carrier that looks at your health profile favorably is what’s most important.

Best Burial Insurance Features

Finding the best burial insurance comes down to just a few things.

Does the policy have a rate that is locked in?

This means will the premium stay the same throughout the life of the policy. There are many mainstream carriers being promoted through TV advertising and other sources that do not offer ideal coverage for clients and their unique health profiles.

You may have heard big names like Colonial Penn, Globe Life, Lincoln Heritage, AARP, etc.

We have had clients obtain coverage from many mainstream companies only to find out their rates increased every few years or their death benefit was decreasing over time. As a result, if they did not obtain a better policy with us their family would have been in a bad situation after their passing.

Does the Death Benefit ever Decrease?

As we mentioned death benefits can decrease on the wrong policy. Resulting in what a consumer may have thought was a $10,000 policy only to find out 10 years later it is now a $2,000 policy.

A lot of companies take a “one size fits all.” approach to their clients. This results in a massive disservice and unpersonable approach to you the client.

A burial insurance policy should be a Whole Life Final Expense policy with:

A Rate Lock

Death Benefits that never Decrease

Tax-free Death Benefit to the Beneficiary

Which is exactly what we here at ParamountQuote Specialize in.

Other questions to ask are:

Is the company A-rated?

Have they been in business for over 60+ years?

The tv ad does not dictate what the best carrier and coverage is.

These factors above do.

How Much Burial Insurance Do I Need?

Above all, deciding how much coverage you need will be dependent on the type of service you or your family wants.

Burial Service

A burial ranges between $8,000 – $12,000 national depending on the state. On top of that, there is the very real factor of inflation which could double the rates to potentially $20,000 in the coming years.

You would want to get an accurate price list from your local funeral home on everything you want to be included from there you will know exactly how much coverage you need.

Cremation Service

A cremation service averages nationally around $3,000 – $5,000. This also takes into account inflation with rates possibly increasing to $10,000 or more in the coming years. You can obtain a price list from your local funeral home that will show you exactly how much coverage you need.

The total amount you come up with plus inflation should be the amount of coverage you buy.

How to Apply for Burial Insurance?

Getting started is very simple.

First, fill out the form to your right, you will see instant quotes from the top major carriers in your state. At that point, one of our highly trained agents will be reaching out to you via phone call.

Once you are on the phone with them they will begin the field underwriting process confirm the amount of coverage, your rate class, and proceed to the enrollment. Enrollment can be done in 30 minutes or less with an instant approval right over the phone. There are 2 different methods to signing your application.

Voice Signature – This is conducted between you, the agent, and the insurance company or just you and the agent. You will answer health questions on the application and confirm your voice signature.

E-mail Signature – The agent at the time of the application will send you a DocuSign to your email to e-sign for your application you simply follow the prompts.

After signatures have been collected the carrier will reach an instant decision and will decide whether you are approved or denied.

This process can be done in minutes.