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Best over 50s life insurance: how to compare
Looking for the best over 50s life insurance in the UK, or a way to compare over 50s life insurance?
We do not rank plans, and no one can name a best plan without knowing you.
This guide sets out how an over 50s plan compares with term and whole of life cover, and what MoneyHelper, the government-backed guidance service, says to check before you buy (MoneyHelper ↗).
Every claim here is our summary of a named external source, linked beside it. Sources change: check the wording at the link before you rely on it.
How to compare over 50s life insurance
“Best” depends on you: your age, your health, what the money is for and how long you might pay.
MoneyHelper says an over 50s plan might suit you if you are in poor health, since there is no medical check, but that it is worth comparing with regular life insurance first (MoneyHelper ↗).
Because the payout is fixed and the premiums run for years, compare the terms in the card, not the headline price or a free gift.
What we compare on
- The waiting period before full cover, and what is paid if a claim falls within it
- What is excluded, such as claims linked to drug or alcohol abuse
- Whether premiums stop at an age or run for life
- The fixed cash sum against the premiums you would pay
- Whether the plan can be written in trust
Waiting period and exclusions are MoneyHelper's examples of terms to check (MoneyHelper ↗).
This page compares. The plan itself is next door.
This guide is for comparing over 50s life insurance with other cover and plans with each other.
If you want to know first what an over 50s plan is, who can get one and how the first year works, start with the over 50s guide.
- The plan
Over 50s life insurance
For what an over 50s plan is: guaranteed acceptance, no medical, the first-year rule, the cost.
How it works → - Lifelong cover
Whole life insurance
For underwritten cover that lasts for life, often used for Inheritance Tax planning.
Read the guide → - Fixed term
Term life insurance
For cover over a set number of years, such as a mortgage term.
Read the guide → - Health
Life insurance with pre-existing conditions
For anyone assuming a health condition rules out regular cover.
Read the guide →
Over 50s plan vs term vs whole of life
Being over 50 does not rule out regular, medically underwritten cover.
MoneyHelper says maximum ages vary by insurer (MoneyHelper ↗); Legal & General, for example, takes applicants for its life insurance aged 18 to 77 (Legal & General ↗).
So an over 50s life insurance comparison is really a comparison of three kinds of cover.
Term runs for a fixed period, such as five, ten or 25 years (MoneyHelper ↗).
Whole of life pays out whenever you pass away, as long as you keep up the premiums (MoneyHelper ↗).
An over 50s plan is a type of whole of life cover with no health questions (Legal & General ↗) (MoneyHelper ↗).
What £25 a month buys: term or an over 50s plan
Legal & General publishes what £25 a month bought on both its level term cover (Legal & General ↗) and its over 50s plan (Legal & General ↗).
Set side by side, they show why MoneyHelper says to compare regular life insurance first (MoneyHelper ↗).
They are not like for like, as the last two rows show, and neither is a quote for you.
If you have a health condition, see life insurance with pre-existing conditions.
Legal & General's published figures, not ours: level term quotes taken on 13 March 2026 (Legal & General ↗); over 50s quotes taken on 8 June 2026 (Legal & General ↗). Re-check both at the links.
Compare over 50s plans on their terms
Two insurers' own published terms, side by side, as an example of what to look for.
This is not a ranking or a recommendation, and it is not the whole market: we show these two because both publish the terms on pages we could check.
Read each insurer's policy documents before you buy.
Terms change; check each at its link. Both insurers say that, depending on how long you live, you may pay more in premiums than the plan pays out (Legal & General ↗) (Aviva ↗).
What to look for in an over 50s plan
Tick what you have done.
The needle shows how far through the checks you are.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent, and it is not a recommendation to buy.
MoneyHelper says to check the waiting period and whether claims linked to drug or alcohol abuse are covered (MoneyHelper ↗), and the FCA tells consumers to use its Firm Checker before buying insurance (FCA ↗).
To compare quotes, MoneyHelper says you can get them from specialist brokers and comparison sites (MoneyHelper ↗).
Tick what you have checked
Eight checks, from MoneyHelper’s guide and the FCA.
Do you actually need over 50s life insurance?
MoneyHelper says over 50s cover is usually not considered good value: take it out in your 50s, live to 80 or more, and you pay in much more than you get out (MoneyHelper ↗).
Alternatives it lists include saving regularly, money already in the bank, death in service benefits from work and Bereavement Support Payment (MoneyHelper ↗).
Type a quote into the box to see how long until the premiums equal the payout.
For the alternatives in full, and how an over 50s plan differs from a funeral plan, see the over 50s life insurance guide.
The premiums paid would equal the cash sum after 20 years and 2 months.
Run a business? There is a business version
Still running a company?
It can pay for life cover on a director.
HMRC's conditions for a relevant life policy include a sum payable on death under a set age that does not exceed 75 (HMRC ↗).
This site is mainly about cover a company buys, and the cards show who each policy pays.
- Pays the business
Key person life insurance
Cover the company owns on someone it relies on, so the payout goes to the business (Legal & General ↗). It needs no trust (Royal London ↗).
Read the guide → - Pays the family
Relevant life insurance
Life cover the company pays for on a director or employee, paid to their family through a trust (Royal London ↗).
Read the guide → - The full set
Business protection insurance
Key person, shareholder protection, loan cover and the director policies, side by side.
Read the guide →
Check it for yourself
Every claim on this page is our summary of one of the documents listed here.
We last checked them against the live sources on 28 September 2026.
The documents are the authority, not this page.
Insurers and HMRC update them, so validate any figure or condition at its link before you rely on it.
- MoneyHelper: Life insurance for over 50s ↗How over 50s plans work, pros and cons, what to check, complaints
- MoneyHelper: What is life insurance? ↗Types of cover, joint or single, cost factors, trusts, buying and cancelling
- Legal & General: Over 50 life insurance ↗Its over 50s plan terms and a published cover example
- Legal & General: Life insurance ↗Its level and decreasing cover, eligibility and a published cover example
- Aviva Trust for life insurance ↗Settlor, trustees and beneficiaries, and Aviva’s two trust forms
- FCA: check a firm before you buy ↗Use the Firm Checker before buying insurance
- HMRC Employment Income Manual, EIM15045 ↗Relevant life policy conditions, including the age limit
- Legal & General key person insurance ↗Key person cover is owned by, and pays, the business
- Royal London relevant life FAQs ↗Relevant life: the employer pays, the family is paid through a trust
- Royal London business protection guide ↗Why key person cover needs no trust
- Aviva: Over 50 life insurance ↗Its plan: ages, the first 12 months, premiums, when they stop, joint cover
- MoneyHelper: Planning and paying for your funeral ↗Funeral plans, and how they differ from over 50s plans
Comparing over 50s cover, answered
Not financial advice. This page is general information. Before buying insurance, the FCA tells consumers to check the firm on its Firm Checker (FCA ↗). For free guidance, see MoneyHelper.