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Colonial Penn Life Insurance Policy Help

How much coverage you actually have, billing, beneficiaries and options

Most people who call about a Colonial Penn policy arrive with the same question, and it is usually not the one they expected to be asking. They want to know how much the policy actually pays.

Common reasons people call about a Colonial Penn policy

• Figuring out the actual death benefit. How many units are in force and what they pay at the age the policy was issued.
• Whether there is a waiting period. Policies issued with no health questions and no medical exam commonly pay a limited benefit, often the premiums paid plus interest rather than the full amount, if death occurs early in the policy. On many of them that early period runs two years. The exact period and what it pays during it are written in the policy itself, which is why this is worth confirming now rather than leaving a family to discover it at the worst possible moment.
• Beneficiary changes. Adding or removing a beneficiary, or naming a contingent one.
• Billing. A missed draft, a bank change, or confirming the policy is still paid up to date.
• Whether the coverage is enough. Final expense policies are often bought for a specific cost, and funeral costs have moved since many of these policies were written.
• Whether the premium still makes sense. Particularly where several small policies have accumulated over the years.

Before you call, if you have them

• The insured person's full legal name, as it would have been written on the application
• Roughly what year the policy was bought, even if that is a guess at the decade
• Whatever letter or statement is in hand, including any paperwork showing the number of units
• The name of the bank the monthly premium comes out of, never the account number

None of this is required to start, and plenty of people call with nothing more than a name and a line on a bank statement. Nothing here asks for a policy number, a date of birth or a Social Security number. The insurer does its own identity check when you contact it.

If you are paying for more than one small policy

This is the most common thing worth looking at on final expense coverage. Several small policies bought at different ages, each with its own monthly draft and its own fees, can cost more in total than a single policy covering the same amount. Sometimes consolidating is better and sometimes it is not, because a newer policy is priced at your current age and health, and any policy issued without health questions may restart a waiting period.

That is precisely the calculation worth doing before you change anything, and it is why an agent with no stake in the outcome is useful. Nobody should replace coverage without first pricing what the existing coverage actually provides.

What happens when you call

• You call and a licensed agent answers. You explain what you are trying to find out.
• The agent reads the policy with you. How many units, what they pay, whether a waiting period applies, and whether the beneficiary is current.
• You get a straight answer. If the coverage is fine, the agent will tell you so. There is no cost and no obligation.

Questions people ask