There are many important factors determining a person’s insurability and the amount of premium they will be charged for a life insurance policy. but However, age is the cornerstone gauge upon which your premium is waged. Therefore, no matter how many bench presses you can do or how healthy your lifestyle is, life insurance premiums will be more expensive as you get older.
For simplest reasons this is because the possibility of death increases with age, and so it is the first factor in determining the risk classification a person falls into, which also determines how much they will be paying for coverage.
But according to Edward E. Graves, author of “McGill’s Life Insurance,” it may be surprising to know that proof of age is not often required at the time of application. Obtaining mandatory proof would delay the process, so the applicant’s age is usually accepted unless there is a reason to believe there has been a misstatement.
And in certain cases, age can be the one factor that deems a person uninsurable: All companies have age limits for certain types of insurance (such as refusing to issue insurance to people anywhere from 60 to 95). On the same note, life insurance premiums become progressively more expensive as the policyholder grows older.
This 108-year-old New York Times article celebrates the life of Charles H. Booth, the then-oldest insured man alive who took out a policy with Mutual Life in 1843–the insurer’s first week in existence.
Because some policies completely determine insurability, a misstatement of age could be grounds to rescind the policy if the company finds out.