Over-50s life insurance cost depends on three things you tell the provider: your age, whether you smoke, and either the monthly amount you want to pay or the cash sum you want left. There is no single going rate, and every provider's published example uses a different age, premium or cover amount, so the figures below show how each plan prices cover, not which is cheapest.
Pricing a plan at your own age needs your own details: the short form here sets up a free call from a broker with FCA authorisation, and takes a few minutes.
What sets the monthly price of an over-50s plan
The price rests on a short list. Post Office says "the cost depends on your age, whether you smoke and how much cover you would like", and that the premium is then fixed from the start unless you choose an increasing amount of cover.
The unusual feature is that you can start from either end. Aviva lets you "choose the premium you want to pay each month or you can choose the level of cover", and if you pick the cover, the price follows from your age and smoking. SunLife works the other way round: the payout is set by your age and smoker status at the start and by the monthly payment you choose.
Age pushes the price one way. MoneyHelper's guide to over-50s plans (page undated; Wayback capture of 29 September 2026) says: "Remember, the older you are, the more your monthly premium will be for the same payout." Health questions are not part of it: the same guide says you "don't need to answer any health questions or get a medical check to be accepted for cover".
What providers publish as their own examples
Each of the figures below is one provider's illustration of its own plan, on its own basis and date. None is a quote, and none is what you will pay. They are not set side by side here because the bases differ.
SunLife shows what a non-smoker could get for £20 a month, "correct as at October 2025": £5,694 if the plan starts at 50 and £1,442 if it starts at 80. The table was still on its page on 19 October 2026, but it is a year old, so its current rates may differ. The same page says its plans "could cost you anything from £4 to £74 a month", with the £4 premium available depending on age and smoker status, and a limit of £100 a month across its plans. The SunLife over-50s plan has the full table.
Legal & General uses £25 a month for people who do not smoke. Its quotes, taken from its website on 8 June 2026, gave a cash sum of £7,643 for someone starting at 50 and £1,893 for someone starting at 80. It lists premiums from £5 to £75 a month, depending on age and smoker status, and its policy summary (QGI12836 11/2025) caps the cash sum at £10,000 across all your Over 50s policies with it.
Aviva capped the premium at £25 in its worked examples (page updated 16 September 2026). A 51-year-old non-smoker was eligible for a cover amount of 7,988 (Aviva's figure, in pounds), a 74-year-old non-smoker £2,533, and a 65-year-old smoker £3,002. They are there to show how age and smoking change the cover for a fixed premium.
Post Office turns the question round, giving the premium for a fixed £5,000 of cover for non-smokers: £18.99 a month at 50 and £76.63 at 80. (The page is undated; read 19 October 2026.) Its plan is underwritten by Aviva, but the example is Post Office's own illustration and sits on a different basis from Aviva's.
Scottish Friendly quotes "from just 23p a day" for a 50-year-old non-smoker with £2,000 of cover, and adds that the cost "could be more than this" depending on age, smoking and the level of cover.
Which plan is cheapest, and how to compare fairly
These examples cannot answer that. One shows cover for £20, another cover for £25, another the price of £5,000, and the ages, smoker status, dates and minimum premiums are not the same. A plan that looks cheaper on one provider's chosen example may not be on yours. So this page does not name a cheapest plan; a fair claim to be cheapest would need the same age, the same smoker status and the same date.
To compare for yourself, ask each provider (or a broker) for a quote on identical inputs: your own age, the same smoker answer, and either the same monthly premium or the same cover amount. If you fix the premium, compare the cash sum; if you fix the cash sum, compare the premium. Then read the other terms, because two plans with similar prices can behave differently if you die early or stop paying. Best life insurance over 50 sets those terms side by side, and funeral cover compared looks at the funeral-insurance end of the market.
Could you pay in more than the plan pays out?
Yes. Legal & General's policy summary states: "Depending on how long you live, total premiums paid may be greater than the cash sum we pay on death." Starting younger does not avoid this: Aviva's cost page notes that taking cover out younger can mean paying more in premiums overall than the sum paid on death.
MoneyHelper puts it more bluntly. It says over-50s plans are "usually not considered to be good value" because someone who takes one out in their 50s and lives to an average age of 80 or above ends up paying in much more than they get out. Premiums run "for the rest of your life or the age set out in the policy agreement", and the payout "stays the same and won't keep up with rising prices". Is over-50s life insurance worth it? weighs the argument, and guaranteed acceptance life insurance covers who qualifies.
Lining up a monthly amount, a payout and a stopping age is easier with real numbers in front of someone, and sending your details through the form here arranges a call with a broker for that.
The first year or two: what you get if you die early
Cost is not only the monthly figure, because the first period of a plan pays differently. MoneyHelper tells buyers to check "how long the waiting period is before they will pay out". Aviva's cost page gives its rule for the first 12 months: an accidental death in that time pays "the full cover amount", and for a death from "any other cause" it will "refund all premiums paid". Legal & General's page has the same shape "within the first year": it will "refund any premiums paid", though for a death caused by an accident "full cover will be paid".
The period is not always a year: Scottish Friendly returns the premiums paid for a death other than by accident in the first 2 years. Best life insurance over 50 sets each provider's early-death rule side by side, and funeral cover waiting periods and waiting periods on life insurance explain how qualifying periods work.
How online over-50s calculators estimate the price
A provider's own calculator is a lookup into that provider's own rates. Aviva's calculator, for example, asks for three things: "type in your age, say whether you smoke, and choose one of the three example premiums: £10, £20 and £30." It returns the cover you could apply for at that premium. It says the result "isn't guaranteed and may change after you complete a quote", and calls it a guideline for what a different cover amount might cost. In a real quote you can choose a premium between £5 and £100 a month.
That is why the same few inputs, age, smoking and a premium or cover amount, are all a calculator needs: they are the same inputs the plan prices on. It is also why two calculators need not agree, since each is showing one provider's rates. A calculator that suggests how much cover you need is doing something different from pricing. This page does not recommend a sum; how much life cover do I need explains the method.
Keeping the price down, and other cover to ask about
Within an over-50s plan, the levers are the ones above: a smaller monthly premium or cover amount, and starting earlier, which usually buys more cover for the same premium. Staying a non-smoker is the other, so check how a provider defines it: the calculator above counts anyone who has smoked, vaped or used tobacco in the last year.
The bigger question is whether to use this type of plan at all. MoneyHelper says eligibility, cost and payout on regular life insurance depend on personal circumstances, and that "lots of health conditions are accepted and even if you have an existing condition a regular life insurance policy may be cheaper". Aviva says the payout on an over-50s plan "is usually much smaller" than on its Life Insurance Plan. Life insurance over 50 lists the types, life insurance without a medical covers the no-exam routes, and whole of life costs looks at the underwritten kind. Prepaid options such as a direct cremation plan are a different product with their own prices.
Frequently asked questions
How much does over 50s life insurance cost per month?
It depends on your age, smoking and the cover or premium you choose. Providers' own ranges show the spread: SunLife says "anything from £4 to £74 a month" and Legal & General lists premiums from £5 to £75, each subject to age and smoker status. Those are limits of what they sell, not typical prices.
What is the average cost of guaranteed life insurance?
This page gives no average. The providers publish examples on different bases, as above, so an average of them would mean nothing, and your own quote is the way to a real figure.
Can I get over 50s life insurance cheaply with no medical questions?
The plans on this page price on age, smoking and the amount alone. Keeping the premium or cover amount modest lowers the monthly cost, and MoneyHelper says regular cover may be cheaper for some people with a health condition.
Is there an over 50s life insurance calculator?
Aviva publishes one, which shows the cover for a £10, £20 or £30 monthly premium from your age and smoker status, and says the result is not a guaranteed offer.
Which is the best guaranteed acceptance life insurance?
This page does not rank them, and the answer depends on which terms matter to you. Best life insurance over 50 compares entry ages, caps, first-year rules and stopping payments.
Ready for a figure of your own? The form here takes a few details and hands them to an FCA-authorised broker who will call you; whether to go further is your decision.
Part of our over-50s and later life guides.
Sources
- MoneyHelper, Life insurance for over 50s (page undated; Wayback capture of 29 September 2026), read 19 October 2026. web.archive.org
- SunLife, Over 50 life insurance (web page, undated; payout table correct as at October 2025), read 19 October 2026. sunlife.co.uk
- Legal & General, Over 50 Life Insurance (web page, reviewed 8 June 2026), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
- Legal & General, Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance Policy Summary (QGI12836 11/2025, direct version), read 19 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
- Aviva, How much is over 50s life insurance (updated 16 September 2026; WC05887 09/2026), read 19 October 2026. aviva.co.uk
- Aviva, Over 50 life insurance calculator (WC05916 02/2026), read 19 October 2026. aviva.co.uk
- Aviva, Over 50 life insurance (WC05649 09/2026), read 19 October 2026. aviva.co.uk
- Post Office, Over 50s life insurance (web page, undated), read 19 October 2026. postoffice.co.uk
- Scottish Friendly, My Mutual Guaranteed Over 50s Plan (web page, undated), read 19 October 2026. scottishfriendly.co.uk