Get covered without a blood test, urine sample, or doctor visit. Compare no-exam burial insurance — including guaranteed acceptance options — from A-rated carriers, with coverage approved in as little as 24 hours.
No medical exam life insurance lets you get covered without a physical, blood draw, or urine test. For seniors, the most practical no-exam product is final expense (burial) insurance — a small whole life policy, typically $5,000 to $25,000, designed to cover funeral costs and final bills so they never fall on your family.
Traditional life insurance can take weeks and often requires a nurse to visit your home for lab work. No-exam coverage skips all of that. You answer a short application — or, with guaranteed acceptance life insurance, no health questions at all — and you can be approved within 24 hours. Below, we explain how no-exam burial insurance works, who it's for, and how to choose between simplified-issue and guaranteed acceptance coverage.
Both are 100% no-exam. The right one depends on your health and how quickly you need full coverage.
No-exam coverage exists because traditional underwriting shuts a lot of people out. If you're a senior who has been declined before, or you manage a chronic condition, no medical exam life insurance is often your most realistic path to coverage. It's a strong fit for:
For more on qualifying with health issues, see our blog post on life insurance with pre-existing conditions and our guide to life insurance for seniors over 50.
A no-exam policy doesn't mean the carrier ignores risk — it means they assess it differently. Simplified-issue carriers rely on your application answers, prescription-history databases, and the MIB (Medical Information Bureau) instead of a physical. Guaranteed acceptance carriers price the risk into the premium and the graded period, which is why they can approve everyone. Either way, you skip the needle and the wait.
This is exactly where matching matters. Each carrier weighs conditions differently, so the company that quotes you a graded policy may not be the one offering day-one coverage for your exact profile. Our process compares multiple A-rated carriers at once to surface your best no-exam option — you can read more about it on our how it works page.
For most healthy adults aged 50–65, a $10,000 no-exam final expense policy runs roughly $30 to $80 per month. A 75-year-old might pay $80–$150 for the same coverage. Guaranteed acceptance costs a little more than simplified issue because of the guaranteed approval. Rates depend on your age, gender, tobacco use, and coverage amount — and they're locked in for life once you're approved.
Funeral costs vary widely by location — the national average is $10,000 to $15,000 — so it's worth checking typical burial costs in your area on our state pages before choosing a coverage amount. Our guide on how much burial insurance costs and our blog post on life insurance cost by age break the numbers down further.
Applying takes minutes. You'll provide your date of birth, answer a few health questions (or none, for guaranteed acceptance), choose your coverage amount and beneficiary, and make your first payment. Most applicants get a decision within 24 hours. To understand the full sequence, read our step-by-step guide to how final expense insurance works, and for tips on fast approval see instant approval life insurance and no medical exam life insurance.
People often assume a no-exam application interrogates their entire medical history. It does not. A simplified-issue questionnaire is usually five to fifteen yes-or-no questions aimed at a short list of serious situations, not at every prescription in the cabinet. Carriers typically want to know about a cancer diagnosis or treatment in the last one to two years, congestive heart failure, oxygen use for a lung condition, kidney dialysis, a recent stroke or heart attack, organ transplant, HIV, current nursing home or hospice confinement, and terminal diagnosis.
Everything outside that list is generally fine. Controlled high blood pressure, controlled type 2 diabetes without serious complications, high cholesterol, arthritis, a heart condition that has been stable for several years, and a long-since-quit smoking history usually still qualify for immediate, level benefit coverage. Answer honestly regardless of what you think the answer will trigger — the two-year contestability window lets an insurer review the application after a claim, and a misstatement discovered then can cost your beneficiary the entire benefit.
If your health routes you to a guaranteed acceptance plan, the policy carries a graded death benefit for roughly the first two years. During that window, death from natural causes does not pay the face amount; the carrier refunds the premiums paid plus interest, commonly around 10 percent. Death from an accident is normally covered in full from day one. After the graded period ends, the policy pays the entire face amount for any cause, and nothing about the premium or the benefit changes again.
That structure is what lets a carrier accept someone it has asked no health questions about. It is a real limitation, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than buried — but it is not a reason to skip coverage. For someone who cannot pass simplified-issue questions, a graded policy is the difference between a funeral that is funded and one that is not. The mistake to avoid is accepting a graded plan without first checking whether a different carrier would have offered you immediate coverage. Our post on no waiting period burial insurance covers exactly that question.
A fully underwritten policy takes four to eight weeks, involves a paramedical exam with blood and urine samples, and pulls prescription history, motor vehicle records, and MIB data. In exchange, a healthy applicant can buy a much larger face amount at a much lower cost per thousand dollars of coverage. If you are in good health, under 60, and need several hundred thousand dollars to replace an income or cover a mortgage, full underwriting is almost always the better economic choice.
No-exam final expense coverage is built for the opposite situation: a smaller amount, a faster answer, an older applicant, and a health history that full underwriting would penalize or reject outright. You pay more per thousand dollars of coverage, and in return you get approval in about 24 hours, no needles, and a policy that cannot be taken away later. Comparing the two on price alone misses the point — they are solving different problems, as our guide on final expense vs. term life lays out.
Once a carrier accepts the application, coverage typically begins as soon as the first premium clears, and the policy documents arrive by mail or email within a couple of weeks. Every state requires a free look period — usually 10 to 30 days — during which you can cancel for a full refund of premium with no questions asked. Read the schedule page when it arrives and check three things: the face amount, the beneficiary name and spelling, and whether the benefit is listed as level or graded.
After that, the work is maintenance. Put the premium on automatic payment so a missed draft cannot lapse the policy, tell the person you named that the policy exists and where the paperwork lives, and update the beneficiary after a divorce, a death, or a birth. A death benefit is paid on the beneficiary designation, not on a will — an outdated name on that line is one of the few mistakes that cannot be corrected after the fact.
No blood draws, no urine samples, no in-home health exam to schedule.
Diabetes, COPD, heart disease, prior cancer — many applicants still qualify.
If health questions are a barrier, a no-questions policy is available to virtually everyone 50–85.
Most applicants are approved within 24 hours, with same-day coverage on many policies.
Your premium never increases and the policy never expires while premiums are paid.
The death benefit goes directly to your beneficiary, tax-free, to use however they need.
No blood tests. No doctor visits. No commitment. Compare no-exam burial insurance from A-rated carriers instantly.
No medical exam · Guaranteed acceptance available · Coverage in 24 hours
No medical exam life insurance is coverage you can qualify for without a physical, blood test, or urine sample. Instead of medical underwriting, carriers use your answers to a short application — and sometimes no health questions at all — to approve you. Final expense (burial) insurance is the most common type of no-exam coverage for seniors, with face amounts from $5,000 to $25,000.
Simplified-issue policies ask a handful of yes/no health questions and offer lower rates with full day-one coverage for most applicants. Guaranteed acceptance (also called guaranteed issue) policies ask no health questions and cannot decline you within the eligible age range — but they typically include a two-to-three-year graded period and slightly higher premiums. Both require no medical exam.
Yes. No-exam burial insurance is specifically designed for seniors with health conditions. Many applicants with diabetes, COPD, high blood pressure, heart disease, or a history of cancer qualify for simplified-issue coverage. If a condition prevents simplified-issue approval, guaranteed acceptance life insurance is available to virtually everyone aged 50–85.
No-exam coverage can cost slightly more than fully underwritten policies because the carrier takes on more unknown risk — but for final expense amounts ($5,000–$25,000) the difference is small, and most seniors find the convenience and guaranteed approval well worth it. Our matching process compares carriers to find the lowest no-exam rate for your profile.
Most no-exam final expense policies offer $5,000 to $25,000 in coverage, with some carriers going up to $50,000. That range is intended to cover funeral and burial costs (typically $10,000–$15,000) plus any small debts or medical bills you'd want cleared.
Very fast. Because there's no exam to schedule and no lab results to wait on, most no-exam applicants are approved within 24 hours, and many simplified-issue policies provide coverage starting the same day you apply.
Usually, yes. Guaranteed acceptance policies typically include a graded death benefit for the first two to three years — if you pass from natural causes during that window, the carrier refunds your premiums plus interest rather than paying the full amount. Accidental death is generally covered in full from day one. After the graded period, the full benefit is paid for any cause.