The comparison that matters

Where AARP fits

The program's strength is range: if you can answer a short questionnaire, its permanent whole-life product gets you a locked rate from a top-tier insurer, and the guaranteed-acceptance option (up to $30,000) exists as a true fallback. The costs of entry are membership and attention: you must keep AARP membership to apply, and you must notice which of the three products you're being quoted — the attractively priced term product re-rates upward every five years and terminates at 80, which makes it the wrong shape for an expense that usually arrives later. The full detail is in our AARP burial insurance cost breakdown and AARP review.

Where Colonial Penn fits

Colonial Penn's plan is simpler to enter — no membership, no questions, ages 50–85 — and its locked $9.95 unit price is real. The work falls on the buyer's arithmetic: a unit's coverage shrinks steeply with age (per published charts, from about $2,000 for a 50-year-old woman to about $418 for an 85-year-old man), so covering a realistic funeral takes 8–12 units, and the honest monthly cost is that multiple of $9.95. Our unit-by-unit breakdown runs the math against real funeral prices; the broader product picture is in the Colonial Penn review.

Do both really make you wait two years?

On the no-questions products, yes — and that's structural, not scandalous. Any policy that accepts every applicant protects itself with a graded benefit: non-accidental death in the first two years returns premiums (plus interest) rather than the face amount, while accidental death pays in full from day one. AARP's program differs in one important way: it also sells question-based products with no waiting period, so a healthy applicant inside the AARP system can get day-one coverage. At Colonial Penn, the $9.95 plan is guaranteed-acceptance by design, and the two-year structure comes with it.

The third option most shoppers never price

Both brands win attention through TV and mail, but the simplified-issue final-expense market — a short questionnaire, no exam, full day-one coverage — is where most buyers actually belong, and it typically prices below guaranteed acceptance per $1,000 of coverage. Managed blood pressure, cholesterol, and non-insulin type 2 diabetes routinely pass. The deciding question isn't "AARP or Colonial Penn?" — it's "can I answer a questionnaire?" If yes, compare the open market first (best burial insurance companies, and what buyers really pay by age). If genuinely not, both brands' guaranteed-acceptance products are legitimate — compare them on total monthly cost for the coverage you need, not on the advertised entry price.

Carrier details are taken from publicly available AARP, New York Life, and Colonial Penn materials as published at the time of writing (collected October 2026) and may change; eligibility, coverage maximums, unit values, and limited-benefit terms vary by state — confirm current terms with each carrier before applying. Market-price comparisons link to our published purchase-median data. BurialInsuranceCost.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by AARP, New York Life, or Colonial Penn; all trademarks belong to their owners.