The Unexpected Way COVID Makes it Easier to Protect Your Family
COVID-19 has changed America in profound ways, almost all of them bad — 300,000 dead, millions jobless, children kept out of classrooms, countless lives upended.
However, there’s one unexpected way it’s made things more convenient: It’s becoming easier to get life insurance without going through the rigamarole of getting a medical exam.
There’s been a surge of interest in life insurance during the pandemic, as more Americans are realizing they probably need it. But for many people, social distancing mandates and fear of infection have prevented them from going to a doctor for an in-person exam.
That’s leading more people to seek out no-exam life insurance, and it’s causing more insurers to offer this option. For a lot of customers, COVID-19 is changing the way life insurance works.
No Hoops to Jump Through
Historically, getting a life insurance policy has always been kind of a pain. You had to jump through a bunch of hoops — sign a million forms, go to a doctor’s office to get a physical and bloodwork done, then send a stack of paperwork to an insurance agent. The whole ordeal typically took weeks.
But newer companies like Bestow are updating and disrupting the life insurance industry’s traditional way of doing business. Bestow uses algorithms instead of medical exams to evaluate applicants.
Customers who want life insurance to be fast and easy can quickly get a free quote from Bestow without an exam — or without even getting up from the couch. In fact, most customers who apply for a Bestow policy do it from their phones, the company says.
With the pandemic still raging, it’s a simple fact of life that more Americans are deciding to get life insurance. Overall, Americans have been buying about 10% more life insurance policies in 2020 than they did in 2019 — the largest increase in nearly two decades, according to the life insurance industry group LIMRA.
Insurers are offering more no-exam life insurance policies as well, LIMRA says.
People tend to overestimate the cost of life insurance. For instance, nearly half of millennials think life insurance costs about five times what it actually does, according to a study by LIMRA.
With Bestow, for example, rates start at just $16 a month. If you’re under the age of 54 and want to get a fast life insurance quote without a medical exam or even getting up from the couch, it only takes minutes to get a free quote.
