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Can I Get Life Insurance on my Brother or Sister?

Researcher & Writer
April 03, 2019

In the following article, we will address how to get life insurance on your brother or sister. If you simply need a good burial or final expense company then your job will be easier.

However, for those looking for the top rated best life insurance companies or top rated no exam life insurance companies, your job might be a little more difficult.

How to Buy Life Insurance for a Brother or Sister

The short answer is, yes, you can get life insurance on someone else. However, there are certain guidelines that must be followed. One of the primary factors will be if there is an insurable interest or not. An "insurable interest" means that if someone died you would suffer financial loss.  Or said in the positive, you have an insurable interest in another person if that person benefits you, such as financially, by his or her continued existence.

Insurable Interest in a Brother or Sister

Typically, when we’re asked the question “can I get life insurance for my brother?” or "can I get life insurance for my sister" it’s usually because the person calling is worried about what would happen if the their brother or sister passed away without life insurance.

For example:

  • Who would pay for their burial expenses?
  • How would his or her heirs survive “financially” after he was gone?

After all, if there  is no life insurance in place the question then becomes, "Is there a plan in place to make sure everyone would be taken care of?"

In situations like these, the uninsured sibling may be un-insured because:

  • they have some type of pre-existing condition,
  • they don’t feel that they need insurance, or
  • they may simply not “believe” in life insurance.

This is why it can be difficult to get these individuals involved in the process of getting insured! 

After all, depending on the type of life insurance being applied for, getting approved may be considered too much work for these individuals who aren’t interested in getting insured in the first place!

The Real Question Behind “Can I buy life insurance for my brother?”

We’ve found that most of the time when we’re asked, “Can I buy life insurance on my brother?” the person is asking the question because their brother just won’t seem to get life insurance on their own.

It could be because they don’t:

  • Think they need it,
  • Don’t like doctors,
  • Don’t trust insurance companies, or
  • Think it’s too creepy to talk about how the will one day eventually pass away.

Truth is people will make up a million different reasons to avoid buying life insurance but that doesn’t change the fact that one day, everyone, including your brother, will die.

Fact: 100% of all Americans will eventually die, of those, only 52% will have life insurance in place.

So by asking “Can I buy life insurance on my brother?” what one is usually asking is:

“Can I get life insurance on my brother without him really taking an active role in the process?”

Short answer:  Yes.

Complete answer:  It depends.

How can I buy life insurance on my brother or sister?

Let’s just assume that your brother is OK with you getting life insurance on him, but he’s just not going to go out of his way to make it easy.

In cases like these, there are a few different insurance companies that will offer complete term life insurance coverage up to $500,000 that would go in force within 24 hours after a brief phone interview.

In our experiences, we’ve found that if you can:

  • Eliminate the need for a complete medical exam,
  • Allow everything to be completed over the phone in just a few minutes, and
  • Get rid of the long approval process, even the most stubborn applicant can be persuaded to get insured!

What if my brother doesn’t want to pay the premium?

This happens all the time. A family member will often pay the premium for another loved one just so that they can be sure that the policy remains in effect.

Attention:  Insurance companies get a little sensitive about this one.  After all, insurance carriers don’t really want to find themselves allowing someone to insure another individual without the insured having knowledge of the fact.  For this reason, some carriers (but not all) may require the initial payment to be made by the insured and then switched to another individual after the first premium is collected.

This is where working with TermLife2Go can make all the difference in the world because, with dozens of different insurance carriers to choose from, we’re sure to find one with a payment method that will work for even the most difficult of situations.

Written by
TermLife2Go
We are a team of life insurance experts with the simple mission of helping you find the best coverage for your unique situation. We research, review, and rank life insurance companies to make that process easier.