Best Life Insurance Policies for People Living with Medical Conditions 2024

There are a lot of life insurance policies in the UK. They all aim to do one thing: pay out a lump sum of money to your loved ones if you die. 

Picking the best life insurance policy really depends upon your individual circumstances. There is not one life insurance or one insurer that is the ultimate go to for everyone. It would be so much easier if there was!

So let’s take a look about what insurers want to know about your health, the types of life insurance that are available and what to do if you are finding it tricky to get life insurance.

What types of medical conditions do insurers want to know about?

Insurers like to know quite a lot and will usually ask you some questions about your health. You must be truthful when answering the questions or your life insurance might not be valid and you will be paying for something that your family can’t claim on. Whilst this is true, you also don’t need to volunteer information to the insurer about your health, if they do not ask about it.

Here’s what insurers usually ask about:

• Your BMI
• Your smoker status – possibly up to the last 5 years
• Any serious health conditions that you have had in the past e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke
• Any serious health conditions that you have now e.g. Parkinsons, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus
• Any outstanding investigations or test results that you have
• The amount of alcohol that you drink
• If you have used recreational drugs in the past

Insurers will often ask about your family medical history too. This is your blood related parents and siblings and will focus upon if they have been diagnosed with certain conditions before the age of 65. This can include conditions like diabetes, polycystic kidney disease and Huntingtons. Insurers do have specific ways to answer these questions if you are adopted or estranged from your family.  

What types of life insurance are there?

There are lots of life insurance options and each one does slightly different things. Here are some examples of what you would typically use the following life insurances for:

• Level term life insurance- interest only mortgage, family protection
• Decreasing term life insurance – capital and repayment mortgage
• Family income benefit – family protection
• Whole of life insurance – funeral costs, equity release mortgage protection, inheritance tax planning
• Gift Inter Vivos – gift planning protection
• Over 50s life insurance – funeral costs

The amount of insurance that you would take out for each of these can be quite different too. Here is what life insurance can look like for each of these:

• Level term life insurance – £150,000 life insurance over 21 years, as family protection at the value of 5x annual salary until a newborn has reached an age of independence
• Decreasing term life insurance – £232,000 decreasing life insurance over 17 years to match a mortgage liability
• Family income benefit – £18,000 life insurance each year for 24 years, to provide a regular income to the family until the deceased’s planned retirement age
• Whole of life insurance – £70,000 whole of life insurance, to provide protection against inheritance tax liability 
• Gift Inter Vivos – £40,000 life insurance over 7 years, to provide protection against gift tax liability
• Over 50s life insurance – £10,000 designed to last until you die, intended to cover funeral costs

Lots and lots of options, many ways to put the life insurance together and it’s not always easy to know what to do. Life insurance policies set up by UK insurers in the UK are called pure protection policies now. This means that they are quite different to life insurance policies that used to be available in the past, that had a cash in value or investment element to them. With term life insurance policies now if you take them out and live past the policy end date there is no payment, or return of premiums, or endowment paid out.

The exception to this is whole of life insurance or Over 50s life insurance plans that do not have a set end date and will pay out a claim at some stage, assuming that you have been truthful on your application and have kept the premiums up to date.

Will my medical condition be excluded from the life insurance?

Most life insurance policies in the UK do not exclude claims relating to pre-existing medical conditions. Other insurance policies do come with exclusions, but it is unusual for life insurance to. Life insurance policies are more likely to have increased premiums if the insurer feels that your medical conditions might place you at a higher risk of dying.

There are a couple of exceptions to this that most insurers put on life insurance policies, that applies to everyone that they insure regardless of their medical history. A lot of insurers place a 12 month suicide and self-harm exclusion on life insurance policies from the policy start date. After 12 months the exclusion is no longer active. This is not done by all insurers, but those that do will do this for all new policies and not just for people that have a mental health history.

Another exception is Over 50s life insurance that usually excludes claims for pre-existing medical conditions for a while after the policy starts. This is typically between 6 months and 2 years, depending upon the insurer that you use and your medical history.

So whilst the good news is that a pre-existing medical condition exclusion is unlikely, there is the point that premiums might be increased. This never sounds great, but it is the way that the life insurance world works in the UK at the moment. The interesting thing is that these increases don’t always mean silly prices for life insurance. 

Premium increases are usually based upon a multiple of the basic premium and life insurance itself is really quite cheap, so the initial premium often starts off quite low. Here’s an example of how premium increases can work:

• Basic premium: £5 per month
• Increase 1: £6.25 per month
• Increase 2: £7.50 per month
• Increase 3: £10 per month
• Increase 4: £12.50 per month
• Increase 5: £15 per month

Sometimes premium increases do work differently to this and there are times when the cost of life insurance can feel eye watering, but this isn’t what normally happens. It’s always worth speaking with an adviser like ourselves as we can do research for you and let you know what the cost of life insurance is likely to be, before you even go through the application process.

What if I’m declined by an insurer for life insurance?

Being declined life insurance is not a positive experience and it can certainly make you feel angry at the insurance world. I was in that position a decade ago and it’s what spurred us on to create Cura what it is today, helping people to get life insurance when they are living with medical conditions. 

There are times that a medical condition can mean that you pay more for life insurance, that you need to use a specific insurer, that for a little while you need to look at specialist life insurance policies and some of these may in fact exclude claims relating to pre-existing medical conditions. But there are sometimes options where life insurance is available at standard terms with an insurer, even if you have been declined life insurance elsewhere. 

Our award winning advisers will listen to your circumstances and research the life insurance market with your medical information to hand. We will make sure that your life insurance is going to do what you want it to do, at a competitive premium. We offer no obligation quotations and give you the time that you need to consider your options, before making any decisions.

Contact us today so that we can help you get the life insurance that you need.

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