CICA Life Burial Insurance Review (2026): The B++ Truth & Best-For Verdict

What CICA Life Actually Sells

CICA Life of America sells one thing to seniors: a small whole life policy meant to cover a funeral. In plain terms, you pay a set amount every month, and when you pass away, your family receives a check. The payment never goes up. The coverage never shrinks.

Here’s the shape of it:

• Coverage from $2,000 up to $30,000 — typical for a funeral policy, not meant to replace an income.
• Ages 0 to 85. Most companies start at 50, so the wide range is unusual.
• No medical exam. Nobody comes to your house, and nobody draws blood.
• Two plans to choose from — one with a few health questions, and one with none at all.

Applications are handled electronically, and the company says a decision often comes back the same day. CICA is licensed in 43 states plus Washington, D.C., and has around 45,000 policies on the books — small compared with the household names, but growing.

The One Thing That Makes CICA Different

CICA Life’s materials say the company does not use tobacco, height, or weight ratings. That sounds like small print. It isn’t — it may be the single most important sentence in this review.

At almost every other company, a smoker pays roughly twice what a non-smoker pays for the same coverage. Being significantly overweight can raise your price too. If CICA isn’t charging extra for those things, then a 68-year-old smoker and a 68-year-old who never touched a cigarette pay something in the same neighborhood.

Which side are you on? If you smoke, that’s potentially very good news — you may be one of the few people who gets a genuinely competitive price here. If you don’t smoke, it’s the opposite: when a company charges everyone the same, the healthy people quietly cover the cost for everyone else. Get the quote either way, but know which side of that trade you’re standing on.

Where CICA Really Shines: Hard-to-Place Health

The reason we keep CICA close at hand is its underwriting. For tough health cases, it’s one of the most flexible carriers on the market — and in some situations, the only one that can help.

The clearest example is congestive heart failure. At almost every carrier, CHF means a guaranteed-issue plan with a two-year wait. CICA is the one company we’ve found that can sometimes approve CHF at a level (day-one) rate. It’s not guaranteed, but no other carrier offers that possibility at all.

What makes this possible is how CICA words its application. On most burial insurance forms, a diagnosis of a serious condition — congestive heart failure, heart disease, cardiomyopathy, COPD, a stroke or TIA, kidney failure, even dialysis — is an automatic knockout. CICA’s key health question is different: it only rules you out if you have one of those conditions and have not been treated or taken medication for it. In plain terms, if your serious condition is being actively managed, you can often still qualify for a level (day-one) plan.

That single distinction is why CICA is the exception in the marketplace. Treated conditions that other carriers simply won’t write at level — managed CHF, cardiomyopathy, a past stroke or TIA, chronic kidney disease, even dialysis — CICA can often approve at their best rate. For these cases, it is frequently the only carrier that can say yes.

CICA is also unusual in who it will cover by age. Its guaranteed-issue plan — the one with no health questions at all — is available to people as young as 18, and its coverage reaches all the way down to children. Most guaranteed-issue final expense plans don’t start until 45 or 50, so this is another place CICA insures people no other carrier will.

That flexibility has limits, and it’s worth being honest about them. CICA is generally not the answer for:

• Mental health conditions — a soft spot in their underwriting.
• Oxygen use — usually rules out a level plan.
• Being hospitalized two or more times in the past two years — typically means a graded or guaranteed-issue plan instead of level coverage.

For everything in between, though, CICA is often the carrier that turns a “no” somewhere else into a “yes.”

The Two-Year Wait on the No-Questions Plan

The plan with no health questions works the way these plans usually do. If you pass away from an illness in the first two years, your family doesn’t receive the full amount — they get your payments back, plus a little extra. After two years, the full coverage is there. Accidents are covered from day one.

One caution: CICA’s own website describes this benefit in a way that’s genuinely confusing, and the wording doesn’t match how these policies normally work. Before you sign anything, ask the agent to show you the exact page in the policy that spells out what your family gets in year one and year two — and get it in writing. That’s good practice with any company, but it’s especially true here. And if you can pass a few basic health questions, take the other plan instead; there’s no reason to accept a two-year wait you don’t need.

How Financially Solid Is CICA?

This is where you need to be careful, because there’s bad information floating around. Search this company online and you’ll find at least one review site claiming CICA has an A+ rating from AM Best. That is not correct.

Here’s the real grade: CICA Life carries a B++ (Good) financial strength rating from AM Best. B++ is a genuine rating — it sits below the A grades the largest carriers hold, and well above the danger zone. AM Best points to a strong balance sheet and a conservative investment approach.

In October 2025, AM Best placed a negative outlook on the company’s credit rating. The reason is fairly ordinary: when an insurer writes a lot of new policies quickly, the upfront costs hit the books before the premiums catch up, so the company has been losing money on operations as it grows. AM Best expects that to sort itself out as those policies age — but a negative outlook means the agency sees a chance the grade gets lowered, not raised.

So it’s not a red flag — more of a yellow one. Reasonable for a $10,000 funeral policy where your family collects within a few years. Less comfortable if you’re 62, healthy, and counting on this company to still be rock-solid in 2050.

The Company Behind the Policy

CICA Life of America is part of Citizens, Inc., a publicly traded insurance holding company based in Austin, Texas. Citizens has been in the life insurance business since 1969 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CIA. The parent holds roughly $1.7 billion in assets and has more than $5 billion of insurance in force.

Much of Citizens’ history is international — for decades its main business was selling U.S. dollar policies to families in Latin America and Asia. The push into American funeral insurance is newer, and that growth is exactly what triggered the rating outlook change above. Worth knowing, but not worth deciding on. What matters more is the price on your quote and what the policy actually pays.

Who CICA Is Right For — and Who Should Look Elsewhere

A good fit if:

• You have a hard-to-place health condition — CICA is one of the few carriers that may approve it, sometimes at a level rate.
• You smoke. If the no-tobacco-rating pricing holds up in your quote, it may be one of the better prices you’ll find.
• You’re a Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking family — the parent company built its business serving these customers and handles service in those languages.
• You want a fast, simple approval, or need coverage for someone under 50.

Look elsewhere if:

• You don’t smoke and you’re in decent health — you’re the person most likely to overpay here. Carriers that reward good health, like American-Amicable or Aetna, will usually beat it.
• You need more than $30,000 in coverage.
• You want maximum financial security above all — a B++ rating with a negative outlook may not sit well; an A-rated carrier will.
• You’re being pressured to decide today. Nothing here requires a same-day decision.

What to Do Before You Sign

1. Get at least three quotes. Same coverage, same amount, three companies. The spread will surprise you.
2. Ask which plan you’re being sold — the one with health questions, or the one without. If you’re healthy enough for the first and someone is selling you the second, ask why.
3. Read the first two years in writing. Whatever the agent tells you about what your family receives, find that sentence in the policy before you sign.

Sources

1. CICA Life of America (Citizens, Inc.) — product and company details. citizensinc.com
2. AM Best — CICA Life ratings (B++ Good; negative credit-rating outlook, October 2025). ambest.com
3. National Funeral Directors Association — median funeral cost statistics. nfda.org

Frequently Asked Questions

Reviewed by Phillip Chin

Licensed Insurance Broker · Licensed since 2008 · NPN #8895251

Independent broker comparing 25+ carriers. Educational information only, not financial advice.