If you’re over age 50 you get mail from AARP at least twice a month, if not more, inviting you to become a member and/or just partake of all the great deals they offer even if you’re not a member. If you, your parents, family or friends have fallen for the quick and easy pitch for “New York Life’s AARP Life Insurance Program”, it’s time to review what you’ve done and get out sooner rather than later. They dominate senior life insurance through their brand, but there is nothing trustworthy about AARP life insurance rates for seniors.

It still boggles the mind how they NAIC, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, allows an organization like AARP to run rampant and rip off the elderly. If AARP wasn’t so well branded and so big, they wouldn’t get away with it. I assure you that if I started Special Ed’s Colorado Insurance Company For Old Folks, and offered the same products I would be taken down at the state approval process. The exact same products would meet with scorn and contempt from state insurance commissioners. It’s a rip off. Maybe a little jail time just to make sure I understood how far over the boundaries of decency I had gone.

As I once again lay out the case that AARP life insurance is a rip off, let it be known that I am not alone. Even those who aren’t insurance agents and don’t know the intricacies of the game New York Life is playing, see right through it. Unfortunately for many it is too late. Money has been wasted. Insurance has been lost due to the built in price increases and claims are not being paid or paid in a timely manner.

The truth is that the advertising makes it sound easy and guaranteed to be approved. It isn’t. It makes it sound like a reasonably priced product. It isn’t. Even with health problems, the average older person (65+) can generally get life insurance for half the cost with a lifetime level premium guarantee (AARP term insurance goes up every 5 years), just by answering the health questions and taking an exam. The “no exam” and “no questions” pitch is designed to make people believe that if they have to admit their health they won’t get insurance. That is almost always false and if you are in poor enough health to be declined by a traditional life insurance company, you will also be declined by AARP.

Bottom line. If you or your parents or anyone you know is considering AARP life insurance rates for seniors, apply for traditional insurance and compare the outcome. Keep the policy in force that makes sense.