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Monday’s tumble erased two weeks worth of gains made by Trump Media.

The Truth Social parent held 9,477 BTC worth $557 million at the end of June, while its Cronos position also suffered a steep drop in value.

Home-loan interest rates in Singapore are less than 2%, while in Japan they’re around 1% or even lower. That’s in stark contrast to mortgage rates in America and Australia, which are over 6% on average.

After years of steadily building an individual retirement account, buying a home may finally be within reach. But for many first-time buyers, a familiar financial hurdle remains: Much of their available cash is tied up in retirement savings.The IRS offers a notable exception for homebuyers, waiving the 10% early withdrawal penalty on up to $10,000 from an IRA for qualified first-time purchasers. Thousands of buyers tap that provision each year, treating their retirement savings as a convenient bridge to the closing table.A recent Charles Schwab analysis walks buyers through the full math behind that decision, including taxes, lost growth, and a permanently smaller retirement balance. The firm’s projections suggest that a single $10,000 withdrawal can balloon into a six-figure loss over the span of a working career.The IRS homebuyer exception and its overlooked limitsThe first-time homebuyer exception allows up to $10,000 to be withdrawn from an IRA without the standard 10% early withdrawal penalty, Schwab noted. The $10,000 limit applies over a lifetime, while married couples can each claim the full amount, allowing for a combined withdrawal of up to $20,000.To qualify, neither you nor your spouse can have owned a principal residence during the two years before the purchase, according to IRS Publication 590-B. The withdrawn funds must go toward buying, building, or rebuilding a home, and the full amount must be spent within 120 days.Here is the detail that confuses most buyers considering this move: Penalty-free does not mean tax-free for traditional IRA holders. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA still count as ordinary income in the year they are taken, even with the homebuyer exemption, the firm explained.In the 22% federal bracket, for example, a $10,000 withdrawal would generate a $2,200 income tax bill before any state taxes are factored in.How a $10,000 withdrawal becomes a six-figure loss by retirementThe penalty waiver can save $1,000 on a $10,000 withdrawal, but the potential loss of decades of compound growth could ultimately far exceed that initial savings.That same $10,000 left untouched in an IRA would grow to about $32,071 over 20 years at an average 6% annual return, the firm reported. Over a 30-year horizon, the balance would reach $57,434, and over 35 years the projected amount climbs to an estimated $76,860.More Retirement:Retirement Tech in 2026: AI, Operational Efficiency, and Better Participant ExperienceGeorge Kamel, Rachel Cruze warn about a mortgage retirement trapMassachusetts retirement taxes explained: What retirees should know before moving or stayingA buyer who withdraws $10,000 at age 30 could forfeit more than $172,000 in compound growth by the time they retire at 67. That figure assumes an 8% average annual return over 37 years of compounding, Jeff Hunter, wealth strategist at TD Wealth in Chadds Ford, Pa., told Realtor.com.Nicholas Hamilton, national manager of Alliant retirement and investment services at Alliant Credit Union in Chicago, warned that homeownership can build wealth, but not at the expense of retirement savings. “The biggest risk isn’t the tax bill; it’s the lost compounding that can’t be recovered,” Hamilton told Realtor.com.

A $10,000 IRA withdrawal may save $1,000 upfront, but lost compounding could cost homeowners more than $172,000 in retirement wealth.Maskot / Getty Images

How Roth and traditional IRA rules differ for homebuyersTraditional IRA contributions are made with pre-tax dollars, so every dollar withdrawn is taxed as ordinary income even when the 10% penalty is waived. That tax bill reduces the cash available at closing and could push you into a higher federal tax bracket for the year.Roth IRA holders have more flexibility because contributions were already taxed before entering the account and can be withdrawn at any time without penalties.Up to $10,000 in Roth earnings can be withdrawn penalty-free under the homebuyer exemption, Schwab noted. If the Roth account is at least five years old, those earnings are also tax-free; if it is younger than five years, the earnings remain subject to ordinary income tax, even though the penalty is waived. Lower-cost alternatives that preserve retirement savingsFirst-time homebuyers face considerable headwinds in the current housing market, and the pressure to assemble down-payment cash can feel overwhelming. Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at personal finance website Bankrate, told the Associated Press that between a 401(k) loan and a hardship withdrawal, borrowing against the plan is the smarter move because the funds eventually return to the retirement account with interest….The loan is the more preferable option, because you can borrow from yourself; you’re going to pay yourself back with interest.Schwab and the advisors quoted in the Realtor.com report cited long-term compounding losses as the reason IRA withdrawals often prove more expensive than lower-down-payment loan products, even after the penalty is waived.Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) require as little as 3.5% down for borrowers with a credit score of 580 or higher.”The goal of buying a home should be to improve long-term financial stability, not weaken it,” Brian Zink, CEO of No Upfront Tax Relief in Phoenix, told Realtor.com.The long-term math behind the retirement-account withdrawal decisionUsing a small Roth contribution withdrawal as a bridge can work for buyers who are financially stable and plan to resume saving, Hamilton indicated, as Realtor.com reported. Relying on retirement funds as a primary down payment source, or assuming home equity replaces decades of compounding, often leads to long-term regret, he warned.The advisors quoted in the Realtor.com report framed the decision as a trade between $1,000 in penalty savings and tens of thousands in potential future retirement income.Related: Fidelity breaks down IRA rules that catch heirs off guard

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.Why we love this dealBelieve it or not, it doesn’t cost much to upgrade your outdoor space. Surprisingly, there are plenty of patio sets, pergolas, and fire pits that are not only affordable but also add comfort and style to your outdoor setup. But if you want to invest in your outdoor relaxation time as well, a patio swing glider is one of the best outdoor essentials you can get. Patio swing gliders take the comfort of a bench or an outdoor loveseat and pair them with a gentle motion like that of a rocking chair. And if you know where to look, you can get ones with practical canopies that block out the sun. Walmart is a great place to shop for these hidden gems, and the Skandiquip 3-Seat Patio Swing Glider with Adjustable Canopy is one of the best we’ve seen yet. Top-rated by customers, this swing glider is on sale for only $62. It was originally $80, but thanks to a 22% discount, it’s an even better deal.Skandiquip 3-Seat Patio Swing Glider with Adjustable Canopy, $62 (was $80) at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

Shop at WalmartWhy do shoppers love it?This patio glider is made for lounging outdoors. It has soft cushions that are water-resistant, making them durable enough to withstand the outdoor elements. They’re also washable, which makes cleaning and maintaining them easy, too. With a smooth gliding motion, it offers maximum relaxation. One shopper said they enjoy using these types of patio swings early in the morning and during the evenings, and that sounds like a perfect way to start and end your day if you ask us. With a reinforced steel frame, this patio glider is heavy-duty. It has a weight capacity of up to 500 pounds, and while it’s technically a three-seater, it can comfortably fit up to two adults or two adults and one child. The patio swing also comes with a UV-resistant canopy that can keep you cool with some shade and protect you from light rain. Plus, the canopy is adjustable, so you can adjust the tilt for optimal coverage when needed.Related: Walmart’s bestselling 10-foot patio umbrella with interior LED lights is just $57Details to knowDimensions: 68.5 inches long by 43.5 inches wide by 64.9 inches high.Colors: Six.Maximum weight capacity: 500 pounds.Walmart shoppers said they “love this porch swing.” One reviewer over 70 years old said they were able to put it together by themselves. “Love the color, and it’s very comfortable,” they added. Another customer also shared how easy it was to put together. “It looks great, and it’s sturdy,” they said.Shop more dealsLogyat 3-Seat All-Weather Outdoor Patio Swing Glider, $64 (was $80) at WalmartYodolla 3-Seat Outdoor Porch Swing with Canopy, $74 (was $150) at WalmartKicctian 3-Seat Patio Glider Swing Chair, $62 (was $96) at WalmartIf you’re looking to upgrade your outdoor space, whether it’s on a porch or on a patio, the Skandiquip 3-Seat Patio Swing Glider with Adjustable Canopy is one you need to consider. As a top-rated outdoor essential that’s on sale for just $62, it’s an affordable way to relax outdoors.

Mark Zuckerberg says we’re lucky to live in an “incredible moment,” but many workers are having a hard time stomaching the uncertainty.

Bitwise’s Ryan Rasmussen says investors are underestimating Circle as stablecoins expand and the company builds out its payments infrastructure.

Court McGee will fight for the final time at UFC 332 on October 3 at Delta Center. The TUF 11 winner retires after 16 years and 29 UFC appearances. No opponent yet.

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 third in JD Power’s 2025 Individual Life Insurance Study.
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 $5 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 $5M

Why we chose it: Banner Life offers eligible applicants ages 20-60 up to $5 million in life insurance with no exam (up to $500,000 for applicants ages 61 to 70), 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

Amazon Web Services is threading its AI-powered security infrastructure directly into the coding environments built by two of its fiercest rivals — and in doing so, it is making a bold bet that controlling the security layer matters more than controlling the model.AWS announced at Black Hat USA 2026 this month that its Continuum platform for code vulnerabilities will integrate directly into Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex, alongside AWS’s own Kiro IDE.The move embeds AWS security tooling at the point where developers write code, regardless of which AI model they use to do it. Simultaneously, AWS expanded Security Hub Extended — its curated, single-bill security marketplace launched in February — with a 10th security category focused on supply chain protection, bringing in Chainguard and Socket as partners.Together, the announcements are AWS’s most sweeping attempt yet to position itself as the default security control plane for enterprise software development in the AI era — a role that carries enormous commercial implications as the global cloud infrastructure market surpasses $143 billion per quarter, according to Synergy Research Group.Why frontier AI models turned the vulnerability backlog into a five-alarm fireThe urgency behind both launches traces back to a single inflection point that reshaped enterprise security earlier this year. Claude Mythos Preview, announced by Anthropic in April, is a general-purpose AI model that during testing revealed striking cybersecurity capabilities far exceeding any prior system.In pre-release evaluations, Mythos identified thousands of previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities across every major operating system and web browser. More than 99% of those vulnerabilities remain unpatched by their maintainers, and the median time from vulnerability discovery to weaponized exploit — already collapsed from 771 days in 2018 to under four hours by 2024 — is projected to reach under one hour by the end of 2026.Chet Kapoor, AWS’s vice president of search, security, and observability, framed the challenge in stark terms in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “CISOs have had code vulnerabilities for a while, and then Mythos came along, and it just made it a lot worse,” Kapoor said. “They already had a backlog. Now the backlog is 5x more, and that causes a problem.”That problem — the exponential growth in known vulnerabilities outpacing any organization’s ability to triage and fix them — is precisely what Continuum is designed to address. Kapoor described AWS’s broader security vision as a shift from “telemetry, storage, query, dashboards for humans to telemetry, context, reasoning, and actions by agents.” The shorthand for that vision is a phrase AWS repeated throughout Black Hat: autonomous security at machine speed.Inside Continuum’s four-phase system for finding and fixing code flaws automaticallyContinuum operates as what AWS calls an “agent-team loop architecture” — a sophisticated orchestration harness that selects the right AI model for each task, connects to a customer’s environment, and delivers validated secure code. Under the hood, it runs through four distinct phases.Kapoor broke them down for VentureBeat. Discovery uses multiple frontier AI models to scan code and ingest a customer’s existing vulnerability backlog. Prioritization — which Kapoor called “one of our biggest value adds” — contextualizes each finding against a customer’s actual environment and business risk. “You go from 100 to 2,000, and now you’re like, whoa, I didn’t even know which 100 to focus on,” he said.Validation then builds reproducible exploits in an isolated sandbox to confirm whether a vulnerability is genuinely exploitable. “Once I do them, how will it behave?” Kapoor explained. “You create a sandbox to go off and make that happen. So you can figure out what the blast radius is.” The validation phase covers both first-party code that customers wrote themselves and third-party open source code they depend on. Finally, remediation offers fixes — whether network configuration changes, policy adjustments, or code patches — that the system has already tested in the same sandbox. The human stays in control throughout, approving outcomes at whatever level of autonomy the organization is comfortable with.The commercial model is equally deliberate. Customers pay AWS a single price for Continuum. AWS absorbs the underlying token costs for whichever frontier model performs best at each phase of the scan. “The customer purchases Continuum, period,” Kapoor told VentureBeat. “We optimize on which model to use for what because, quite frankly, GPT Cyber is good at some things, Mythos is good at some things.”How AWS convinced OpenAI and Anthropic to open their coding tools to a rival’s security layerThe most strategically striking element of the announcement is the integration with OpenAI Codex and Anthropic Claude Code. AWS competes directly with both companies across cloud AI services. Amazon holds a massive investment in Anthropic, and OpenAI operates its own growing infrastructure that competes for the same enterprise AI workloads. Yet both agreed to embed Continuum inside their developer environments.When VentureBeat asked Kapoor directly about the competitive dynamics, he pushed back on the framing entirely. “Who is the competitor?” Kapoor said. “I can keep thinking about Anthropic and OpenAI to be partners. I don’t understand the word ‘competitor’ in your description of the question.” He added: “They’re partners with us. We use their models. We plug into their environments. Which is why we actually brought them together to do this.”Kapoor argued that working with a single model provider would be insufficient. “I don’t think it’s good enough to just do it with one company,” he said. “Everybody is going to leapfrog each other over a period of time.” By absorbing token costs and presenting a single bill to the customer, AWS positions Continuum as infrastructure — not a model wrapper. The harness, not the engine, becomes the durable competitive asset.As Kapoor wrote in his blog post announcing the partnership: “An AI harness is the orchestration layer that wraps around a model to connect it to tools, guardrails, memory, and workflows, so it delivers outcomes. Think of the model as the engine and the harness as everything around it. You need both to have a high-performance car.” AWS partners echoed the logic. “Model choice was never the hard part for enterprises. Trust in what the model does in production is,” said Val Henderson, CEO of AWS Premier Partner Caylent, in comments reported by CRN.AWS adds supply chain security to its curated marketplace as open source threats intensifyThe second prong of AWS’s Black Hat announcements extends Security Hub Extended into supply chain security as its 10th category, with Chainguard and Socket as curated partners. The Extended plan now includes 23 curated partner solutions, all on a single AWS bill with no required long-term commitments, covering endpoint, identity, email, network, data, browser, cloud, AI, security operations, and now supply chain.Michael Fuller, AWS’s director of security services, told VentureBeat that the addition was driven entirely by customer demand. “Over the last six to eight months, it’s gotten quite a bit of news around what’s happening in the supply chain space, with the fact that everybody builds on open source,” Fuller said. “Our customers quickly reached out and said, ‘Security Hub Extended is resonating. We would love to see a supply chain security category with some key players there because it’s a hot topic for us.'”The two partners were chosen to be complementary rather than duplicative. Chainguard focuses on providing hardened, secure-by-default container images and packages rebuilt from verified source code. Socket performs behavioral monitoring of packages as they are pulled into a developer’s environment, detecting threats like typosquatting, maintainer account takeover, and obfuscated malicious code. “Together, between the three of us — us with consolidating that, ChainGuard providing really good hardened and cleaned images and packages, and then Socket providing a behavioral analysis over the top — gives customers a really good holistic supply chain security offering,” Fuller said.The complementary approach addresses two distinct attack vectors. An attacker can publish a malicious package that contains no known vulnerabilities — Chainguard’s clean-build approach defends against that. Separately, an attacker can compromise a legitimate maintainer’s account and push a tainted update to a trusted package — Socket’s behavioral detection catches that. Both vectors are amplified in the AI coding era, Fuller noted, because AI agents face the same supply chain risks as human developers: “Agents can be misled on, ‘Hey, this is a well-known package that you’re looking for,’ and therefore pull it down, even though it’s been maliciously obfuscated.”Why AWS chose two partners per category instead of building a security marketplaceThe partner selection strategy behind Security Hub Extended reveals a deliberate philosophy that distinguishes it from the AWS Marketplace, which already hosts tens of thousands of security offerings.Fuller told VentureBeat that customers articulated clear principles for what they wanted. “One was don’t give me hundreds of offerings. We already have the AWS Marketplace,” he said. “Two was give me a sweet spot. Our customers were saying, give me two in each category, and when you look at those two, don’t give me head-to-head competitors. Give me one that I may know well, that is an established player, and give me one that’s taking a different approach.”Fuller pointed to the security operations category as the template. “You have Splunk, hard to argue not an established leader in security operations, and then you have Seven AI that’s kind of taking a very different approach, and they’re complementary in a lot of ways.”The decision to build internally versus partner follows a similar logic. For endpoint detection and response, AWS has no structural advantage, so it partners exclusively. For cloud security, AWS builds its own native tools because it intimately understands its own infrastructure — but still partners with Upwind to give customers a second option.”At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do here is ensure that our customers can operate in the most secure way possible on AWS, not necessarily grow a large security business as the core goal,” Fuller said. “That’s why it’s very easy for us to decide to do both building ourselves, but also then inviting partners to participate.”The pricing model reinforces this accessibility. Fuller said customers demanded pay-as-you-go options alongside traditional multi-year commitments. “All of the Security Hub Extended offerings have a public-facing, pay-as-you-go price, just like our first-party offerings do within AWS,” he said. “So that gives customers the option to go kick the tires, get going, even scale up and use the services without going through a traditional sales cycle.”Shadow agents and AI cost harvesting emerge as the next frontier of cloud security threatsBoth AWS executives addressed an emerging security concern gaining traction among CISOs: the proliferation of unregistered AI agents — what the industry has begun calling “shadow agents” — and the novel attack patterns they enable.Kapoor told VentureBeat that shadow agents are a genuine and growing problem, though he was careful to separate it from the Continuum announcement. “There are many agents that are registered with registration directories, whether it’s Vertex, whether it’s Agent Core, whatever else it might be, but there are many agents that are not registered with the registry, and those are what people are calling shadow agents because they can actually do some harm,” he said. “Discovering shadow agents is not easy. The industry is working on it.”Fuller provided more granular detail on what AWS has already deployed. Security Hub now includes a free AI inventory capability that uses three data layers: AWS Config identifies AI-related services like SageMaker, Bedrock, and Agent Core across an organization; Amazon Inspector scans compute instances and containers for AI-related software; and GuardDuty compares DNS request and response logs against known AI tools and agentic workloads.Beyond inventory, Fuller revealed that GuardDuty now monitors data plane events — including prompts, prompt volume patterns, and inference cost analysis — to detect what AWS calls “cost harvesting.”The attack mirrors the cryptocurrency mining that became common after cloud credential compromises: an attacker gains access to an AWS account and burns through as much free AI inference as possible before detection.”We’re seeing what we’re calling cost harvesting,” Fuller said. “They’ll spin up, basically try to get as much free inference as they can until that’s discovered.” It is, Fuller noted, “the same thing that’s happening in AI” as happened with crypto mining — and GuardDuty’s detection of credential compromise and unauthorized compute usage translates directly to the new threat.How Continuum and Security Hub Extended fit together in AWS’s enterprise security strategyAlthough both announcements landed the same week, AWS is treating the products behind them as separate. Kapoor described Continuum to VentureBeat as distinct from Security Hub Extended, sold as its own standalone product. AWS declined to discuss its longer-term roadmap for the two.The design logic points in one direction. Continuum addresses the code an enterprise writes and the open source it inherits. Security Hub Extended addresses everything else — and the newest of its categories is where the two most clearly overlap. Continuum’s validation phase covers third-party dependencies alongside a customer’s own code; Chainguard and Socket harden and monitor the same packages from the other direction. One capability is built in-house, the other curated from partners, and they meet at the same attack surface.Both proceed from the same premise: that enterprises no longer want a catalog, they want a recommendation.”Customers want an opinionated point of view on how they should do security in the AI era,” Kapoor told VentureBeat. “That’s what Security Hub Extended was about — actually going off and giving them our opinion.” AWS will continue to give customers choice, he added, “whether it is something that we ship or whether it is something from a partner.”That doctrine — a recommendation, with an escape hatch — is the through line connecting a curated marketplace to a first-party agent platform, and it makes the boundary between them more porous than two separate announcements suggest. Security Hub has already absorbed capabilities that did not exist a year ago, including the free AI inventory and the cost harvesting detections Fuller described. The console is where AWS delivers its opinion to the enterprise. Continuum is the sharpest opinion it has shipped.The audience for that opinion has changed as well, Kapoor said. Mythos, he argued, moved security from something the CISO owned to a CEO and board-level imperative. “Boards are now asking for updates on what’s going on with security in the enterprise because it’s a business threat now, it’s a business risk.”AWS’s security ambitions reflect a calculated bet on owning the orchestration layerThe twin launches fit within a broader strategic arc AWS has been building throughout 2026 at a breakneck pace. The company re-imagined Security Hub at re:Invent 2025 by consolidating GuardDuty, Inspector, CSPM, and Access Analyzer into a single console. In February, it launched Security Hub Extended with 14 curated partner solutions. By May, that number grew to 21 across nine categories. Now it stands at 23 across 10. Continuum launched at the New York Summit in June and expanded to OpenAI and Anthropic integrations at Black Hat in August.AWS generated $42.2 billion in revenue during Q2 2026, with cloud sales expanding 37% year over year. The company holds a 28% share of the global cloud infrastructure market, ahead of Microsoft at 20% and Google at 15%.Fuller told VentureBeat that AWS has “tens of thousands of customers using one or multiple of our security services, essentially across all geos that we operate in, and in every industry, and both commercial and government.” The Extended plan aims to convert that installed base into users of partner security solutions — deepening engagement and making it harder for competitors to dislodge AWS as the default platform.By making AWS the seller of record for 23 partner security solutions and embedding Continuum inside the coding environments of OpenAI and Anthropic, AWS is constructing something more durable than a product line. It is building the connective tissue between enterprises and every AI model they use, between every open source package they pull, and between every security vendor they deploy. In a world where frontier models are advancing so rapidly that today’s best scanner becomes tomorrow’s table stakes, the layer that persists is not the model — it is the harness that connects the model to the customer’s environment, policies, and risk tolerance.Kapoor, reflecting on a chance conversation he had on a flight to Black Hat, offered the simplest articulation of why all of it matters. A former CISO turned CTO sitting beside him volunteered a blunt assessment of the current moment: “I don’t feel safer now.” Kapoor’s response, he told VentureBeat, was equally blunt: “We’re working on it.”Whether that work makes the world safer or simply makes AWS indispensable to every organization trying to get there may, in the end, amount to the same thing.