Both names are aimed at the same buyer over 50, and they are still not the same purchase. AARP does not insure anybody: it lends its name to a program that New York Life underwrites and issues as group coverage members enroll in, and inside that program health questions are what open the larger plans. Colonial Penn sells an individual whole life policy in your own name, with nothing to join, and its best known plan accepts people ages 50 to 85 in most states without asking a single health question. If you can answer a few health questions and want a choice of plans and amounts, the AARP program is built for that; if you want approval settled at the door and one plan doing one job, Colonial Penn is built for exactly that.
At a glance
| AARP Life Insurance Program | Colonial Penn | |
|---|---|---|
| Who issues the policy | New York Life Insurance Company | Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company |
| Who stands behind that company | A mutual insurer, owned by its policyholders | CNO Financial Group, a publicly traded insurer |
| Membership required | Yes, AARP membership is required for eligibility | No, nothing to join and no dues |
| What you actually hold | A certificate under a group policy | An individual policy in your own name |
| What is on the shelf | Term, permanent life, and a guaranteed acceptance plan | Guaranteed acceptance whole life, sold in units |
| How the amount is set | You name a benefit in dollars and the premium follows | You buy units at a fixed monthly price and the benefit follows |
| Health questions | A few on term and permanent, none on Guaranteed Acceptance Life | None at all on the guaranteed acceptance plan |
| Published coverage ceilings | Term to $150,000, permanent to $100,000, no questions plan to $30,000 | Final expense sized, capped by the number of units you may hold |
| How you buy it | Direct with New York Life, online or by phone | Direct from the company by television response, mail, phone or web |
Both say no medical exam. Only one of them still asks about your health.
Neither of these sends you for a paramedical exam, and that shared line on the envelope hides the difference that actually decides this one. In the AARP program, health questions are the gate between plans. Term life to $150,000 and permanent life to $100,000 are issued with no exam, but they do ask about your health, while the plan that asks nothing, Guaranteed Acceptance Life, is capped at $30,000 in most states. So your answers decide which door inside the program is open to you, once membership makes you eligible to knock at all. Colonial Penn has no gate of that kind. Its guaranteed acceptance whole life is the plan it points at everyone in the age range, 50 to 85 in most states, and it asks nothing about health from any of them. That one design choice sets the rest. One company sorts applicants by what they can answer and keeps a menu behind that gate. The other asks nothing, takes everyone inside the age window, and builds a single plan to do a single job.
Who each one actually suits
AARP Life Insurance Program
Member only group coverage that New York Life underwrites and AARP endorses
- You already carry an AARP card, or you would join for the rest of what membership brings anyway, so eligibility costs you nothing extra.
- You would rather state the coverage amount in plain dollars than work out how many units it takes to get there.
- You need more than a funeral sized amount, since the program writes term to $150,000 and permanent life to $100,000 with no medical exam on either.
- You can answer a few health questions comfortably, which is what opens the larger plans in the program.
- You want the insurer behind your certificate to be a mutual company, owned by the people who hold its policies.
Colonial Penn
A CNO Financial Group insurer selling guaranteed acceptance whole life direct
- Joining an organization to qualify for coverage is not something you want to do, and this plan asks nothing of the sort.
- Your health history has closed doors before, and a plan that accepts ages 50 to 85 with no health questions is the point of it.
- You want to start at a monthly figure you set yourself, knowing the plan is built so you can usually add to it later.
- A funeral and the bills that follow it are the whole of the job, and a small individual whole life policy with a level premium is the tool made for that.
- You want one company from the first call through to the claim, and it happens to be a name your family already recognizes.
If you already hold one of them
If one of these is already in the drawer, read it before you shop it. On an AARP certificate, note which of the plans you enrolled in and what it does at the far end, because the term plan runs out at a stated age while the permanent and guaranteed acceptance plans do not, and knowing which one you own changes what happens next. On a Colonial Penn policy, the number worth writing on the front page is the death benefit in dollars, since the premium is the figure people remember and the benefit is the figure their family will receive. Either way the coverage was priced on the health and the age you had the day it started, so bring us either one and we will read it with you, including when the answer is that nothing needs to change.
Common questions
Do I have to join anything to buy either one?
Only one of them. The AARP Life Insurance Program is available through AARP membership, so you have to be a member to be eligible, and the coverage comes to you as group insurance underwritten by New York Life. Colonial Penn has no membership requirement of any kind. You apply as an individual and the policy is issued in your name. If the idea of belonging to an organization in order to hold a policy sits badly with you, that alone answers the question.
Both advertise no health questions. Are the two guaranteed acceptance plans the same?
They are close cousins, not twins. AARP Guaranteed Acceptance Life is underwritten by New York Life, offered to members from age 50 to 85, sold in dollar amounts up to $30,000 in most states, and it pays limited benefits in the first two years. Colonial Penn writes its guaranteed acceptance whole life for the same broad age range, also without health questions, but sells it in units at a fixed monthly price rather than in a benefit amount you name. Same promise at the door, two different ways of describing what you get for it.
Why does Colonial Penn quote me a monthly price while AARP quotes a coverage amount?
Because the two plans are described from opposite ends. Colonial Penn built its plan around units. A unit costs the same fixed amount every month, and how much death benefit that unit carries depends on your age, gender and state when you enroll, which is what lets the company accept everyone inside the age range. The AARP program names the benefit first and works the premium out from it. Neither way hides anything, but the two cannot be compared as advertised. Ask each one the same question: what dollar benefit would I hold, and what would that cost me every month at my age.
Which one can issue a larger amount?
The AARP program, if you can answer its health questions. It publishes ceilings of $150,000 on term life and $100,000 on permanent life, both without a medical exam, and $30,000 in most states on the plan that asks nothing about health. Colonial Penn is built for final expense sized coverage and caps the number of units a policy can hold, which sets the practical ceiling there. If your need is a mortgage or a few years of income rather than a funeral, neither of these is really the tool, and a fully underwritten policy from the wider market usually is.
Does either one have a waiting period?
On the no health question plans, yes, and that is normal for coverage anyone can get. The Colonial Penn guaranteed acceptance plan generally pays a limited benefit based on the premiums paid if death comes from natural causes in the first two policy years, with the full benefit after that and accidental death covered from the first day. AARP Guaranteed Acceptance Life also pays limited benefits in the first two years. The AARP term and permanent plans use health questions instead, so they are not graded in the same way. Read your own contract, because the exact terms vary by state.
Who actually pays the claim on each of these?
New York Life Insurance Company pays claims on the AARP program. AARP endorses the program and lends its name to it, and it says plainly that AARP and its affiliates are not insurers, which surprises people who assumed the association was the company. Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company pays its own claims, and it is part of CNO Financial Group. Both issuing companies are rated for financial strength by independent agencies, and because those ratings move over time the reliable step is to look each one up yourself at ambest.com. Every United States life insurer is also backed by a state guaranty association up to limits your state sets.
Which one costs less?
That turns on your age, your gender, your state and, in the AARP program, the health questions you can answer, so any figure quoted before those are known is a guess. The fair way to find out takes one step. Settle the dollar benefit your family would actually need, then ask each company what it charges every month for that exact amount. Once both quotes describe the same benefit, the comparison is quick. An advertised monthly price and a published coverage ceiling are not comparable numbers.
If I already have one of these, should I switch to the other?
Not automatically, and often not at all. Coverage you already own was priced on the health you had when it was issued, so if your health has changed since, replacing it can cost more or may not be available on the same terms. Any honest comparison starts by valuing what you already hold, and a review that ends in keep what you have is a perfectly good result.
Can I hold policies from both companies at once?
Yes. There is no rule against owning coverage from more than one insurer, and plenty of households do, often because policies were bought at different life stages for different reasons. What matters is that the total coverage matches what your family would actually need, and that you are not paying twice for the same job.
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The right answer depends on you, not on the brochure.
Rates for AARP Life Insurance Program and Colonial Penn both depend on your age and health, which means the better buy for your neighbour may be the worse buy for you. A licensed professional will price both against what you already have and tell you which is genuinely better, including when the honest answer is to keep what you have.
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This comparison is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Product availability, pricing and underwriting differ by state, age and health, and change over time. Policy Review Center is a free comparison and referral service, not an insurance agency, insurer, or producer, and it connects you with independent licensed agents. Carrier names are used for reference only and do not imply any endorsement or affiliation.