Final expense and burial insurance
Final expense insurance for seniors: when premiums pass the payout
Type the monthly premium and face amount from a quote. The calculator gives the age at which you will have paid in the face amount, and the odds of living past it.
Independent site, not an insurer or a broker, and not a funeral home or a government agency.
Final expense policy: when premiums pass the face amount
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Premiums equal the face amount at
age 78
| Chance of being alive then | 69% |
| Premiums paid, on average, before death | $13,562 |
| Half of people your age live past | age 84 |
| Most you can pay in | no limit |
NCHS US life tables 2024, whole population. Uses only the premium you type: no price is suggested.
Final expense insurance, also sold as funeral or burial insurance, is a small whole life policy, usually with a face amount of a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dollars, sold to people in their fifties to eighties to pay for a funeral and final bills. The premium is level and the cover lasts for life, so the key number is how many years of premiums it takes to pay in the face amount. A man of 65 quoted $60 a month for $10,000 of cover pays $720 a year and reaches the face amount at age 78. On the NCHS United States life table, 69% of men his age are still alive then, and on average he would pay $13,562 in premiums before his death. That does not make the policy a bad buy, since it pays at once if death comes early, but it is the trade to understand. This site shows no premiums: the calculator uses only the quote you type.
Data read and sums checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the figures are worked out
The same premium at different ages
A premium of $60 a month for $10,000 of cover reaches the face amount after the same number of years at any age. What changes is the chance of living that long. Real premiums rise with age at purchase; type your own quote into the calculator.
| Age at purchase | Premiums equal face at | Alive then, men | Alive then, women | Paid on average, men | Paid on average, women |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 68 | 84% | 90% | $19,113 | $21,363 |
| 60 | 73 | 78% | 85% | $16,237 | $18,263 |
| 65 | 78 | 69% | 78% | $13,562 | $15,315 |
| 70 | 83 | 56% | 65% | $11,054 | $12,507 |
| 75 | 88 | 37% | 47% | $8,695 | $9,844 |
| 80 | 93 | 18% | 25% | $6,548 | $7,441 |
How to read the break-even
The break-even age is a simple ratio: the face amount divided by the yearly premium, added to your age today. It ignores interest, which favors the insurer, and it ignores rising funeral prices, which work against the fixed face amount. If you would be likely to live well past the break-even, the money paid in premiums could have been saved instead, and would have grown. If you are likely to die before it, the policy pays more than you put in. The table shows that at most ages the odds lean toward living past it, which is how the insurer covers its claims and costs.
Population life tables cover everyone, including people in poor health. Insurers that ask health questions accept healthier applicants on better terms, so the odds for those policyholders are a little longer than the table; policies with no health questions accept everyone and are priced for it, often with a waiting period on the full benefit.
Sizing the face amount
A face amount bought today is spent at the funeral, years from now, when prices will be higher. The burial insurance calculator sets a face amount against the spending per death of your state at the age you are likely to reach. The funeral cost calculator takes off what the VA and Social Security pay, and what you have set aside, before you decide how much cover to buy. Nationally, death-care businesses took in $8,219 per death at September 2026 prices; that average includes every burial with a plot and a headstone, so a simple cremation can need far less.
Reading a quote
- Is the premium level for life, or does it rise or stop at a set age?
- Is the full face amount paid from the first day, or is there a graded period?
- Does the face amount stay fixed, or does it grow?
- Who is the beneficiary: a person you choose, or a funeral home?
- What is the cash surrender value after five and ten years?