Life insurance in your fifties

What the coverage is now for

• A remaining mortgage balance
• A spouse who would lose pension or Social Security income
• Supporting an ageing parent, or an adult child who depends on you
• Final expenses and estate settlement costs
• Business obligations or a buy-sell agreement
• Leaving something behind deliberately

Decisions on policies you already own

Term policies bought in your thirties start running out in this decade. When one nears its end you generally have options — convert if the option is still live, buy new coverage, let it lapse, or in some cases continue at a sharply higher annual renewal premium.

Making that decision before the term expires is much better than discovering it afterwards. If a conversion option exists, its deadline may already have passed.

If you have a permanent policy

Request an in-force illustration. Universal life policies in particular can underperform the assumptions they were sold on, and the first sign is often a premium increase or a warning that coverage may lapse earlier than projected.

This is worth checking now rather than at seventy, when options are narrower.

Retirement changes the picture

Two things to look at. First, whether group coverage ends at retirement — it usually does, or shrinks substantially. Second, how a survivor would fare on reduced pension and Social Security income.

That second question is where the actual coverage need often turns out to sit.

Underwriting in this decade

Fully underwritten coverage is generally still available and offers the most coverage per dollar. It's worth trying before assuming you need simplified or guaranteed issue, which cost more per dollar of benefit and may carry graded benefits.