When Health Conditions Make Insurance Hard to Come By

Clients with one or more of the following conditions will face challenges when applying for traditional insurance. Their coverage may be rated, postponed or declined altogether:

  • Change in prescription medication
  • Depression and/or anxiety
  • Diabetes
  • Heart condition
  • Family history of illness
  • Pending tests
  • Heavy marijuana use or recreational drug use
  • DUIs, including subpar driving history
  • Previous cancer diagnosis
  • Previously declined/postponed for insurance

There are simple steps you can take to help your client. First, you can check out PPI’s online resource Know the Risk, or KTR (login required) to understand how these conditions may be underwritten. The KTR Ratings Guide has dozens of conditions, which launch tables showing related insurability for life and critical illness insurance including DI guides for select impairments. Your client may have more options that you think!

Check out Guaranteed Issue and Simplified Issue products

After reviewing the guide, if you are not optimistic about traditional underwriting, guaranteed issue and simplified issue products can offer a solution for your clients. Guaranteed and simplified-issue products also present an easy solution for those clients who, for whatever reason, simply do not want to complete a medical exam. Keep in mind, though, that these products may have different benefits and waiting periods than traditional products… so always do your homework! Where appropriate, these products are a win for your client: less underwriting and faster issue.

Simplified issue products currently offer up to $500,000 on a single life insurance policy and up to $150,000 in critical illness coverage; and if your client should need more coverage, they may be able to purchase multiple insurance policies.

As an advisor, this is great news! You no longer have to turn away those hard-to-insure clients. So what’s your next step?

  1. Review your client files from the last 12 months for declined, not proceeded with and postponed cases. Then speak with someone on your PPI Sales team about whether these clients could qualify for simplified issue products.
  2. Review your existing files for clients who you know will have difficulty accessing traditional insurance and reach out to your PPI Sales team about simplified issue options.
  3. Before submitting an application for traditional insurance coverage, review your client’s current health and lifestyle situation. If one of the previously listed situations apply, and PPI’s Know the Risk indicates that traditional life insurance coverage will be a challenge, position simplified issue coverage with your client.

To learn more about guaranteed and simplified issue products, contact your local PPI Collaboration Centre.

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You Have More Insurance Options Than You Think