Best Life Insurance for Kids and Grandchildren: Your 2024 Guide

The best life insurance company for your child will offer competitive rates, flexible coverage options and benefits that will be useful to them when they grow up. Beyond a death benefit, buying life insurance for your child while they are young can guarantee future insurability, lock in lower rates and provide other useful perks when they are older.

Keep reading to learn how life insurance for kids works and which insurance companies stand above the rest.

On This Page

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  Can I Get Life Insurance for My Child?

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  What Types of Life Insurance Policies for Kids Are There?

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  What Companies Provide the Best Life Insurance for Kids?

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  How Much Does Life Insurance for Children Typically Cost?

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  What are the Pros and Cons of Life Insurance for Kids?

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  How To Choose the Right Life Insurance Policy for Your Child

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  FAQs

Can I Get Life Insurance for My Child?

Many insurance companies offer life insurance policies or insurance add-ons to cover children, sometimes available when they are just a few weeks old. Keep in mind that many insurance carriers will only offer whole life insurance instead of term life policies. We’ll discuss the differences between these two policy types later.

Why Should I Get Life Insurance for My Child?

Aside from offering financial assistance in the event of a child's tragic death to help pay for funeral costs and related expenses, a life insurance policy can offer numerous long-term benefits. For example, with whole life insurance purchased at a young age, you can lock in a lower premium that won't increase even after your child becomes an adult. Additionally, many policies offer future insurability, guaranteeing them a life insurance policy if they develop a condition that would otherwise make life insurance difficult to get as an adult.

Another benefit is that child life insurance policies are often whole life policies with a cash value component that builds equity so long as you maintain your premiums, allowing the policyholder to take out a loan against the accumulated equity or cash it out by canceling the policy. This money can be used to pay for your child’s college tuition, wedding, car or home down payment or some or major living expense.

What Types of Life Insurance Policies for Kids Are There?

While there are many types of life insurance, two common ones include whole life and term life. Both policies pay benefits when the insured dies but have different terms and functions.

Whole Life Insurance

Life insurance for children is typically sold as whole life policies. A whole life insurance policy offers lifelong coverage so long as you continue paying premiums.

Whole life policies build cash value over time because a portion of your premiums is deposited into a savings account. You can borrow against the policy's cash value in the form of a loan or cash it out entirely by canceling the policy. Whole life insurance policies tend to be more costly than term life.

Term Life Insurance

A term life insurance policy pays out death benefits if the insured child dies within a fixed period – typically 10 to 30 years. Coverage stops once the terms expire, but depending on the insurer, the insured may be able to convert the term policy into a whole life policy. As the mortality rate for children is less than for older individuals, many insurance companies don’t offer term life insurance policies for kids.

Policyholders will not build cash value with a term life policy like a whole life insurance policy. For this reason and because the coverage is temporary, term life policies are typically cheaper.

What Companies Provide the Best Life Insurance for Kids?

Below, we examined several life insurance policies, their coverage amounts and rates to highlight the industry standouts.

Mutual of Omaha

Mutual of Omaha offers child whole life policies with coverage amounts ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Plans are available for children ages 14 days to 17 years old, with premiums remaining the same for the policy's life based on the benefit amount and the child's age when the policy is purchased.^[1]

For example, a $10,000 death benefit for a plan purchased up until the child turned five, the earliest time available, would only have a $4.61 monthly premium. However, if purchased at 17, the premium would increase to $7.75 for the same benefit amount.^[1]

Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan

The Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan is a whole life policy with death benefits of $5,000 to $50,000 for children ages 14 days old to 14 years old, which is relatively low compared to other insurers that set the age maximum at 17 years old.^[2] That said, Gerber does offer a life insurance policy for teenagers ages 15 to 17.^[3]

The monthly premium on a policy for $5,000 of coverage for a child less than one year old can start as low as $3.70 per month.^[4] When the insured child turns 18, the coverage amount automatically doubles at no additional cost.

For example, a policy with $50,000 coverage doubles to $100,000 when the insured child turns 18. At age 21, the insured child becomes the policy owner and can purchase up to ten times the original coverage amount — no medical exam required.^[2]

Aflac

Aflac’s juvenile whole life policy offers coverages of $10,000 to $30,000. Children between the ages of 14 days and 17 years are eligible for enrollment.^[5] While Aflac doesn’t list average monthly premiums for their juvenile policies, they note that policies for a one-year-old with a $25,000 benefit amount will typically cost around $14.^[6]

Unlike many other insurance providers, Aflac offers both whole life and term insurance policies for kids. Their term life policy is available for the identical coverage amounts and ages of eligibility as their whole life policy but ends once the child turns 25. However, at that time, the insured can convert the term life policy into a whole life policy with double the face amount, all while retaining future insurability.^[5]

How Much Does Life Insurance for Children Typically Cost?

The cost of purchasing a life insurance policy for a child is determined by multiple factors, including age, medical conditions and coverage amounts. Here’s a small breakdown of typical costs for a whole life insurance policy for a one-year-old based on the desired coverage amount:^[6]

What are the Pros and Cons of Life Insurance for Kids?

While life insurance for kids can offer several benefits, it may not be the ideal solution for every person. Below, we’ll break down some of the pros and cons of life insurance for kids to help you determine if it's the right investment for your family.

Pros Explained

• Guaranteed coverage even with a health condition: Purchasing a life insurance policy for a child can guarantee future insurability when they become an adult. For example, so long as premium payments are maintained, a whole life insurance policy would cover the insured from infancy to old age, even if they develop a debilitating health condition in their 20s.
• Lock in a low rate: The older you become, the more life insurance will cost. Buying life insurance while your child is young can lock in rates that will not increase as they age, even if they've developed problematic health conditions.
• Build cash value with a whole life policy: As you pay premiums towards your child's whole life insurance policy, you also build cash value. Depending on your insurer, you can take a loan against the accrued cash value to help fund your child's college tuition, pay for a wedding or even make a down payment on a first home.
• Receive financial support during a trying time: The death of a child is never easy and the financial support a life insurance policy offers can offer some relief during a time of mourning.

Cons Explained

• Lower rate of return: Whole life insurance policies accumulate cash value over time and it can take a decade or longer to catch up in value to the investment you’ve made with monthly premiums. Other investment plans may have a more immediate benefit and be more worthwhile depending on your needs.
• Long-term recurring expense: Term policies may last a few decades, but whole life policies require maintaining premiums throughout your life. You will need to budget for this to maintain your coverage.
• Financial trade-off: Children tend to have lower mortality rates than adults, reducing the likelihood of benefits being paid. The money spent on life insurance premiums may be better spent on a savings or investment vehicle, like a 529 Plan, a type of college saving plan that may offer high rates of return.^[7]
• Similar coverage options for young adults: If your child doesn’t develop a condition that makes finding life insurance difficult as a young adult, they may be able to find comparable benefits at that time you could still purchase on their behalf. This could save money from years of paying premiums throughout their childhood.

How To Choose the Right Life Insurance Policy for Your Child

You’ll want to review the options available for comparison, so it’s best to shop around and gather between three to five quotes from different insurance companies. This process can become tedious, as you’ll likely need to submit personal information about you and your child to each insurance company individually.

You can help speed up the process using an insurance marketplace like SmartFinancial to simplify your search. After answering a few questions, we’ll connect you to one of our licensed agents to help you find the best life insurance for your kids that meets your long-term goals. Click here to get a free quote on a life insurance for kids policy today!