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The Senate agreed unanimously to revise its rules to ban members and their staffs from wagers on prediction markets platforms.

“I do better than many citizens because I’ve contributed at the highest level.”

Microsoft (MSFT) is a software giant, known for its Windows operating system and Office software suite. It is also a hyperscaler. The biggest driver for the stock is artificial intelligence.The company’s revenue comes from three different business segments. These include Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. Microsoft’s cloud computing platform is called Azure, and the main AI product is Microsoft 365 Copilot. The stock is down approximately 16% year to date, at the time of writing, Thursday afternoon, April 30, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 index (SPY) is up slightly above 5% in the same period.The stock is tumbling following the company’s Q3 earnings report on April 29, trading 4.6% lower near $405, with the most likely culprit being high capital expenditures (capex), which negatively impact free cash flow.Other key news for the stock:Microsoft revised its partnership with OpenAI; it no longer has an exclusive license for its models. This isn’t surprising after the company’s absence from the latest OpenAI founding round.Microsoft made major leadership changes to improve its AI strategy, with the most important being the naming of Jacob Andreou as EVP for Copilot.The company launched Copilot Cowork in March for Frontier (early access program).Key facts from Microsoft’s earnings reportMicrosoft’s Q3 revenue increased 18% (up 15% in constant currency) to $82.9 billion.Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella touted the company’s AI growth during the earnings call.“In knowledge work, it was another record quarter for Microsoft 365 Copilot seat adds, which increased 250% year-over-year, representing our fastest growth since launch. Quarter over quarter, we continue to see acceleration and now have over 20 million Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats.”More Tech Stocks:BofA resets Google stock price target after earnings smasherBank of America reassesses Nvidia stock, sets new forecastBank of America resets Intel stock price target after earningsThe company’s remaining performance obligations are growing and, according to its 10-Q Form, totaled $633 billion as of March 31, 2026, with the commercial portion at $627 billion.The form included one caveat, however. “We expect to recognize approximately 30% of our total company remaining performance obligation revenue and 25% of our commercial remaining performance obligation revenue over the next 12 months and the remainder thereafter.”

Bank of America raised its Microsoft EPS estimates.jewhyte/Getty Images

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood provided guidance for Q4:Revenue should be between $86.7 billion and $87.8 billion.Expected capex will increase to more than $40 billion.
Source: Microsoft Q3 earnings call
She added that the sequential increase in capex includes approximately $5 billion from higher component pricing and the impact of finance leases. Hood said that for calendar year 2026, she expects approximately $190 billion in capex, including approximately $25 billion from higher component pricing.Bank of America raises Microsoft EPS estimatesFollowing the report’s release in a research note shared with me, Bank of America analyst Tal Liani and his team updated their opinion on Microsoft stock. The team noted that Azure revenue growth of 39% in constant currency beat the Wall Street consensus estimate at 38.2%. Analysts said revenue growth of 15% and EPS of $4.27 were also above Wall Street consensus estimates of 13.3% and $4.04, respectively.Related: BofA resets Google stock price target after earnings smasherLiani said CoPilot added 5 million paid users, increasing the total to 20 million and representing growth of 33% quarter over quarter or 250% YoY. He also noted that the 2026 capex guidance of $190 billion is $37 billion above Wall Street expectations.A similar trend can be seen with other hyperscalers, who collectively increased capex by $50 billion, Liani added. He said he estimates 2026 hyperscaler capex at over $800 billion, and a path toward more than $1 trillion by 2027.The team said approximately $25 billion of Microsoft’s capex increase represents higher component pricing rather than pure volume expansion.Analysts raised their Microsoft EPS estimates for 2026, 2027, and 2028 to $17.38, $19.19, and $22.36, respectively; from $17.19, $19.10, and $22.30, respectively.Liani reiterated a buy rating for Microsoft stock and a price target of $500, based on a 24 multiple of his estimate for the price-to-earnings ratio for 2027. This is higher than the peer group, which is in the range of 18 to 22. He believes that sustained revenue growth and margin profile warrant this high multiple.Analysts noted downside risks for Microsoft:Near-term gross margin pressureAI applications and model providers that may innovate at a faster rate than MicrosoftThe highly cyclical nature of enterprise application spendingRelated: Bank of America reassesses Nvidia stock, sets new forecast

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is still lower than it was a year ago.

Three weeks ago, Robinhood Markets secured what looked like the deal of a generation. The U.S. Treasury Department selected the company as the broker and sole initial trustee for Trump Accounts, the federal program that deposits $1,000 into investment accounts for every child born between 2025 and 2028.Then the first-quarter earnings report dropped on April 28, and the celebration turned into a sell-off. Robinhood told investors it would need to spend an additional $100 million to build and operate the Trump Accounts infrastructure, sending shares down nearly 7% in extended trading to $76.44, Bloomberg reported.The decline wiped roughly $5 billion from the company’s market valuation in a single session. The question investors are now wrestling with is direct and uncomfortable. Can a program designed to bring 4 million eligible children into the financial system justify its cost before it starts generating meaningful revenue for Robinhood?Robinhood’s Q1 earnings reveal the real cost of the Trump Accounts dealThe headline numbers showed the actual cost of the deal. Revenue climbed 15% year over year to $1.07 billion, funded customers rose to 27.4 million, and total platform assets reached $307 billion, a 39% increase from the prior year, Robinhood’s earnings release showed.But operating expenses jumped 18% during the quarter, and the updated full-year expense outlook of $2.7 billion to $2.825 billion now includes the extra $100 million earmarked for building the Trump Accounts app.More Tech Stocks:Morgan Stanley sets jaw-dropping Micron price target after eventNvidia’s China chip problem isn’t what most investors thinkQuantum Computing makes $110 million move nobody saw comingThese apps run dedicated customer support, producing educational content, and managing custody of account assets, the earnings release showed. Adjusted operating expenses in Q1 already included $14 million tied to the Rothera prediction exchange and Trump Accounts.  CEO Vlad Tenev framed the initiative as a long-term play during the company’s earnings call. The Trump Accounts program is an opportunity to engage with the next generation of investors and demonstrate Robinhood’s capability as a government partner, Tenev said, according to the Q1 earnings call transcript.How Trump accounts became Wall Street’s most unusual government contractThe program originated from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress last year. Every U.S. child with a Social Security number born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, qualifies for a $1,000 government deposit into a tax-deferred investment account. Parents or guardians can enroll by filing IRS Form 4547 with their 2025 tax returns or through TrumpAccounts.gov.The Treasury Department shared on April 6 that Robinhood and Bank of New York Mellon would jointly operate the program. BNY serves as the designated financial agent handling initial account setup, while Robinhood builds and runs the standalone app and serves as the initial trustee, CNBC reported. Contributions open July 4.“The IRS has been working closely with the Treasury Department to make the election process as simple and easy as possible by permitting taxpayers to fill out a one-page form when they file their tax return,” said IRS CEO Frank Bisignano.As of March 31, taxpayers had enrolled more than 4 million children, and over 1 million were eligible for the Treasury’s $1,000 pilot deposit, the IRS reported. Madeline Brown, a senior policy associate at the Urban Institute, told CNBC that significant questions remain about what the app interface and financial coaching integration will look like for account holders.

Trump Accounts launch with $1,000 deposits for children, as Treasury partners with Robinhood and BNY Mellon to manage program rollout nationwide.Bloomberg/Getty Images

Robinhood’s broader business shows growth alongside mounting costsBeyond the activity of the Trump Accounts, Robinhood’s growth was evident in other business ventures. Robinhood Gold subscribers reached 4.3 million, up 36% year over year, and net deposits totaled $17.7 billion reflecting a 22% annualized growth rate, the earnings release showed.The company also secured approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer brokerage services and launched a public testnet for its blockchain platform. However, securities lending revenue declined as lower volatility and fewer IPOs reduced special rebate rates.Regulatory uncertainty around prediction markets adds another layer of risk as some states push back on jurisdiction, Tenev acknowledged, as GuruFocus indicated. The company repurchased $250 million in stock during Q1 and authorized a refreshed $1.5 billion buyback program.What Robinhood’s government bet means for your portfolioRobinhood’s Trump Accounts deal sits at the intersection of scale and uncertainty, and the company’s latest earnings make clear that those two forces are now pulling in opposite directions. On the one hand, the program puts Robinhood’s technology in front of approximately 60 million potential future users, according to Tenev on the Q1 2026 earnings call, a reach that no marketing campaign or referral program could realistically replicate.Early enrollment figures already show traction, with millions of children registered and over one million qualifying for initial deposits. That level of adoption, combined with Robinhood’s role as the standalone app provider and initial trustee, as Bloomberg notes, positions the company at the center of a generational onboarding effort into financial markets.On the other hand, the financial burden is immediate and measurable. The additional $100 million in projected costs adds to already rising operating expenses, which climbed 18% year over year, compressing the gap between revenue growth and profitability. Even with revenue reaching $1.07 billion and platform assets climbing to $307 billion, the market reaction shows how quickly sentiment can shift when long-term bets begin to weigh on near-term margins.  Diluted earnings per share came in at $0.38, barely outpacing expense growth at just 3% higher than a year ago. For investors holding HOOD shares, the question is whether the government partnership represents a foundation for lasting growth or an expensive distraction from the company’s core brokerage and fintech ambitions. Whether that trade proves worthwhile will depend less on the size of the opportunity and more on execution. The company must convert early enrollment into sustained engagement, manage costs without eroding the user experience, and navigate a rapidly shifting regulatory landscape. The Trump Accounts program has already proven it can move markets in a single earnings cycle. The larger question is whether, over time, it becomes a defining growth engine or a costly experiment that reshapes expectations without delivering proportional returns.Related: Robinhood enters premium credit card fray with new Platinum Card

No-exam life insurance policies have a reputation for offering skimpy coverage at high prices. Recent innovations in data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), though, allow companies to better evaluate risk and extend coverage to more applicants without requiring a medical exam.
Today’s marketplace for no-exam life insurance includes AI-based fintechs that use sophisticated risk modeling algorithms as well as traditional insurance companies that offer instant approval policies with no exam. The best no-medical-exam life insurance policies of 2026 offer high coverage limits, multiple rider options, efficient online application processes and instant approvals.
Check out our list of the best no-exam life insurance coverage, which includes offerings with attractive features from innovative companies. We’ve also included a guide to no-exam life insurance to help you as you evaluate your life insurance options. Read on to learn more.

Key Takeaways

The best overall no-exam life insurance company for 2026 is Nationwide, which stands out for its affordable premiums, flexible terms, variety of available policies and financial strength. Other companies we ranked include Banner Life, Ethos, Mutual of Omaha and USAA.
No-exam life insurance has typically been more expensive and offered lower coverage levels than traditionally underwritten policies that include a medical exam.
Methodology: We evaluated more than 30 insurance companies and dozens of policy details, including costs, coverage maximums and terms. We also prioritized ease of obtaining coverage, along with providers’ financial strength and customer satisfaction data.

Our top picks for best no-exam life insurance

Nationwide — Best Overall
Ethos — Best Online Agency
Banner Life — Best for High Coverage Amounts
USAA — Best for Members of the Military
Mutual of Omaha — Best for Final Expense Coverage

Pros

Multiple no-exam policies offered
High customer satisfaction rating

Cons

Not all term policies can be converted

Not all policies can be purchased online

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy types
Term, universal, whole, variable

Terms available
10, 15, 20 or 30 years

Coverage amounts
$100K to $5 m

Why we chose it: We chose Nationwide as best overall because of the variety of affordable no-exam policies it offers, with premiums that start at about $15 a month.
Nationwide’s no-exam Life Essentials term policy is available for people between the ages of 21 and 55, with coverage levels from $250,000 to $1.5 million available.
Along with term life, Nationwide also has numerous types of permanent life insurance available, including whole, universal, indexed universal and variable universal. A large number of policy riders let customers tailor their policy to fit their specific circumstances.
The company says many customers are eligible to obtain policies other than Life Essentials without an exam. Eligible applicants include people in good health, age 18 to 50, applying for $100,000 to $5 million in coverage, and those 51 to 60 applying for up to $1 million. The company says 70% of clients meeting these criteria are able to obtain a policy without undergoing an exam, as the company employs an intelligent underwriting process that pre-screens individuals. This process pulls digital health records and allows the healthiest applicants to bypass the exam.
AM Best rates Nationwide as A+ in financial stability. The company also ranked in the top five in JD Power’s 2024 Individual Life Insurance Study oF customer experience.
Read our full review of Nationwide Life Insurance.

Pros

A lot of coverage levels for both term and guaranteed issue policies

Simple application process, same-day coverage available
Free will- and estate-planning tools

Cons

Not available in NY
Limited availability of policy riders

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy types –
Term and permanent

Terms available –
10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years

Coverage amounts –
$5K to $3 m; coverage range from Guaranteed Whole Life is $2K to $100K

Why we chose it: Ethos is an easy-to-use online life insurance agency that offers a variety of options for coverage and fast, streamlined service. Applicants can get quotes and apply for policies online, a process which can take as little as 10 minutes. Many customers can even get same-day coverage, the company says.
People age 20 to 65 are eligible to apply for no-exam term life insurance coverage through Ethos. Available policies have coverage levels between $5,000 and $3 million, and available terms range from 10 to 40 years, which gives customers choice and flexibility.
Ethos is an insurance agency, not a life insurance company. It sells policies from a number of insurance providers, including Legal & General America, TruStage, Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., John Hancock and Protective. All of these insurance carriers have high ratings for financial stability with AM Best, Moody’s and S&P. The company also offers free will- and estate-planning tools worth nearly $900.
Read our full review of Ethos Life Insurance.

Pros

Up to $4 million in no-exam coverage

Premiums start at $8/month

Cons

Not all customers qualify for no-exam coverage

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy types
term, permanent

Terms available
10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years

Coverage amounts
Up to $4M

Why we chose it: Banner Life offers eligible applicants up to $4 million in life insurance with no exam, making it our top pick for people looking for high-coverage no-exam life insurance. The company has a couple of different policy options (with some variations by state) for eligible customers age 20 to 60 to get life insurance coverage with no exam.
According to a spokesperson, 73% of term life applicants are approved with no exam necessary, and 42% of applicants receive an instant decision.
Rates are also affordable, with premiums for traditionally underwritten policies starting at $8 a month. Keep in mind, the premium you’ll pay depends on physical factors like your age and health as well the coverage level and term duration you choose.

Pros

Available to military and non-military applicants
Same-day decisions

Cons

No riders
Rates increase annually

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy types –
term and permanent

Terms available –
10 – 30 years

Coverage amounts –
$100K to $10M

Why we chose it: USAA’s no-exam life insurance policy is designed for young, working adults and military members, but isn’t limited to active duty members. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 60, including civilians, can apply for this coverage.
USAA’s Eagle Express policy offers between $100,000 and $1 million in term life insurance for adults who are in good health, with a quick application process and the possibility of obtaining coverage the very same day.
If you need more coverage, USAA’s traditionally-underwritten level term life policy offers coverage of up to $10 million for applicants between the ages of 18 and 70.
AM Best rates USAA as A++ for financial stability, its very highest rating, which reflects top-notch.
Read our full review of USAA Life Insurance.

Pros

Least expensive for guaranteed issue policies

$2,000 to $25,000 coverage available
Applicants age 45-85 eligible

Cons

Low maximum coverage for guaranteed issue insurance
Different age eligibility in NY (50-75)

HIGHLIGHTS

Policy types
term, whole and universal (guaranteed issue is a whole life policy)

Terms available
term policies are 10, 15, 20 and 30 years; guaranteed issue is not a term policy

Coverage amounts
$2K to $25K for guaranteed issue/final expense whole life coverage

Why we chose it: Mutual of Omaha is a well-regarded life insurance company that offers a wide range of policy types, including a flexible and relatively affordable guaranteed issue policy. We made it our top pick for guaranteed issue, which is sometimes called “final expense” coverage. (Read more about these policies below.)
The company’s no-exam whole life policy is is available for people aged 45 to 85 (50 to 75 in New York). It offers coverage ranging from $2,000 to $25,000 ($5,000 minimum in Washington).
Because an applicant can’t be rejected due to their health, guaranteed issue is the most expensive type of life insurance. We found that the monthly premium for a $5,000 policy for a 50-year-old woman was roughly $16 a month; for a $25,000 policy, roughly $75. This policy, like most guaranteed issue policies, has a graded death benefit — in which the full benefit is available only some years after the policy begins.
Other no-exam life insurance companies we considered
The life insurance market is competitive, and there are many options available. Here are a few other companies with offerings we deemed noteworthy.
Ladder
Ladder’s insurance partners are well-known names like Legal & General and Allianz, and you can adjust or “ladder” your coverage as your needs change. It has an easy online application process and offers high coverage term life insurance without an exam, although policyholders don’t have the ability to add riders or convert term coverage to permanent.
Progressive
Progressive had lower coverage maximums compared to some of its competitors, but it stands out for a unique one-year, no-exam life insurance product. While this particular policy is narrowly targeted, young and healthy adults who need life insurance for a short duration can get coverage starting at $11 a month.
TruStage
TruStage has both a term and a whole-life policy that are no-exam. A term policy can be converted to a whole life policy if your needs change over time. TruStage is the insurer behind many big credit unions’ life insurance offerings and has a good track record of customer satisfaction.
Wysh
Wysh uses technology to offer a fast online application and approval process, although its eligible maximum age of 50 to apply for no-exam life insurance is lower than some competitors. Wysh stands out for letting policyholders choose non-standard amounts of coverage and terms. If, for instance, you need $248,000 worth of coverage for 17 years, Wysh lets you tailor a policy to your exact terms.
Life insurance guide
In this section we will explain everything you need to know about no-exam life insurance. We’ll explore what the product is, how it works, how to get it, and the benefits of this type of policy. We’ll also take a look at the different types of no-exam life insurance, as the product is available in term, permanent and other options depending on the issuer.
What is no-exam life insurance?
No-exam life insurance is a life insurance policy that does not require you to undergo a medical exam. Traditional life insurance policies are subject to medical underwriting, which typically entails a medical exam, blood work, blood pressure check, urinalysis and other health tests.
Life insurance issuers require these exams to protect themselves from insuring someone who may have a serious pre-existing medical condition. A no-exam policy incurs more risk on the insurers part, so no-exam coverage options vary widely by issuer. Some companies only offer final expenses coverage with no medical exam, while others employ third-party medical data to offer much higher coverage limits to the healthiest individuals.
How does no-exam life insurance work?
No-exam life insurance approval and coverage is usually quick, as you don’t have to submit to any health tests or medical exams to qualify. Instead, you’ll have to answer a series of questions about your health. Insurers will also make use of third-party data regarding your medical and prescription histories when making their decision whether or not to insure you. A growing number of companies are using algorithmic tools that incorporate AI to assist in evaluating applicants.
You must be completely honest in your responses to your health questionnaire. if your insurer finds any discrepancies — for example, you falsely claim that you don’t use tobacco products when you actually do — your policy could be voided.
Often, the policies can be purchased completely online and without speaking to an agent. No-exam life insurance can go into effect immediately, unlike traditional life insurance which can take three to six weeks while the insurance company reviews your information before underwriting.
Types of no medical exam life insurance
No-exam approval can technically be offered for any type of life insurance policy. It all depends on the company. Below you’ll find descriptions for different kinds of life insurance and how no-exam functions within these life insurance policies. The two primary categories of life insurance are term life insurance and permanent life insurance (different types of permanent life insurance include whole life insurance and universal life insurance). You can find both term and permanent (generally whole) life policies that are no-exam, but not all companies offer all types — and some big insurance companies don’t offer no-exam life insurance at all.
Simplified issue
Simplified issue life insurance does not require a medical exam. Instead, you provide information about your health via a questionnaire, typically through the insurance company or agency’s website or mobile app. These policies have the advantage of being more convenient and less intrusive than traditionally underwritten life insurance policies that include a medical exam, and approval can be granted within days or even same-day. However, these policies also tend to be more expensive and may have lower maximum death benefits because insurers have less visibility into your health profile. In addition, approval is not guaranteed with simplified issue policies and eligibility might be limited to younger applicants. Term policies are more common with simplified issue policies. Certain medical conditions or even high-risk hobbies (e.g. skydiving) could lead to your application being denied.
Accelerated underwriting
Accelerated underwriting life insurance is similar to simplified issue in that it offers a faster and more efficient application and approval process and is often, although not exclusively, used for term policies. Simplified issue application is a streamlined process because insurers require less information about your health history than conventional underwriting requires. However, accelerated underwriting uses sophisticated data analytics and algorithmic tools, along with data from third-party sources, to serve as a proxy for a medical exam. Like simplified issue, the appeal of accelerated underwriting is that it offers a minimally-invasive, streamlined application process, one in which approval can be granted as quickly as same-day. However, like simplified issue, your age or other circumstances like a serious medical condition might make you ineligible for coverage.
Guaranteed issue
Guaranteed issue life insurance, sometimes called final expense insurance, is a type of whole life insurance wherein approval is guaranteed — with no medical exam required. This option is ideal for seniors, people with serious medical conditions and anyone who’s been denied life insurance coverage in the past.
The trade-off is that these policies tend to be more expensive — sometimes significantly so — and coverage levels tend to be meager, often $50,000 or less. The death benefits these policies offer is intended to pay for funeral and burial costs, and to pay off any debts that might otherwise pass onto your heirs.
Another important thing to know about these policies is that they usually feature a graded death benefit. This means that if you die before the waiting period (often two or three years), your beneficiaries will not receive the full death benefit.

Pros

No health exam or blood tests required

Quick application and approval compared to traditional underwriting

Application likely to be online

Cons

Low coverage limits

Only the healthiest individuals may qualify for substantial coverage

Higher premiums than traditional coverage

Age restrictions

How to compare no-exam life insurance policies
Comparing no-exam life insurance options is much the same as comparing traditional life insurance options. Among other factors, customers should evaluate monthly premium costs, term lengths, available riders and the issuers’ reputation and financial strength.
However, no-exam policies also present their own specific features that are different from traditional life insurance, which we will consider here.
Coverage limits – Depending on the insurer, no-exam policies can have significantly lower coverage limits than policies that require a medical check. Many companies only have the no-exam option to cover final expenses. Additionally, companies that do offer significant coverage may only do so for the healthiest applicants.
In these situations, approval will not only be contingent on answering medical questions, but also on an analysis of the applicant’s medical and prescription histories. In comparing companies, make sure you understand how much coverage they are prepared to extend to you without a medical exam. Also, be aware they will likely be diving into your medical history to determine whether or not they will cover you.
Costs – No-exam life insurance policies can have higher premiums than traditional life insurance. In all reality, you could get a better deal going the traditional route if you are fairly healthy.
Although the lowest rates will be reserved for those in optimal health, be sure to get life insurance quotes from multiple issuers as they all have different standards for who they will accept and what they will charge without a medical exam.
Term lengths – No-exam term lengths could be limited by your age. For example, if you are over 40, the maximum term you might expect could be 20 years. Compare the term lengths different issuers are prepared to offer you. Additionally, find out if you will be given the option to extend the term or convert to a permanent policy at the term’s end.
Financial strength – Research the financial stability and reputation of the insurance company offering the policy. Look for ratings from independent agencies like AM Best, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s to assess the insurer’s ability to pay claims.
Alternatives to no medical exam life insurance
Although companies are beginning to offer no-exam policies with high coverage limits, as mentioned before, these are usually reserved for those applicants who pre qualify because of their age and optimal physical condition. Those who may not fall into this category and require higher coverage limits may choose to go the traditional route and opt for a fully underwritten policy.
The prospect of taking a medical exam may provoke anxiety, but there’s a possibility you may be offered a better premium and higher coverage limits with one, not to mention more policy flexibility when it comes to riders and designating beneficiaries.

Best No Exam Life Insurance FAQ
How much life insurance can you get without a medical exam?
You can get policies in the millions of dollars without a medical exam, however, these offers are usually reserved for the healthiest of applicants with unblemished medical records. For most people, no-exam policies are going to have lower coverage limits than traditional life insurance policies because they are riskier for the insurer. They also cost more.
How long is the waiting period for no-exam life insurance?
Since you don’t have to submit to any health tests or medical exams to qualify, no-exam policies can be approved and go into effect relatively quickly. Some policies can be active immediately or within 24 hours, but it depends on the insurer.
Can you get a whole life insurance policy without a medical exam?
Yes, it’s possible to get a whole life insurance policy without a medical exam. One example is guaranteed issue whole life insurance, which typically provides enough to cover final expenses.
Is a no-exam life insurance policy worth it?
A no-exam life insurance policy may be worth it — despite the possibility of paying a higher premium than a fully underwritten policy — if you want to avoid the hassle of a medical exam. A Guaranteed Issue policy with no medical exam, which is typically costlier than other kinds of life insurance policies, may also be worth it if you’ve been denied coverage in the past.

How we chose the best no-exam life insurance
We evaluated life insurance companies as well as online agencies that provide quotes and policies from a variety of carriers. We evaluated costs and coverage limits, focusing on policies with affordable premiums and high levels of coverage. We looked for companies that offer a variety of coverage options, including riders and other add-ons. Companies with informative, transparent websites and those with high financial strength received extra credit. We also rewarded companies that made it quick and easy to get quotes, and those for which the application process can be conducted wholly online.
Rates and cost
Life insurance rates are based on the applicant’s health, age, policy type and coverage amount. We prioritized companies that have rate generators on their websites and used those tools to compare quotes. We gave additional points to companies that were transparent about policy details and premium increases.
Customer service and reputation
We looked at public feedback from third-party review sites and information available via the Better Business Bureau. If policyholder review ratings were poor, we also considered the number of reviews in relation to the ratings. Finally, we considered each company’s AM Best financial strength rating and eliminated companies rated B and below.
Coverage limits and amounts
No-exam policies often offer lower coverage amounts because of the higher risk for the insurance company. We prioritized companies offering over $100,000 in coverage (with the exception of our final expense category, where coverage limits tend to be lower) as well as riders or any other add-on options.
Summary of Money’s 5 Best No-Exam Life Insurance of 2026

Nationwide — Best Overall
Ethos — Best Online Agency
Banner Life — Best for High Coverage Amounts
USAA — Best for Members of the Military
Mutual of Omaha — Best for Final Expense Coverage

One of the key challenges of building effective AI agents is teaching them to choose between using external tools or relying on their internal knowledge. But large language models are often trained to blindly invoke tools, which causes latency bottlenecks, unnecessary API costs, and degraded reasoning caused by environmental noise. To overcome this challenge, researchers at Alibaba introduced Hierarchical Decoupled Policy Optimization (HDPO), a reinforcement learning framework that trains agents to balance both execution efficiency and task accuracy. Metis, a multimodal model they trained using this framework, reduces redundant tool invocations from 98% to just 2% while establishing new state-of-the-art reasoning accuracy across key industry benchmarks. This framework helps create AI agents that are not trigger-happy and know when to abstain from using tools, enabling the development of responsive and cost-effective agentic systems.The metacognitive deficitCurrent agentic models face what the researchers call a “profound metacognitive deficit.” The models have a hard time deciding when to use their internal parametric knowledge versus when to query an external utility. As a result, they blindly invoke tools and APIs, like web search or code execution, even when the user’s prompt already contains all the necessary information to resolve the task.This trigger-happy tool-calling behavior creates severe operational hurdles for real-world applications. Because the models are trained to focus almost entirely on task completion, they are indifferent to latency. These agents frequently hit exorbitant tool call rates. Every unnecessary external API call introduces a serial processing bottleneck, turning a technically capable AI into a sluggish system that frustrates users and burns through tool budgets.At the same time, burning computational resources on excessive tool use does not translate to better reasoning. Redundant tool interactions inject noise into the model’s context. This noise can distract the model, derailing an otherwise sound chain of reasoning and actively degrading the final output.To address the latency and cost issues of blind tool invocation, previous reinforcement learning methods attempted to penalize excessive tool usage by combining task accuracy and execution efficiency into one reward signal. However, this entangled design creates an unsolvable optimization dilemma. If the efficiency penalty is too aggressive, the model becomes overly conservative and suppresses essential tool use, sacrificing correctness on arduous tasks. Conversely, if the penalty is mild, the optimization signal loses its value and does not prevent tool overuse on simpler tasks.Furthermore, this shared reward creates semantic ambiguity, where an inaccurate trajectory with zero tool calls might yield the same reward as an accurate trajectory with excessive tool usage. Because the training signals for accuracy and efficiency become entangled, the model can’t learn to control tool-use without degrading its core reasoning capabilities.Hierarchical decoupled policy optimizationTo solve the optimization dilemma of coupled rewards, the researchers introduced HDPO. HDPO separates accuracy and efficiency into two independent optimization channels. The accuracy channel focuses on maximizing task correctness across all of the model’s rollouts. The efficiency channel optimizes for execution economy.HDPO computes the training signals for these two channels independently and only combines them at the final stage of loss computation. The efficiency signal is conditional upon the accuracy channel. This means that an incorrect response is never rewarded simply for being fast or using fewer tools. This decoupling avoids situations where accuracy and efficiency gradients cancel each other out, providing the AI with clean learning signals for both goals.The most powerful emergent property of this decoupled design is that it creates an implicit cognitive curriculum. Early in training, when the model still struggles with the task, the optimization is dominated by the accuracy objective, forcing the model to prioritize learning correct reasoning and knowledge. As the model’s reasoning capabilities mature and it consistently arrives at the right answers, the efficiency signal smoothly scales up. This mechanism causes the model to first master task resolution, and only then refine its self-reliance by avoiding redundant, costly API calls.To complement HDPO, the researchers developed a rigorous, multi-stage data curation regime that tackles severe flaws found in existing tool-augmented datasets. Their data curation pipeline covers supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning (RL) stages.For the SFT phase, they sourced data from publicly available tool-augmented multimodal trajectories and filtered them to remove low-quality examples containing execution failures or feedback inconsistencies. They also aggressively filtered out any training sample that the base model could solve directly without tools. Finally, using Google’s Gemini 3.1 Pro as an automated judge, they filtered the SFT corpus to only keep examples that demonstrated strategic tool use.For the RL phase, the curation focused on ensuring a stable optimization signal. They filtered out prompts with corrupted visuals or semantic ambiguity. The HDPO algorithm relies on comparing correct and incorrect responses. If a task is trivially easy where the model always gets it right, or prohibitively hard where the model always fails, there is no meaningful mathematical variance to learn from. The team strictly retained only prompts that exhibited a non-trivial mix of successes and failures to guarantee an actionable gradient signal.Metis agent: HDPO  in actionTo test HDPO in action, the researchers used the framework to develop Metis, a multimodal reasoning agent equipped with coding and search tools. Metis is built on top of the Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct vision-language model. The researchers trained it in two distinct stages. First, they applied SFT using their curated data to provide a cold-start initialization. Next, they applied RL using the HDPO framework, exposing the model to multi-turn interactions where it could invoke tools like Python code execution, text search, and image search.The researchers pitted Metis against standard open-source vision models like LLaVA-OneVision, text-only reasoners, and state-of-the-art agentic models including DeepEyes V2 and the 30-billion-parameter Skywork-R1V4. The evaluation spanned two main areas: visual perception and document understanding datasets like HRBench and V*Bench, and rigorous mathematical and logical reasoning tasks like WeMath and MathVista.On all tasks, Metis achieved state-of-the-art or highly competitive performance, outperforming existing agentic models — including the much larger 30-billion-parameter Skywork-R1V4 — across both visual perception and reasoning tasks.Equally important is the anecdotal behavior Metis showed in the experiments. For example, when presented with an image of a museum sign and asked what the center text says, standard agentic models waste time blindly writing Python scripts to crop the image just to read it. Metis, however, recognizes that the text is clearly legible in the raw image. It skips the tools entirely and uses a single inference pass.In another experiment, the model was given a complex chart and asked to identify the second-highest line at a specific data point within a tiny subplot. Metis recognized that fine-grained visual analysis exceeded its native resolution capabilities and could not accurately distinguish the overlapping lines. Instead of guessing from the full image, it invoked Python to crop and zoom in exclusively on that specific subplot region, allowing it to correctly identify the line. It treats code as a precision instrument deployed only when the visual evidence is genuinely ambiguous, not as a default fallback.The researchers released Metis along with the code for HDPO under the permissive Apache 2.0 license.“Our results demonstrate that strategic tool use and strong reasoning performance are not a trade-off; rather, eliminating noisy, redundant tool calls directly contributes to superior accuracy,” the researchers conclude. “More broadly, our work suggests a paradigm shift in tool-augmented learning: from merely teaching models how to execute tools, to cultivating the meta-cognitive wisdom of when to abstain from them.”

Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, often trades during earnings season.This time, the timing worked. She picked up shares of a megacap tech company just before results, and the stock has since surged following the report.In 2025, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. But so far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is down 5.57%, while the S&P 500 surged 4.24%, Yahoo Finance data show.Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. However, her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled more than 60%.Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of April 29, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -9.44%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 12.75% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.Cathie Wood expects “great acceleration” brought by tech developmentsWood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses have strong growth potential, though their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.According to Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht, two of Wood’s Ark funds were among the worst-performing ETFs in the first quarter of 2026. The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) ranked second on the list, while the ARK Innovation ETF placed fifth.From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to a March 2025 analysis by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s ranking. The analyst hasn’t updated the 2025 ranking.In a March Bloomberg podcast, Wood says the global economy is not heading into a downturn, but into what she calls a “great acceleration” driven by AI and other breakthrough technologies.Related: Cathie Wood sells $75M of surging semiconductor stock“We’re not going into the Great Depression, we’re going into the great acceleration,” Wood said, pointing to how past technological revolutions reshaped economic growth.She noted that global real GDP growth averaged just 0.6% between 1500 and 1900, before the Industrial Revolution lifted it to around 3% for more than a century. Now, she argues, a new wave of innovation could push growth much higher.“We think [technologies] are going to take growth into the 7 to 8% range,” Wood said, adding that the number may actually be conservative.Wood also noted that AI is driving down costs across industries.“These technologies are deflationary,” she said. “AI training costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling as much as 85% to even 98% annually.”Some investors appear to agree with Wood’s optimism. From April 23 to April 28, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $211.63 million in net inflows, with one-month net inflows reaching $376.85 million, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi. 

From April 23 to April 28, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $211.63 million in net inflows.Getty Images

Cathie Wood buys $14.1 million of Alphabet stockOn April 28, Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF bought 40,656 Class C shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), according to Ark’s daily trade information. These shares are valued at approximately $14.1 million based on the latest closing price of $347.31. The Google parent reported first-quarter earnings on April 29. Earnings per share came at $5.11, well above analyst estimates of $2.62. Revenue rose 20% from last year to $109.9 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $106.79 billion.Related: Stanley Druckenmiller dumps SanDisk and buys surging energy stockAs of writing, shares of Alphabet were up about 7% in after-hours trading following the results.Alphabet’s cloud business continued to gain momentum. Google Cloud brought in $20.02 billion in revenue, ahead of the $18.05 billion analysts had been expecting, according to CNBC.“Our enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for cloud for the first time in Q1,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the earnings call. Alphabet lifted its 2026 capital spending forecast to $180 billion to $190 billion, up from its earlier $175 billion to $185 billion range. CFO Anat Ashkenazi also said 2027 spending is expected to “significantly increase” from 2026.In a letter published in January, Wood said AI is bringing “the most powerful capital spending cycle in history.”More AI:Micron sits at the center of a red-hot chip rallyIBM CEO sends blunt message on AI and quantum computingAnthropic CEO makes shocking admission about AI”What once was the cap in spending seems to have become a floor now that the AI, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing platforms are ready for prime time,” she said.Citi analysts led by Ronald Josey reiterated a buy rating and a $405 price target on Alphabet shares following the earnings, according to a research note sent to TheStreet.”Given Google Cloud revenue growth is reaccelerating on TPU (Google’s custom-designed AI accelerators) and Gemini demand… we believe the shares warrant a premium to the market and to Alphabet’s historical multiple,” the analysts wrote.Alphabet is not a top 10 holding in the Ark Innovation ETF.Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of April 29, 2026:Tesla Inc. (TSLA) 9.54%Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) 5.17%CRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP) 4.93%Tempus AI Inc. (TEM) 4.91%Shopify Inc. (SHOP) 4.39%Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) 4.35%Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) 4.23%Roku Inc. (ROKU) 4.15%Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL) 3.97%Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) 3.16%Other than buying Alphabet shares, Wood’s recent moves include buying CoreWeave (CRWV), Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS), Spotify Technology SA (SPOT), and Robinhood Markets (HOOD), while selling Bullish (BLSH), Roku (ROKU), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and Twist Bioscience (TWST).Related: Morgan Stanley has blunt message for stock market investors

There is a specific inflection point in every dramatic stock comeback, and it almost never arrives at the actual bottom. At the bottom, the argument is still about survival. The real turn comes later, once the earnings beats start stacking up and the bear thesis simply stops holding together logically.For most of the past three years, betting against chip stocks outside of Nvidia was close to a consensus trade on Wall Street. The artificial intelligence boom created a clear early winner, and every other chipmaker was left sorting through what that meant for their future. Legacy manufacturers with aging fabrication processes, ballooning debt, and shrinking market share got hit hardest.Watching one particular American chip giant fall from its position as the defining force of the PC era to a company the Dow Jones Industrial Average no longer wanted was one of the more instructive storylines in technology investing. That company missed mobile. It missed the early AI wave. It watched competitors lap it repeatedly, then laid off more than 20,000 employees and started from something close to scratch.Then things changed. Quietly at first, then all at once.This week, after Intel delivered one of the most surprising earnings reports in the semiconductor sector this year, CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer posted on X (formerly Twitter) a verdict that cut through all the Wall Street hedging: “Intel is such a horse. I have NO bear case.”What Cramer saw in Intel’s blowout quarterIntel’s first-quarter 2026 results reset the narrative completely.Revenue came in at $13.6 billion, up 7% year over year and roughly $1.3 billion above the Wall Street consensus, according to CNBC. Adjusted earnings per share landed at $0.29. Analysts had been looking for $0.01.Related: HSBC resets Intel price target for the rest of 2026I ran those numbers twice when the report dropped. A 28-cent beat against a one-cent estimate is not a beat in any normal sense of the word. That is a different ballgame entirely.The Data Center and Artificial Intelligence segment generated $5.1 billion, a 22% jump year over year and well above the $4.41 billion analyst estimate, according to Quartz. Intel Foundry revenue climbed 16% to reach $5.4 billion. Intel shares surged more than 16% in after-hours trading on April 23. CFO David Zinsner told investors on the earnings call that revenue would have been “meaningfully higher” if Intel could manufacture enough chips, according to CNBC. Asked to quantify the gap between demand and available supply, Zinsner told analysts it “starts with a B,” per Motley Fool’s transcript of the call. A production bottleneck as your worst problem is a completely different position than a demand problem.Cramer reinforced his call the following morning. “The biggest risks were taken off the table with Intel when Nvidia stepped in,” he said on CNBC on April 24. When your former rival validates your manufacturing capability with real investment dollars, the risk conversation changes.

Jim Cramer is bullish on Intel.Photo by hapabapa on Getty Images

How Intel rebuilt after years of missed stepsThe turnaround has a name: Lip-Bu Tan, who took over as CEO in March 2025 after Pat Gelsinger resigned under pressure from Intel’s board in December 2024, according to TheStreet.Tan inherited a company by his own public admission that was no longer competing at the highest level. “Twenty, 30 years ago, we are really the leader,” he told staff in a company-wide employee broadcast. “Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top ten semiconductor companies,” Tan added, as reported by TheStreet. That kind of honesty from a new CEO is rare, and it signaled that the old playbook was gone.More AI:Micron sits at the center of a red-hot chip rallyIBM CEO sends blunt message on AI and quantum computingAnthropic CEO makes shocking admission about AIWhat Tan did next was disciplined and fast. Intel cut more than 20,000 jobs, pared back its foundry ambitions, and imposed strict capital spending discipline across four consecutive quarters of improving results, according to Calkalistech. The U.S. government’s $8.9 billion stake in Intel, described by Calkalistech as the “first of its kind for a major technology company,” became the financial anchor for the recovery.Tan put the company’s AI positioning in plain language during the Q1 earnings call. “The CPU is reinserting itself as the indispensable foundation of the AI era. This isn’t just our wishful thinking, it’s what we hear from our customers,” he said, according to CNBC. He also confirmed that Intel 18A yields are now “running ahead of internal projections,” Intel’s Q1 press release confirmed.My read on that yield shift is significant. As recently as January 2026, Tan had told investors that 18A yields “still do not meet my expectations.” The turn from “below expectations” to “ahead of projections” in a single quarter is exactly the kind of inflection that reprices a turnaround story.Intel’s Q1 2026 numbers in plain languageHere is what the quarter actually showed.Revenue: $13.6 billion, up 7% year over year, against a Wall Street estimate of $12.32 billionNon-GAAP EPS: $0.29, versus a consensus estimate of $0.01Data Center and AI revenue: $5.1 billion, up 22% year over year Intel Foundry revenue: $5.4 billion, up 16% year over year Q2 2026 revenue guidance: $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, versus the $13.03 billion Wall Street had expectedINTC year-to-date gain: More than 123% as of late April 2026, surpassing Intel’s dot-com bubble record price Analyst upgrades followed fast. UBS raised its Intel price target to $83 from $65 but kept a neutral rating, citing ongoing execution risks, as highlighted in my TheStreet coverage. Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore raised his target to $56 from $41, projecting 30% year-over-year growth in Intel’s data center segment for 2026, TheStreet reported. Freedom Broker upgraded Intel to buy with a $100 price target, while KeyBanc set the most aggressive call on the street at $110, according to Benzinga.What the Intel rally means for your portfolio right nowCramer’s “no bear case” call carries weight because he spent years watching Intel struggle and saying so publicly. When he removes the bear case on a legacy chip name entirely, the reasoning behind it matters more than the headline.Your clearest indicator heading into Q2 is whether Intel hits the midpoint of its $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion revenue guidance while continuing to improve foundry margins. If Tan delivers on both, Cramer’s horse metaphor will age extremely well. If manufacturing execution stumbles against a stock priced for flawless execution, this rally gives back serious ground fast.Intel CFO David Zinsner made a revealing statement back in January, before most of this run happened. He purchased nearly $250,000 of Intel shares on the open market after the post-earnings drop, according to TheStreet. Open-market insider buys are not guarantees, but they are real skin in the game. From that entry near $42, the CFO who said revenue demand “starts with a B” is sitting on a position that looks significantly better today.Cramer’s verdict may be short on words, but the story it’s summarizing is anything but simple. Intel is relevant again in the AI era. Whether it stays relevant long enough to justify where the stock sits today is the bet you’re making every day you hold INTC.Related: Major Wall Street firm makes a bold new call on Intel stock

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