Americans are waiting longer than ever to get married, yet the number of unmarried couples living together and sharing financial obligations is growing rapidly.
These recent societal shifts have many couples wondering, “Can I take life insurance out on my partner?” The answer is yes, but only if you have proof of consent and insurable interest.
We’ll unpack these terms and everything else you need to know about buying a life insurance policy on your partner.
» Compare: Get life insurance quotes on your partner
Table of Contents
Consent and Insurable Interest
Buying Life Insurance on Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend
Buying Life Insurance on Your Fiancé/Fiancée
Buying life Insurance on Your Spouse
Consent and Insurable Interest
When you buy life insurance on someone else, you need to have both:
- Their consent
- Insurable interest
Insurable interest exists when one person financially benefits from another person living.
Put differently, if you rely on the income of your significant other, whether it’s to pay rent or bills and they were to die, your financial situation would be considerably impacted.
Proving insurable interest to buy life insurance on a significant other becomes a bit more challenging when a couple is not legally married.
You may need to check a few more boxes, but it isn’t as difficult as it used to be. The life insurance industry changes and adapts to keep up with societal norms.
Buying Life Insurance on Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend
As stated above, unmarried couples in long-term relationships who want to purchase life insurance on one another will need consent from their partner.
Also, it’s likely that they will need to show proof of insurable interest to the life insurance carrier.
Examples of insurable interest can include:
- Both individuals being named on a lease
- Jointly owning a home or business
- Debts naming both individuals (such as a car loan)
- Having children
There are situations in which it may prove difficult or even impossible to buy life insurance on each other. For example, if you and your significant other:
- Have only been dating for a short period of time
- Do not live together
- Are not financially dependent on each other
» Calculate: Life insurance needs calculator
Buying Life Insurance on Your Fiancé/Fiancée
Being engaged shows a higher level of commitment and financial dependency than dating—in the eyes of the life insurance company. It’s typically less of an issue for engaged couples to buy life insurance on one another.
Some life insurance companies will want to know that a wedding date is set, but this isn’t always required. But, again, just buying a policy yourself and naming your fiancé/fiancée as beneficiary is almost always an easier process.
Beneficiary definition: The person or entity that receives the policy payout if the insured dies
Buying Life Insurance on Your Spouse
With married couples, it’s obvious that they have insurable interest in one another. They typically live in the same house, both contribute toward bills, and may be raising children together.
Naming your S.O. as a beneficiary is an easier route.
Rather than having someone else applying for a policy on you, it’s generally an easier approval process to buy a life insurance policy on yourself and name your significant other as the beneficiary.
| Buying Life Insurance on Yourself (easier!) | |
|---|---|
| Who is the owner? | You |
| Who is insured? | You |
| Who is the beneficiary? | Your significant other |
compared to
| Significant Other Buying Life Insurance on You (harder) | |
|---|---|
| Who is the owner? | Your significant other |
| Who is insured? | You |
| Who is the beneficiary? | Your significant other |
However, there is another option.
You could name your estate as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. Then draft a will that states how you wish to divide your assets and you can name your significant other as the beneficiary.
Keep in mind that if your estate is named the beneficiary, access to the death benefit proceeds is delayed because the money must go through probate.
If you name your estate as your beneficiary, you can go back and change it to your significant other once it’s active. A policyowner can change their beneficiaries at any time.
However, wait a few months to change it. If you change it right away, the life insurance company is likely to investigate and make it a process.
» Learn more: How to Designate Beneficiaries on Your Life Insurance Policy
How to Buy Life Insurance on Your Significant Other
If you’re looking to get life insurance on your significant other or name them as beneficiary of your policy, Quotacy can help. We’ve helped many married and unmarried couples purchase life insurance.
Start the process by running a free and anonymous term life insurance quote.
If you want to buy life insurance on your significant other, be sure to complete the online quote and application using their information.
Tip: When filling out your application, use the titles “partner” or “significant other” instead of “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”.
After running quotes, when you’re ready to apply you will be brought to a page that looks like the screenshot below.
As you can see it asks that you fill out the form with the insured’s information (your significant other.)
Once the application has been submitted, the life insurance company will need to personally contact them (the insured) to verify application information and, if necessary, to schedule the medical exam.
Conclusion
Remember, you can’t just buy life insurance on anyone. Consent is required and insurable interest needs to be proven.
If you believe life insurance is important for your significant other, but he or she doesn’t agree, you can’t just buy it on them anyway without their knowledge.
If you’re having trouble getting them to understand the importance of life insurance, check out our blog post: How Do I Get My Spouse to Buy Life Insurance?
Ready to see what you’d pay for life insurance? Start with a free quote today.
Where did I get significant other insurance. I live in Florida
As long as your partner consents to the insurance and is willing to participate by signing the application and getting a medical exam done, if applicable, then you can apply for life insurance through many different places. You can start by getting a life insurance quote for them through us if you’d like. Start here: https://www.quotacy.com/life-insurance-quotes/
My boyfriend is married but separated. His wife lives on the other side of the country. She controls their money. We both own houses and we alternate where we stay. We have been together for 3+ years.
I’m 63 my fiance is 68 how can we get insurance on both if us.We live in the same household under a lease.
vikkiann, both of you simply need to apply. As an engaged couple, you shouldn’t have any problems buying on each other, if that’s what you prefer, or naming each other beneficiaries.
Is Flight life insurance still available? My SO and his 18 year old son who lives with us are going to Sweden for 11 days in August.
Flight..Travel..Life insurance???
We do not sell straight flight life insurance. We do offer accidental death and dismemberment life insurance, which would pay out due to an airline crash. Term life insurance would pay out for not only accidental death, but also death caused by medical issues, natural causes, and most other deaths.
What about common law marriage? Can I put life insurance on my spouse then? No kids, no joint investments. Reside in the same home, home in his name, utilities in my name.
Yes. Your partner needs to give consent to the life insurance policy. He’ll have to sign forms, and likely participate in a phone interview with the life insurance company and perhaps a medical exam depending on his health history and the insurance company you choose.
What If you and your boyfriend is not together anymore more and the girlfriend still as insurance on boyfriend can the power of attorney ask that it be canceled .
You can ask that the policy be cancelled or even ask to transfer ownership and you take over the payments, however the policy owner does not need give in to these requests. As policy owner, they have control over the policy.
If I want to get life insurance on my SO and we have 3 children plus almost 20 years together and me as the beneficiary, what is the best way to set that up? Should I be the owner of the policy?
Hi Kris, yes, you can be the owner and beneficiary of a policy on your significant other. As owner, you’ll have control over the policy.