What medical questions will I be asked for life insurance?

What Medical Questions Will I Be Asked for Life Insurance? Caring – Understanding – Reliable – Advice Get a Quote What Medical Questions Will I Be Asked for Life Insurance? Applying for life insurance in the UK usually involves answering questions about your health, medical history and lifestyle. For some people, this is straightforward. For […]

Life Insurance with Outstanding Medical Reports

When you apply for life insurance, you will usually be asked questions about your current health and medical history. Your family medical history is often asked about too!

Many insurers will ask whether you have any outstanding medical appointments, investigations or referrals.

This can be worrying if you are currently waiting to see a specialist or have an appointment coming up.

So, does having an outstanding medical appointment mean your life insurance will be postponed?

Not necessarily.

There is an important difference between a routine medical review and an appointment that is investigating a new or potentially significant health condition.

My GP Record Says What? | Life Insurance & Medical Records

When you apply for life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection, you may be asked some detailed questions about your health.

That is the case for more insurers in the UK and if you are going for the full cover, that doesn’t come with a list of exclusions.

Sometimes, the insurer may also ask your GP for a medical report.

This can be a fairly routine part of the application process. However, there can be some surprising information contained within your medical records. This blog is not to criticise the work of the NHS, the work that they do is phenomenal, but we are seeing a lot of issues with medical data.

You might even read something and think:

“My GP record says what?”

It is not unusual for medical records to contain information that you were not aware of, information that is out of date, or even information that is simply incorrect.

This can potentially cause problems when applying for protection insurance. I have some examples for you in a bit.

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.

How Do Insurers View Sports and Hobbies When Applying for Life Insurance and Income Protection?

When you apply for life insurance or income protection, you will probably expect questions about your health, occupation, income and lifestyle.
But you may be surprised to find that insurers can also be very interested in your sports and hobbies.
You might not consider your hobby to be particularly risky. You may have been doing it safely for years without having an accident and you know all the steps that you take to make sure you are as safe as possible.
However, insurers can look at things differently. They are assessing the potential risk associated with the activity and how that could affect the likelihood of a claim. It’s not necessarily a comment on you, it’s the environment that you are in.
This means that something you consider to be a normal hobby could potentially affect your life insurance premium or the terms available on an income protection policy.

Why Has My Life Insurance Premium Increased After Medical Underwriting?

When you apply for life insurance, you will usually be given an estimated premium based on the information you provide. It isn’t always obvious that this is just an indication of what the cover may cost.
If the insurer asks medical questions about you or your family, your travel, work and hobbies, the final premium can sometimes be higher than the original quote. Most insurers will ask you about these things if you are applying for a typical life insurance policy in the UK.
This can sometimes make people feel worried, or potentially even angry at the insurers, particularly if you were expecting the cover to be available at the price you were originally shown.
Let’s go through why life insurance prices can change.

Using AI and ChatGPT to get Your Life Insurance

We are receiving more and more enquiries from people using artificial intelligence for life insurance. This can be a really useful way for people who are not used to the insurance world, to put together a clear idea of what they want. It can help an adviser to figure out what your goals are, which is one of the first steps in providing advice.

But, there are also some issues that we are starting to see as an industry, that mean this might not work well for you. I am going to cover the main issues that we are finding with people using AI and ChatGPT to place their insurance enquiry.

Life Insurance without Medical Questions

Looking for life insurance without medical questions? Learn about guaranteed acceptance life insurance and group life insurance options available with little or no medical underwriting.

The Value of Lasting Power of Attorney

It’s been a long time since I have done a blog, for many reasons! But, the main reason is something that I never expected to write.

My mum has died.

It’s Time To Be Better

I’m sure it’s not surprise to most people that know me, that if an insurer uses ‘he’ in their materials, that I start to get my back up. When we were told ‘yeah, but we have a statement that says he means she, so it’s ok’ that was like a red flag to a bull.

This is something that we will keep calling out as it is simply not ok, there are many gender identities and it really isn’t that difficult to use wording that is inclusive to all.