The Truth Behind Colonial Penn’s TV Commercials

The Claims the Commercials Make — and the Fine Print Behind Them

Colonial Penn’s TV ads are built around a handful of short, memorable promises. Each one is technically true. Each one also leaves out something that changes what you actually get.

Here are the main claims and what sits behind them:

The most important detail is the word “start.” Colonial Penn does not say in the ad how much insurance $9.95 actually provides.

The second detail is the two-year wait. Most guaranteed issue policies include a period during which beneficiaries receive a return of premiums plus interest rather than the full death benefit. This is standard for the product type — it is not unique to Colonial Penn.

None of this makes the company fake. Colonial Penn holds an A rating from A.M. Best, and it has been in business since its founding by AARP co-founder Leonard Davis and is now owned by CNO Financial Group. The claims are real. The question is whether the product behind them fits you.

Why These Ads Run on Daytime TV and Target Seniors

Colonial Penn sells directly to the public rather than through independent agents. The company’s marketing campaign is aimed at people between ages 50 and 85, and television is how it reaches them.

Daytime and late-night TV is where that audience is. If you watch daytime television, you have almost certainly seen the Colonial Penn commercials. The ads run in heavy rotation because the math works: a small number of responses out of a very large audience still pays for the airtime.

The company has leaned on familiar faces for decades. Ed McMahon was the original spokesman, and Alex Trebek later became the most prominent one. Others have included Lou Rawls, Meredith Vieira, Mary Lou Retton, Tom Bergeron, and Joe Theismann.

This is called direct response advertising. The goal of the ad is not to educate you — it is to get you to call. All advertising has one main job: to get you to respond, which is why what is left out of the message matters as much as what is said.

That is not a reason to distrust the company. It is a reason to treat the ad as a starting point rather than a full picture of burial insurance

Who Is Jonathan Lawson? The Man in the Ads

Jonathan Lawson is not a hired celebrity. He is an employee of Colonial Penn who is paid to appear in the commercials, and his LinkedIn profile lists his title as Director of Quality Assurance and Escalations. He is also a licensed insurance agent.

He worked his way into the role from inside the company. His LinkedIn history shows roles at Colonial Penn from 2014 onward, moving through positions such as Telesales Manager and Customer Service Manager before his current title.

Before insurance, he served 14 years in the Marine Corps as a Master Instructor, and he later earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Peirce College.

He took over the ads after a well-known predecessor. Lawson began appearing as a pitchman in 2019 when Trebek was unavailable at times due to health issues, and took over after Trebek died in November 2020.

Why does any of this matter? It matters because of what his role is, not who he is.

Alex Trebek was an outside spokesman paid to endorse the company. Lawson is on the payroll. That means he promotes one company’s product line rather than comparing what is available across the market.

That is not a criticism of him personally. Every direct-to-consumer insurer works this way. An independent agent who represents several carriers can compare funeral insurance options side by side; a company spokesman, by definition, cannot.

So the useful question is not whether you trust the man on your screen. It is whether the policy he is describing is the right one for you.

“Your Rate Can Never Go Up”: True but Misleading

This claim is true. It is also one of the least useful things the ad tells you.

Colonial Penn’s $9.95 plan is a whole life policy. Because it is whole life, the premium never increases, the policy will not expire because of your age, the coverage will not shrink in value, and it builds a small cash value.

So the promise holds. What the ad does not say is that this is normal.

Level whole life final expense policies work the same way at every major carrier — premiums never go up, and coverage never expires as long as you pay. “Your rate can never go up” describes the product category, not something Colonial Penn does differently.

Here is where the wording gets slippery. What is locked in is the price of a unit — $9.95 — not the price of a set amount of coverage.

Your age and gender at the time you applied determined how much coverage each unit buys. That number was fixed then and does not improve as you keep paying.

So two things are true at once. Your monthly bill for the units you own will not rise. And the amount of protection those units provide will not rise either.

This matters most if you decide later that you need more coverage. Buying more units at 75 gets you less per unit than buying them at 65 would have.

There is a real point buried in the claim. Compared to some heavily advertised offers that are actually term policies — ones that increase in price and end at a set age even though they are marketed like permanent burial insurance — a whole life plan that stays level is a genuine advantage.

It just isn’t an advantage over the other final expense policies you would be comparing it to. Nearly all of them are level whole life too.

“No Health Questions Asked”: What That Really Signals

This is the most important claim in the whole commercial, and not for the reason the ad intends.

In this industry, “no health questions” is a term of art. It tells you exactly what kind of policy you are being offered before anyone says another word.

Two phrases sound alike and mean very different things:

The link between the two columns is not a coincidence. The insurer guarantees your acceptance precisely because it knows nothing about you, so it protects itself with the waiting period.

Colonial Penn says this on its own website: acceptance can be guaranteed because of a two-year limited benefit period for death from non-accidental causes.

There is no way around this. Guaranteed issue life insurance with no waiting period does not exist at any company, and that any site claiming otherwise is not telling the truth. Waiting periods on these plans are always 24 months or more — never six, 12, or 18.

So when you hear “no health questions,” the honest translation is: this policy will not fully cover you for natural death for two years.

That is not automatically bad. Guaranteed acceptance exists for a real reason — some health conditions leave it as the only option available.

But it is designed as a last resort, and most people watching the ad are not in that group. Most applicants with prior health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, COPD, or a past heart attack can still qualify for a final expense policy that asks health questions, has no waiting period, and costs less.

The ad’s most reassuring line is, in practice, its biggest warning label. “No health questions” is the ad telling you that you are looking at the most expensive underwriting category in the product — before anyone has checked whether you need it.

Questions to Ask Before Calling the Number on Your Screen

You do not need to know the whole industry to protect yourself here. You need about six questions.

Ask them of Colonial Penn, and ask them of anyone else you talk to. The answers will tell you more than any commercial.

1. How much coverage does my money actually buy — in dollars?

Not the monthly price. The death benefit. Ask for the figure in dollars for your age and gender, and ask what the total monthly premium comes to for that amount.

If the answer comes back in units rather than dollars, ask again until you get a dollar number.

2. Is there a waiting period, and what happens if I die during it?

Ask it plainly. The answer you want is either “none, full benefit from day one” or a clear description of what your family receives instead.

Read the benefit table yourself. If years one and two say premium refund plus interest, that is a guaranteed issue plan. If they say full face amount, it is a level plan.

3. Are you shopping other companies, or selling me one?

This is the question most people never ask. A company spokesman represents one product line. An independent agent can compare several carriers for your age, health, and state.

Neither answer is wrong. But you should know which one you are getting.

4. Would I qualify for a policy with health questions instead?

If you can answer basic health questions honestly and your conditions are managed, you may qualify for more funeral insurance coverage, at a lower cost, with no wait.

You will not find out unless someone checks.

5. Is this whole life, or does it end at a certain age?

Some plans advertised like permanent coverage are actually term policies that rise in price and stop at a set age. Ask directly whether the premium is level for life and whether the policy expires.

6. Can I see this in writing before I decide?

Ask for the policy details, the benefit schedule, and the exclusions in writing. Any legitimate company will provide them.

None of this means Colonial Penn is a bad company. It is A-rated by A.M. Best and it pays valid claims.

It means the ad is doing one job — getting you to call — and these six questions are how you do yours.