6 things to know about life insurance and high BMI
Insurers use statistics over decades to determine what insurance they will offer to people and at what price. One thing that will pop up in most
life insurance application is a question about your BMI.
Having a low or
high BMI can have quite an influence on the types of insurance that you can get and also the right insurer for you. Here’s a breakdown of the 6 key things that we think you need to know.
1. BMI tables are outdated but still in use
Your height and weight will be asked for with most life insurance applications. You might even be asked your dress size and trouser waist measurement by some insurers!
The annoying thing about BMI tables is that they were set up decades ago and haven’t been updated. They were actually done by a man to determine the average BMI of white men in Europe. This of course means that BMI tables don’t take into account the very natural differences that we see across gender and ethnicity.
But, for all the grumbles that we have with these tables, they are a very quick way for insurers to get an overall picture of a person’s health. By using these tables it means that they can make a fast decision on the insurance terms for many people, without having to take the time to look in depth at someone’s body composition and other factors.
2. Every insurer is different
With many insurers you can type in their name to your search engine along with the words ‘ BMI underwriting guidelines’ and you will find their view on different BMIs. These documents can be quite technical and might not be something you want to look at, but it can be quite interesting.
For life insurance you can find that some insurers start to increase their prices for BMIs of 30 or over. They then tend to increase the premiums more at certain points. You can find that if your BMI is 40 or over that your life insurance application needs to go to specific insurers, as some insurers will start to decline life insurance at this point.
We are starting to see some life insurance providers take into account that women have a different body composition to men. This means that you can find that an insurer might decline life insurance for a man with a BMI over 40, but then a woman wouldn’t be.
All insurers are different and it’s impossible to say ‘yes, that insurer over there, they are the go to high BMI life insurer’. There are many things that lead an insurer to decide what the cost of your life insurance will be.
3. Not always are pricey as you think
When we hear the words premium increases there is usually a negative feeling. It’s never nice to hear that your premium is higher than what another person might pay. The reason that insurers do this is because they use decades worth of data to look at how a high BMI has been shown statistically to affect a person’s health in the long term.
That is not to say that having a high BMI means that you are unhealthy, there are many reasons that a person’s BMI can be higher than the standard set by those pesky BMI tables. But insurers live and breath statistics and they are led by these.
Let’s take a look at an example. Amy Smith wants to take out a life insurance policy but she has a higher BMI and has been told that it’s going to increase the policy premium. The basic premium for the life insurance is £5 per month.
This means that she is likely to find that her premiums could change to any of these, depending upon how high her BMI is:
- £6.25 per month
- £7.50 per month
- £8.75 per month
- £10 per month
- £12.50 per month
- £15 per month
- £20 per month
If you look at £5 to £20 that is quite a big jump, but there are a lot of prices in between these. A premium increase won’t feel great, but it doesn’t mean that your life insurance will necessarily become a silly price. Each person is different and their insurance needs are different so the list above is just an example and is not an indication of what your life insurance could cost.
4. The highest BMI we have insured to date is in the 70s
A lot of mainstream insurers in the UK will not offer life insurance if your BMI is over 45, quite a few stop offering once you are near 40. That doesn’t mean that there are no life insurance options for you.
There are some specialist life insurance policies in the UK that are available for people with a higher BMI. With some it doesn’t matter what your BMI is they will just accept you straight away, but there can be quite specific terms and conditions with these life insurances.
You might also find that your employer offers life insurance as part of your employment package, it’s usually called death in service cover. Quite a lot of these options have what is known as free medical underwriting limits, where the insurer covers you for the life insurance regardless of your health.
There can be quite specific eligibility criteria with employer’s life insurance, so it’s worth looking at the terms and conditions to make sure that you are confident in what you are covered for. This type of insurance is also known as group life insurance.
5. If you workout take note!
Going back to the BMI tables, they are an absolute pain for people that are very physically active and have a lot of muscle mass. Life insurance applications are not set up to let you tick a box and say ‘I have a high BMI but it’s because I lift weights and my body fat is down to 15%’.
If you are someone that has a lot of muscle mass you could find that you get better life insurance options if you do an application, and then speak directly with the insurer to explain why you have a high BMI. They might want to see a bit of evidence from you to confirm that you are more on the muscly side. This can mean that you can’t start your policy straight away, but it could make quite a difference to the price that you will pay for life insurance.
6. If you are planning on losing weight a managed life policy might suit you
Not everyone with a high BMI wants to lose weight. They might not be able to due to a medical and some people are very content to be the weight that they are. That is absolutely fine.
If you do have a high BMI and are wanting to lose weight there are some life insurance policies that can reward you for doing so. These policies have that wonderful jargon name mentioned above that is ‘managed life’.
It basically means that you are managing your health and taking steps to improve your BMI and potentially other areas of your health to. With these policies you set up the insurance and 12 months later the insurer reviews your BMI at that point and potentially reduces your premium. But! It’s also possible that your premium might stay the same, or go up if you have gained weight.
This type of life insurance can work incredibly well for some people, but do have a good think about whether you feel that you can dedicate time to manage your weight over the next 12 months. Some insurers will do this check just once at the end of 12 months, some will do it every year.
Our award winning advisers will find you the best life insurance and right insurer to get you the cover that you need.
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