How do summer sports impact your access to protection insurance?

How do summer sports impact your access to protection insurance?

Summer is great for so many reasons: sunshine, barbecues, the smell of suntan lotion that takes you back to being a kid covered in sand, not needing to worry about laundry and eating ice-cream to your heart’s content… 

I know that many of our clients agree with all the super fun and intense sports that they get up to. We’ve helped people who like to do a spot of sailing, hang gliding, bouldering, scuba diving and a whole load of other pastimes more suited to the summer weather.

When it comes to applying for protection insurance, many people don’t think about how their pastimes can make a difference to the terms that they are offered. In reality, insurers do like to know about certain hobbies and will ask you some extra details to assess your application. Some of the questions you could be asked are:

• What is it that you do?
• How often do you take part?
• Do you ever complete?
• Do you take part on your own or as part of a team?
• Do you have any relevant qualifications?
• How many hours per year do you take part?
• What countries do you take part in?

   

This is of course dependent on your hobby, an insurer isn’t going to be too concerned if you like to play a game of tennis at the weekend. But it’s important to know that they are likely to start asking a few more questions if you take part in things like sailing competitions, or you do mixed air or wreck diving, and it isn’t always so obvious what sports they do and don’t want to know more about. You might even be asked more questions if you use a motorbike or ride horses!

There are a number of hobbies that are highly likely to increase the premium that you pay for life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection, but in our experience there are many hobbies which won’t play a huge role in the terms offered to you. We often see our clients being offered standard terms for hobbies such as:

• Abseiling
• Sailing
• Canoeing
• Horse riding
• Cycling

   

This massively depends on what you are actually doing in your hobby and if any part of it is a bit more high risk, then things can quickly change into non-standard terms. There are also some activities that we know can easily increase the price that you’ll pay on the standard insurance market, and this is because of the risk involved in those activities. For example:

• Caving
• Hang gliding
• Motor sports
• Potholing
• Skydiving

   

Taking part in these activities doesn’t mean that you will definitely have to pay more, but it’s best to be prepared that they might. Even where there is a price increase, it might sometimes be by a small amount. You might also find that some insurers place an exclusion on your policy for claims relating to your hobby, it’s best to avoid this wherever possible and this is where our experienced adviser’s can really step in and get you the best cover possible.

To show you what we mean, we have included a case study of a client of ours.

Case study

• A woman in her late 30s came to Cura wanting life insurance to provide financial security to her family. She worked as a commercial diver and also enjoyed scuba diving in her free time. We arranged a life insurance policy covering her for £300,000 for 25 years, with a premium of less than £17 per month.

   

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