High Risk Life Insurance

Life Insurance can be a tentative experience for many people. Anybody who has suffered from a major health condition in the past or is currently suffering from one, has a dangerous occupation, lifestyle or who is a heavy alcohol or drug user can find themselves being declined life insurance. The logical alternative if you have been declined life insurance by one insurer is to try applying to another. However, each and every application made is documented and every insurer will ask about present and past applications across the market to be disclosed. This is where the often only viable option applies and this is finding an impaired risk life insurance policy.

Just because you have been declined life insurance by several insurance companies it does not make you uninsurable. It does however mean that your options are limited but this is not the end of the world by any means.

If you are unsure whether or not you are likely to be declined life insurance or offered severely restricted terms, take a look at the following questions:

• Is your occupation considered dangerous, for instance a deep sea fisherman?
• Do you have a dangerous hobby such as mountaineering?
• Do you have a history or alcohol or drug abuse?
• Are you morbidly obese?
• Do you have a medical history or serious illness?
• Have one or more of your immediate family suffered from the same serious illness?
• Have you suffered from depression?
• Have you suffered from any form of cancer?

By answering 'yes' to at least one of the above questions you could see a regular Life
Insurance application declined or at best offered at an increased premium or including exclusions applicable to the condition suffered from.

This could make the cover offered too expensive or with the exclusions in place leaving your family without the total cover that they need.

For a full list of conditions that you will be questioned about when applying for a life insurance policy please visit our Life Insurance Questions site.

An impaired or high risk life insurance policy or 'No Questions Life Insurance' as it is often referred to is a way of getting quick cover without the need for a medical examination or the completion of numerous medical questions. An application is still required but the questions asked are significantly less than those on a regular life insurance application.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the application the cover limits will be severely restricted and the premiums paid much higher but when this is the only alternative there is little choice as the financial risks of not having the cover in place are much greater. If you are in a position where you are taking this cover out then you are in the bracket of people that are most likely going to need to make a claim at some point. If you are not covered for the necessary conditions and you pass away then with a restricted policy your family may not be able to make a claim. Impaired risk life insurance may not provide you with the total cover you require but at the very least it is damage limitation!

There are also specialist companies who deal with applications for high risk life insurance and will approach a number of insurers for you, much like an insurance agent will do for regular insurance. This process will determine which companies, if any, will consider your application and compare the offers that are subsequently made by these insurers. This can be an easy alternative and avoids the disheartening task of making application after application to insurers only for the same red flags to be raised by their underwriting departments thus leading to the same offer of a restricted cover policy or ultimately being declined life insurance.