If you’ve tried to go to the grocery store recently, you were probably met with cleared shelves as people prepare for the closures related to the coronavirus (COVID-19). However, in addition to buying tangible goods like toilet paper, canned foods, and cleaning supplies, people are shopping for and looking at their life insurance for an important reason.

According to Coverager, "Search for life insurance coronavirus is up 400% as of March 1, 2020, with the top five areas being Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, and Nevada."

Has this global pandemic of COVID-19 sparked a light in you to find ways to protect your family? With new digital life insurance options, you may be able to get a life insurance policy quickly online without leaving your home.

This blog covers everything that you need to know about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and buying life insurance to protect your family or evaluating the coverage you have.

How do I evaluate my current life insurance policy?

It's always a good idea to re-evaluate your life insurance coverage every once in a while. Your life insurance needs could change from the time you first purchased the policy.

Do you have the ideal amount of life insurance coverage? You want to make sure you have enough coverage that would support your family if you were to pass away. The goal is for them to be financially stable.

The amount of life insurance you need depends on a number of factors. When evaluating your life insurance policy, consider the factors of your income and any debt and/or mortgages you owe, the number of children you have, and your family's financial situation.

If any of this has changed from the time you purchased your life insurance policy (or the last time you evaluated it), you may want to revisit your policy and discuss with your agent if you have one.

For more information about how to figure out how much life insurance you need, Clearsurance's Life Insurance Guide can help.

What are my life insurance options?

In general, a pandemic is not excluded under most life insurance policies. However, many people are now turning to digital life insurance company options because they are faster and easier to buy a policy. You can apply for and purchase a policy often in the comfort of your own home in a very short time period.

You could choose either a traditional life insurance company or a digital one, but just be aware that traditional companies may take longer to get a policy from and may require a medical exam to be completed before coverage is offered. However, they tend to offer a broader range of coverage options.

What are digital life insurance companies?

Digital life insurance companies are fairly new in the market, but provide promising service. These companies are digitally and technology-focused so they can provide online quotes and services very quickly.

The digital life insurance companies usually offer term life policies of varying lengths. Many of them don’t require you to complete a medical exam to be approved for coverage, rather, they have you answer a questionnaire online.

Keep in mind that some digital life insurance companies may have more coverage restrictions (i.e. age restrictions) than some traditional life insurance companies do.

How fast could I get life insurance?

Some digital life insurance companies and agencies advertise that you can get life insurance online in just a few minutes on the same day. For example, Bestow and Ladder both say on their website that you can apply for a Bestow or Ladder life policy in as little as five minutes.

The application for life insurance from digital companies tends to take a few minutes to complete for most of the company options. After you complete the questionnaire application, the company uses technology and algorithms to evaluate your risk and determine your price for coverage, if approved.

In some cases, you may be required to have a medical exam performed, which can cause the process to take a bit longer. If you choose to go with a more traditional company rather than a digital one, it could take 4 to 6 weeks to complete the process.

What does life insurance cover?

You may be starting to think about life insurance and how you could protect your family if you were to pass away from a pandemic like the coronavirus. The good news is that life insurance typically does not exclude death from a pandemic, so that would include COVID-19.

In order to be covered by your life insurance policy, your policy must be active. This means that you need to be up to date on all payments.

However, there are always exceptions and things that could make your policy void if you don’t abide by certain rules. Be sure to check your policy and check with your life insurance company to be aware of these circumstances.

Am I still eligible for life insurance if I have COVID-19?

If you are in the application process or are thinking about applying for a policy, it could be affected by the coronavirus.

If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, be sure to check with all life insurance companies that have your application. It’s important to be honest and open about your health to your life insurance company and on your application.

Your life insurance death benefit could be denied if you lie on your application, including if you lie about having the coronavirus OR lie about traveling to a high-risk area and being exposed to the coronavirus.

If you already had an existing life insurance policy and kept up with your payments to keep your policy active, your life insurance policy would typically not exclude death from the coronavirus. Additionally, your life insurance premiums shouldn’t change if you get COVID-19.

Digital life insurance company options

The following companies are some good options for digital life insurance companies. You can get life insurance quotes and policies from these companies online.

1. Bestow

Bestow offers 10 and 20-year term life insurance plans. According to the Bestow website, you can get coverage for as little as $8 per month. The company keeps its prices low to meet the financial needs of their customers with the use of technology.

Bestow can cover you and your family ranging from coverage of $50,000 to $1 million. Furthermore, since Bestow is digital and online, it is equipped with technology to be present for their customers by having responsive customer service representatives available. What makes Bestow different from other life insurance agencies is that since it's digital, it makes the process of receiving a quote that much faster and simpler.

With Bestow, there will be no wait time and there is no medical exam required, which is unlike the offerings from many traditional life insurance companies. Policies offered by Bestow are issued by North American Company for Life and Health Insurance.

2. Fabric Life Insurance

Fabric offers term life insurance policies as well as accidental death policies. The life insurance policies come in options of 10, 15, or 20-year term life policies. Life insurance policies from Fabric are customizable to fit your needs, which is helpful to customers who are trying to find a flexible insurance plan for their family.

What is great about Fabric life insurance is that it has specialized life insurance plans geared towards parents with busy lives. The company was founded by two fathers when they began parenting. They both realized that their families come first, which is where life insurance comes into play. They started Fabric to be an online life insurance company to meet the needs of busy parents, much like themselves. Not only does it take 10 minutes to apply for life insurance, the company also offers free wills for you and your spouse with a Fabric policy.

To keep things simple, Fabric has an app that you can download to your phone; this app keeps financial and legal information safely kept in your account. Additionally, you can collaborate accounts with your spouse that way you can both track one another’s finances.

The company is partnered with Vantis Life, a Penn Mutual company, to offer life insurance policies. Fabric offers Fabric Instant and Fabric Premium plans. Fabric Instant is an accidental death insurance plan that can be upgraded to a Fabric Premium plan later in life. Fabric Premium is a 20-year term life policy that can be converted to a whole life insurance policy.

4. Ladder

Ladder offers 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30-year term life insurance policy options. With the use of technology, Ladder allows policyholders to easily adjust coverage levels online as life changes.

Featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, Ladder has options to meet the needs of you and your family. By specializing in offering affordable digital life insurance policies, Ladder makes sure to work with its customers to provide the best customer service experience while also keeping prices competitve. If you are unsatisfied with your policy, you can cancel within the first 30 days and receive a full refund.

If you are looking for a few reasons to join Ladder, below are a few perks of Ladder and how the company can save you money:

• No policy fees
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Price lock guarantee
• Ability to decrease coverage (and rates)

Ladder offers a term life insurance calculator for its consumers, which is available on its website.

To read more information about these life insurance companies, read Clearsurance’s life insurance guide.

Which digital life insurance agencies don’t require a medical exam?

Out of the companies above, the companies that may not require a medical exam to get life insurance are Bestow, Ladder, and Fabric. Keep in mind that these companies could still require a medical exam depending on your situation.

Despite all of this information, it’s still important to check with the life insurance company to see how they handle COVID-19 and other pandemic and global health crises.

If you have travel plans that you are considering canceling to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, find out if your travel insurance covers coronavirus cancelation by reading our blog post: Coronavirus: Does your travel insurance cover you? Now that COVID-19 is a pandemic, many travel plans affected by the coronavirus are not covered by travel insurance policies.

As COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in the United States and globally, it’s important to follow along and heed all of the recommendations from the CDC. For the most trusted information about COVID-19, please visit the CDC coronavirus website.

The content on this site is offered only as a public service to the web community and does not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. This site should not be used as a substitute for obtaining legal advice from an insurance company or an attorney licensed or authorized to practice in your jurisdiction. You should always consult a suitably qualified attorney regarding any specific legal problem or matter. The comments and opinions expressed on this site are of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of the insurance company or any individual attorney.