Life Insurance, Suicide and Self-Harm: Why Can It Be Harder to Get Cover?

When you apply for life insurance, you will usually be asked questions about your health and medical history.
For many people, these questions are straightforward. However, if you have experienced suicidal thoughts, self-harmed or attempted suicide, applying for life insurance can sometimes feel much more complicated.
There is an important reason for these questions.
The majority of personal life insurance policies in the UK have an initial exclusion for claims relating to suicide or self-harm. This is usually for the first 12 months of the policy.
Once the policy has been in place for 12 months, claims relating to suicide will generally be covered, subject to the specific terms and conditions of the policy.
This is one of the reasons why insurers can take a closer look at an application where there has been a history of suicidal thoughts, self-harm or a suicide attempt.