How do I buy final expense insurance and avoid scams?

What it means

• Final expense insurance is regulated at the state level through each state's Department of Insurance, coordinated nationally by the NAIC. Every agent selling a policy must hold a life insurance license in your state, and every carrier must be admitted to sell in your state. Both are verifiable in public regulator databases.
• Practical steps before you sign: (1) look up the agent's license by name and license number on your state DOI's website; (2) look up the carrier's admitted status the same way; (3) request the illustration and policy summary in writing and read the graded-benefit and premium sections; (4) confirm face amount, premium, and beneficiary in the application; (5) use the free-look period after the policy is issued to review it and cancel for a full refund if it isn't what you were told.
• Red flags: unsolicited contact pushing a decision today; a request for an upfront cash payment outside of the carrier's normal premium channel; refusal to provide a written illustration; and any claim that a small whole-life policy will "pay for itself" or is "government-approved." It is state-regulated private insurance, not a government program.