Retirement changes what your family would lose
Once you stop working, the income your partner would lose is no longer a salary. It is your pension. Some pensions keep paying a reduced amount to a surviving spouse. Others stop on death, or pay nothing to an unmarried partner. Your state pension stops too.
Check what your pensions would pay your partner. If the household would drop to one income while the bills stay much the same, a policy can fill the gap.
Some people in their 60s are still working, either full time or winding down. If your partner relies on your salary until you both retire, a short term policy can protect those last working years.
Mortgages that run into later life
More people now carry a mortgage past 60, through longer terms, later house moves or interest-only loans. A retirement interest-only mortgage is repaid when the last borrower dies or moves into long-term care, usually from the sale of the house.
If you want your partner or children to keep the home without selling, life cover sized to the loan can repay it. Term cover works for a loan with a set end date. Whole of life fits a loan with no end date.
Equity release is another form of later-life borrowing. The loan, plus rolled-up interest, is usually repaid from the sale of your home after death or a move into care. Life cover can leave your family a sum to make up for what equity release takes.
What underwriting looks like at this age
Expect more detailed health questions and, for larger sums, a GP report or a nurse screening. Many people in their 60s take some regular medication. Treated, stable conditions such as controlled blood pressure often lead to standard or modestly increased terms.
Insurers set an oldest age for starting a policy and for its end date, and the limits differ between them. A broker can find insurers whose limits fit the term you want.
Smokers and people with several health conditions may find premiums high for fully underwritten cover. An over-50s plan with no health questions can still be useful, though the sum is smaller and early claims are limited.
Funerals, gifts and the tax bill
Some people want a small, simple policy to pay for their funeral. An over-50s plan, or a modest whole of life policy, can do that. Others want to protect large gifts made to children, since a gift can still count for inheritance tax if you die within seven years.
For bigger estates, a joint whole of life policy written in trust and paying on the second death is the most common way to fund an expected inheritance tax bill.
Some people in their 60s want to help grandchildren with university or a first home. A policy in trust can leave money for them, though gifts made now may be simpler if you can afford them.
How Hi Tomorrow helps people in their 60s
We start with what you want the money to do. Then we compare fully underwritten cover with simpler plans, so you can see whether answering health questions would get your family more for the same monthly cost.
We help with the forms, any medical evidence and the trust, and we stay available to your family if they ever need to claim.