Home Life insurance Types of life insurance What is final expense insurance and how does it work? What is final expense insurance and how does it work? Final expense insurance is a small whole life policy that covers your funeral and burial, best used when your health or age rules out cheaper coverage. View Carriers Please enter valid zip Compare top carriers in your area Written by Desiree Ghazi | Reviewed by Nupur GambhirNupur GambhirEditor-in-ChiefNupur Gambhir is the editor-in-chief of Insure.com and a licensed life, health and disability insurance agent in New York with seven years of experience covering insurance. Her expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Balance, The Financial Gym and MSN. She holds a BA in Economics from The Ohio State University.VIEW FULL PROFILESee moreSee less | Updated onAugust 21, 2026 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. For a deeper dive into our process, see our complete methodology. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry. Final expense insurance is a small whole life policy, usually $5,000 to $50,000, that pays your family cash to settle the costs your death creates — the funeral, the cemetery, unpaid medical bills, and any debts left behind. It also goes by burial insurance and funeral insurance, and it’s built for people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who can’t pass the health screening a regular life insurance policy requires. The coverage is sized for a final bill, not for supporting anyone afterward. A policy this small won’t replace your income, pay off a mortgage, or put a grandchild through school, and it’s the most expensive life insurance per dollar of coverage on the market. Buy it if your age or health has closed off a traditional policy. If you’re in decent health, price term or whole life first — you’ll get more coverage for less every time, and you can come back to final expense if you’re declined. Build the plan before you buy the policy Three steps that decide whether your family is covered or short. Add up your actual final bill before you pick a coverage amount. The funeral or cremation, the cemetery plot and marker, any medical debt you expect to leave, and the credit card balances still open. Buy above that number and you pay more every month than those bills require. Buy below it and your family covers the rest. Keep a few thousand dollars in a payable-on-death bank account. A life insurance claim takes days to weeks and needs a certified death certificate first, but the funeral bill comes due before then. A payable-on-death account transfers to the person you name within days, with no probate. Tell one person where the policy is and what the insurer’s claim number is. Insurers don’t call your family when you die. Benefits go unclaimed every year because nobody knew a policy existed. What does final expense insurance cover? Final expense insurance covers your end-of-life expenses, and it pays your beneficiary in cash so they can settle those bills as they arrive. Funeral or cremation services, including the casket, hearse, staff and viewing Cemetery charges, meaning the plot, the grave opening and closing, and the marker Unpaid medical and hospice bills from your final months Legal and probate fees for settling the estate Outstanding debts, including credit card balances and medical debt “Final expense life insurance covers funeral and burial costs, medical care, hospice care, legal fees, and even day-to-day household expenses,” says Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute. Coverage limits typically run $5,000 to $50,000, according to Friedlander, though some insurers write more. Nothing legally restricts how your beneficiary spends the money. What limits it is the size — $10,000 covers a funeral and a few bills, and stops there. If your goal is leaving your family something to live on, you need a traditional term life insurance policy, not this final expense coverage. How much does a funeral cost? A funeral with viewing and burial had a median cost of $8,300, according to the most recent data from the National Funeral Directors Association. That amount covers the funeral home’s services, casket, hearse and staff, but not the cemetery plot, grave marker, flowers or obituary, so the bill your family actually pays lands higher. Here’s the median for each type of service. Funeral with viewing and burial, $8,300. The same funeral with a burial vault, $9,995. Funeral with cremation, $6,280. Much like everything else, burial expenses are getting more expensive. Burial costs rose almost 6% over two years, from $7,848 to $8,300. Cremation now accounts for the majority of services, so a policy sized against the burial figure buys thousands in coverage a cremation family will never spend. Ask your family which one they’d choose before you pick an amount. How much does final expense insurance cost? Final expense insurance costs about $28 a month for a 55-year-old woman and $36 for a man the same age, for $10,000 in coverage. A woman who buys at 65 pays $41 and a man $54, and at 75 those rise to $71 and $97. If you have a policy long enough, your premiums can total more than the death benefit your family collects. The policy asks no health questions and can’t turn you down, which is what you’re paying the extra for. If you can pass a medical exam, compare a term or whole life policy first, and if you can set the money aside yourself, a savings account covers the same bills without the premium. What are the different types of final expense insurance? Simplified issue and guaranteed issue are the two ways to buy final expense coverage, and the difference is whether the insurer asks about your health. Answering questions gets you a lower price and a benefit that pays from day one. Skipping them gets you accepted no matter what, at the highest price on the market. Simplified issue asks a short list of health questions and no medical exam. Answer them acceptably and the full death benefit is payable immediately. Guaranteed issue asks nothing and accepts everyone, including people who are already seriously ill, which is exactly why it costs more than any other policy. Die of natural causes in the first two years and your family gets your premiums back plus interest instead of the face amount, though an accidental death pays in full during that window. Apply for a simplified issue policy before you take a guaranteed issue one. Conditions like controlled diabetes and high blood pressure often still qualify. Getting approved means a lower premium and full coverage from day one, instead of the two-year wait that comes with guaranteed issue. Who should buy final expense insurance? Final expense insurance is the most expensive coverage available, so treat it as the option you land on after the others are gone. It fits people who need a funeral covered and can’t get underwritten anywhere else, says Majorie Ma, assistant vice president of life product management at USAA. Here’s who should consider it: Seniors turned down for traditional coverage, who need a few thousand dollars guaranteed rather than an income replaced. People with serious health conditions that make regular underwriting a dead end, including anyone already declined once. Anyone whose savings won’t cover a funeral and who has nobody able to front $8,300 on short notice. Skip it if you’re in decent health at any age, if you already hold a life insurance policy large enough to cover a funeral, or if you have the cash set aside and named for it. Final expense insurance calculator STEP 1 OF 3 How much do you think your funeral will cost? Funeral Cost:$12,000 $0 $25,000 STEP 2 OF 3 Do you expect to have unpaid debts at the time of your death? Yes ($30 or less) Yes (More than $30) No STEP 3 OF 3 What is the estimated amount of debts your family will need to pay? Family Debt:$12,000 $0 $25,000 Based on the information you provided, we recommend Based on the information you provided, we recommend the $24,000 or more in final expense life insurance coverage. Traditional life insurance calculator Now that you know what final expense insurance coverage you need, take the next step to protect your family's future: Your coverage needs exceed the average final expense life insurance policy limits. Check out the traditional life insurance calculator to calculate your total life insurance needs. Edit Details Recalculate Share Calculator What should you check before you buy a final expense policy? Two final expense policies with identical monthly premiums can pay your family wildly different amounts. The details below decide which one you’re holding, and every one of them is a phone call away. Whether the full death benefit is payable from day one, because a graded or waiting-period policy refunds your premiums instead if you die early. Whether the premium is guaranteed never to rise, since some policies marketed as burial insurance raise rates as you age or cut off coverage at 80. The insurer’s AM Best rating, where A- or better is the standard mark of a company that will still be paying claims decades from now. Quotes from at least three insurers, because the same 65-year-old can see a $20 monthly spread between carriers for identical coverage. What are the alternatives to final expense insurance? Term life, whole life, a savings account and a trust all cover a funeral for less than final expense insurance costs. Which one fits comes down to your health and how long you need the coverage to last. A term life policy is the cheapest coverage by a wide margin if you’re in decent health. It expires on a set date, so buy a term long enough to outlast the debts you’re covering. A whole life policy costs more than term but never expires, which is what makes it worth the money for a funeral you can’t put a date on. It also builds cash value you can borrow against while you’re alive. Money in a savings account or trust costs you nothing in premiums. A trust is the stronger version, because your family can spend it immediately instead of waiting on probate or a claim. Prepaying a funeral home locks in today’s price but ties your money to that business staying open and to that one location, which is why we don’t recommend it. When is another option better than final expense insurance? Final expense insurance is the wrong buy in any situation where an insurer will underwrite you or your family already has money coming. Here’s when to put your premium somewhere else. You’re in decent health and under 70. A whole life policy pays your family several times more for the same monthly payment. You already hold a life insurance policy. A $100,000 term policy covers an $8,300 funeral with room to spare, so a second small policy pays for coverage you have. You have $10,000 or more in savings you don’t plan to spend. Moving it into a payable-on-death account or a trust gets it to your family in days without probate, and you keep every dollar you’d have paid in premiums. You were declined once but never applied elsewhere. Underwriting standards vary between insurers, and one decline for a condition like controlled diabetes doesn’t mean the next insurer says no. Is final expense insurance worth it? Final expense insurance is worth buying when you’ve been declined for traditional coverage, your savings won’t cover a funeral, and the alternative is leaving your family a bill that is upwards of $10,000. Paying above market rate beats leaving nothing. It isn’t worth it if you’re in decent health, if your existing life insurance already covers a funeral, or if the savings are already sitting there. Each of those routes pays your family more for less money. It’s also the wrong tool if what you want is to leave someone financially supported — these policies cover a bill, and the coverage caps make anything beyond that impossible. Before you sign, get quotes from three insurers, answer the health questions instead of defaulting to a no-questions policy, confirm in writing that the premium can never rise, and name a beneficiary who knows the policy exists. It offers “a way to cover last wishes and any other expenses you provide for your loved ones,” Ma says. What to read next What is term life insurance and how does it work? How much term life insurance costs Types of life insurance No-medical-exam life insurance: What it is and how it works What is instant life insurance? Permanent life insurance: What it is and how it works The different types of term life insurance policies explained What is universal life insurance? Whole life insurance: What it is and how it works What seniors need to know about buying life insurance What happens if you outlive your term life insurance? What is indexed universal life insurance? The limitations of group life insurance What is simplified issue life insurance? What is variable universal life insurance? A marijuana user's guide to buying life insurance The basics of group life insurance Term life insurance for seniors Term vs. perm life insurance: Which one is right for you? What is optional term life insurance? How to buy group life insurance for your small business Show more Frequently asked questions How much does final expense insurance cost? Coverage of $10,000 runs $50 to $100 a month on average. Your price depends on your age, sex, coverage amount and health answers. Do I need a medical exam to buy final expense insurance? Insurers skip the exam on these policies. Simplified issue asks a short list of health questions, and guaranteed issue asks none. How long before final expense insurance pays out? Simplified issue policies pay the full benefit as soon as the policy is in force. Guaranteed issue policies refund premiums instead of paying the face amount if you die of natural causes in the first two years. Can I be turned down for final expense insurance? Simplified issue policies can decline you over serious conditions. Guaranteed issue policies accept everyone in their age range, which is what you fall back on after a decline. Can final expense insurance pay off my mortgage? Coverage caps at $50,000 with most insurers, and the average policy is a fraction of that. A mortgage needs term or whole life coverage sized to the balance. × Get Free Life Insurance Quotes Today! Zip Code Please enter valid zip Age Age16 – 2021 – 2425 – 3435 – 4445 – 5455 – 6465+ Coverage Amount Coverage AmountUnder $50,000$50,000 – $100,000$100,000 – $200,000$200,000 – $300,000$400,000 – $500,000$500,000 – $1,000,000$1,000,000 – $2,000,000$2,000,000 – $5,000,000$5,000,000+ Coverage Type Coverage TypeWhole LifeTerm LifeFinal ExpenseNot Sure Gender GenderMaleFemaleNon-Binary Tobacco Use Yes No Compare Quotes Related Articles How much is a $500,000 life insurance policy? By Maryalene LaPonsie How to read your life insurance policy By Alisha Ambre Mortgage protection insurance: Who needs it and why By Alisha Ambre Life insurance for people with Down syndrome: What families can actually get By Alisha Ambre Is a $2 million life insurance policy worth it? Costs by age and term By Maryalene LaPonsie The 10 largest life insurance companies By Alisha Ambre On this page What does final expense insurance cover?How much does a funeral cost?How much does final expense insurance cost?What are the different types of final expense insurance?Who should buy final expense insurance?Final expense insurance calculatorWhat should you check before you buy a final expense policy?What are the alternatives to final expense insurance?When is another option better than final expense insurance?Is final expense insurance worth it?Frequently asked questions ZIP Code Please enter valid ZIP See rates 1-888-984-2609