Can You Have More Than One Life Insurance Policy?

The plain and simple answer is Yes, you can get as many life insurance policies as you would like. However, there are some limitations, but they have more to do with the total amount of life insurance coverage you are allowed to have in force. For most people, this will usually not be an issue since the guidelines are pretty generous. Life insurance companies understand you want to leave behind more than enough in the event you were to suddenly pass. General rule of thumb is not to get more than 15 to 30 times your income depending on your age and the carrier you're applying to.

It is quite common for people to acquire more than one life insurance policy in their lifetime. In some instances, we have clients that will purchase a large term policy to cover the most crucial years and a smaller permanent one to have protection when the term expires, usually for final expenses or wealth transfer. Others simply need more life insurance. If you recently got a bigger mortgage, a significant raise or added more children to your family, then you have a good reason to add more life insurance protection. There is a common misconception that like other forms of insurance coverage, life insurance is limited only to one policy.

Great example, we can use is the recent purchase of the largest life insurance policy by a mystery billionaire. It was a $201 million dollar policy, but here is where it gets interesting. To put this giant policy together the broker had to combine two dozen individual policies to get the right amount of coverage from 19 different companies. So as you can see there should not be any issues with the amount of life insurance policies you may have. But if this individual wasn’t a billionaire and had an average salary, then this really wouldn’t be possible.

When applying for life insurance the companies will look at your income, liabilities, and overall need for protection to decide the amount of life insurance you can purchase. In relation to your income, the company will usually allow 15 to 30 times your annual salary depending on the company you choose and your current age. In addition to that, you can acquire more life insurance if you owe money to creditors for a mortgage, student or business loans. Also, if you need more coverage for funding children's college education or special needs child planning then the carrier may allow for more coverage as well.

For business owners there is even more justification for needing larger amounts and more than one life insurance policy. Because besides just getting a policy for personal use you'll also need one for business. But let's see if you really need to have more than one policy. 

If you got your answer and simply want a quote. Click on the button below to compare rates instantly with top rated life insurers. 

You may be wondering if it is better to have multiple policies from different companies but that may not be always the best way to go. For example, most large insurers will provide a discounted rate when you buy certain amounts of coverage like $500,000, $750,000 or $1 million so is best to take advantage of those savings and not spread yourself too thin. Now in the case of needing a big amount of coverage like anything over $20 million then it makes sense to get multiple policies or if you want certain term lengths for different needs. Let's say that you want a 30-year term for your $500,000 mortgage and another 20-year term to cover your kids while they are young, then again a multiple policy approach makes sense.

Another common reason people get life insurance from multiple companies is that if one goes under the other company will still be there. This is not something that you should be of a big concern if you're going with a reputable company that has been around over 100 years, besides if a company goes under they are usually bought out by a competitor who assumes the responsibility for the books of business.

Most individuals who are simply looking to protect their families during the most important years can be totally okay with just getting one policy. In fact, what's more important is to make sure that you have an adequate amount of life insurance coverage. Last thing you want to do is leaving your family under insured. If you want to get the right amount click on the image below. 

The answer is, YES! If you or someone you loved had multiple life policies you can claim the death benefit on all of them. The typical claims process involves you gathering the death certificate and filling out a claim form for each company. After the claim is submitted it will take the company about 10 days to process the claim.

It can take longer in some cases if there was something out of the ordinary like if the death occurred overseas or the company suspects suicide or fraud. 

If you're trying to get multiple policies you can save yourself a ton of time and headache by doing it the right way. The key is to work with an agent or agency that represent all the companies which will allow to use one medical exam and records for all companies without having to jump through new hoops. This will not be possible if you go directly to each carrier or use different agents which doesn't benefit you since life insurance rates are fixed by the law and you get the same deal everywhere.

You'll also want to make sure that you are getting pre-qualified correctly so you can get the best rate possible because each company will look at you differently. For instance, one company may give you a standard rate for cholesterol/blood pressure while company B will give you a preferred rate.

Now once you secure an approval from the companies make sure that everything in the policy is exactly what you were told. We also highly recommend getting life insurance policies that have a certain set of riders(add-ons). The two most important ones are convertibility rider which will allow you to convert your term policy to a whole or universal life without any underwriting, this is usually built in at no cost to you. The other rider you want to make sure you have is accelerated death benefit rider, which will advance up to 50% of the death benefit if you have 12 months or less to live.

It is very common that people reach out to us after buying a bigger home or having another child and needing to get some additional life insurance on top of what they currently have. And because it is not their first rodeo they can be hesitant since they know most life insurance plan take a lot of paperwork, a medical exam and long approval times. 

Luckily, there are companies now offering up to $1 million dollars of life insurance without a medical examination. You can complete a 10 minute application, sign the policy electronically and get approved within 10 minutes to few days. The policy is also delivered to you via email so is a very hassle free process. Click the button below to check out rates with all the no exam companies. 

Now that you know you can buy multiple policies, feel free to use our quote engine to compare rates from all the top companies in one place. However, if you need a policy with a larger face amount call us and we will structure one for you. Oh, and by working with an independent agency like ours, we can use one exam for all the companies we represent as mentioned before. Welcome to InsureChance!