High Risk Life Insurance
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Kristen Gryglik
Licensed Insurance Agent
Kristen is a licensed insurance agent working in the greater Boston area. She has over 20 years of experience counseling individuals and businesses on which insurance policies best fit their needs and budgets. She knows everyone has their own unique needs and circumstances, and she is passionate about counseling others on which policy is right for them. Licensed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,...
Licensed Insurance Agent
UPDATED: Mar 26, 2024
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right coverage choices.
Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one insurance provider and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider.
Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different insurance companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by insurance experts.
UPDATED: Mar 26, 2024
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right coverage choices.
Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one insurance provider and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider.
Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different insurance companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
On This Page
Have you been asked to pay more than you expected or have even been declined for life insurance due because a life insurance company placed you in a high-risk category?
Don’t give up!
We specialize in delivering affordable high-risk life insurance approvals for difficult high-risk applicants. We know how important it is to make sure your loved ones are cared for in the event of your passing.
In this article, we’ll explain the key to getting “tough” cases approved, find affordable life insurance rates, and point out some of the best ways to save money on life insurance premiums.
The Key to High-Risk Life Insurance Approvals
Some insurance companies are more lenient on specific higher risk health issues than others.
What the above sentence means is that every insurance carrier has different underwriting guidelines when assigning your specific needs for a high-risk life insurance policy.
Carrier A might treat your diabetes as a Standard health rating, giving you a standard rate, while Carrier B might treat your diabetes as a Substandard or Table health rating, causing higher rates for your life insurance plan.
Finding an insurance provider and insurance broker giving out the best rate for high-risk life insurance is what we do best.
Finding approvals at low premiums is all about knowing who the best high-risk life insurance companies are, and which insurance carrier one is right for each particular case.
One important note to make here: You need to use an independentlife insurance agent.
If you go directly to a company like Met Life for a quote, they won’t have access to multiple companies.
This could drastically reduce your chances of an affordable approval since you are “stuck” with their one price and their one underwriting process.
We have had success with multiple high-risk life insurance cases such as:
- Heart attack survivors
- Cancer survivors
- Diabetes
- Overweight or Obese people
- Smokers
We’ve insured them with traditional coverage, not that overpriced guaranteed issue life insurance!
We have also helped people with epilepsy, pacemakers, on medication for high blood pressure or cholesterol, pregnant women, and people on medication for anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder.
Read more: Life Insurance After a Heart Attack
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Types of Life Insurance for High-Risk Explained
Many people think they’re going to pay out the nose for a life policy simply because they take a blood pressure medication.
Not true, usually.
The truth is that some medical conditions have little to no effect on your premium, while others affect the price more substantially.
Here are a few examples of where certain medical issues fall on the spectrum.
Examples of Minor Medical Issues: (In most cases, these have little to no impact on your premium.)
- Taking Cholesterol Medication
- High Blood Pressure
- Anxiety or Depression
- 10-20 pounds overweight
- Cigarettes and E-cigarettes
- Hearing Impaired
- Enlarged Prostate
Examples of More Serious Medical Issues: ( Could be approved at a Standard rating, in most cases.)
- Diabetes
- Sleep Apnea
- History of Heart disease or Cancer
- Mild Stroke also known as TIA
Examples of High-Risk Medical Issues: ( Could be approved as a highly rated case, costing more than an average policy.)
- Crohn’s Disease
- Heart Diseases
- Pulmonary Embolism
- Organ Transplants
- History of Some Cancers
- Kidney Disease
- PTSD or Bipolar Disorder
- Polycythemia
- Drug Abuse
- Atypical Nevus
- and many more!
Read more: Drug Use and Life Insurance
High-Risk Hobbies, Driving History & Travels
We’ve covered high-risk medical conditions, now let’s check out high-risk activities, where we also specialize.
Why is this important?
These are your high-risk insurance individuals who may have high-risk occupations or have dangerous hobbies, such as riding a motorcycle, racing, scuba diving, or skydiving, and they too tend to have to pay higher premiums than the average Joe.
Individuals who do not have a full-time permanent U.S. residence or reside outside of the U.S. for 3 months or more annually are considered non-U.S. residents. Citizenship is not a determining factor in defining a non-U.S. resident. (For more information, read our “Life Insurance for Non US Residents & Foreign Nationals“).
We’ve also helped people with DUI’s or multiple speeding tickets find better rates.
Plainly stated, we are the BEST solution for term life insurance and whole life insurance for people with medical impairments or taking medication or any other high-risk factors.
3 Steps to Approval for High-Risk Life Insurance Cases
- Call us for a Phone Interview – We have created an extensive questionnaire that will cover your medical history. You can call us at 888-603-2876 and complete the Pre-App Questionnaire over the phone. The more we understand your medical condition, the better armed we are for step 2.
- Shop Your Case – Ever buy a house? The more mortgage lenders, the better, right? Same thing goes for high risk life insurance shopping. In Step 2 we write a detailed health bio about you and send it to up to 30 life insurance companies. Their underwriters review the details and get back to us with what’s called a trial offer. Whichever company has the best offer typically also has the best price, so that’s how we know which company will be the best fit for you.
- Pick the Best Option – Apply to the insurance carrier with the best trial offer and attach the trial offer to the application. The company is somewhat bound to the trial offer unless they find out new information during underwriting. Please note that if you can’t qualify for life insurance through traditional underwriting, you will likely qualify for our Express Issue Whole Life plan.
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5 Savings Tips with High-Risk Medical Issues
Even if you are able to get approved, you still might want to save some money to make your premium more affordable.
Here are 5 tips we suggest for massive savings:
- Lose 3 Lbs – Save 25% on Life Insurance – Many people could be just a few pounds away from “fitting” into a better health class. Insurance companies such as AIG or Banner Life, have max weights for each height. You might be right on the line or close to it, where just losing a few lbs could save you 25% on life insurance. In addition, you’ll be amazed at how much better you can do on your lab results by just eating better and exercising for just a couple of weeks.
- Buy more than 1 policy – You can actually save 10% to 30% by buying multiple term life insurance policies and staggering their maturity dates. This is call laddering policies. Sometimes if you get several face amounts such as $10,000, $15,000, or $50,000, you save money and lower the amount you pay as you hopefully age and phase into a more financial situation with fewer debts.
- Don’t buy No Exam policies – a lot of people looking for high-risk life insurance think they can “trick” insurance companies by getting a policy without an exam. Don’t try it, you’ll still have to answer questions on the life insurance application about your health, so they’ll find out anyway. No medical exam life insurance policies tend to charge 30% to 100% more on average, than a policy that requires an exam.
- Choose an Annuity Payment Death Benefit – You have heard that life insurance pays a lump sum death benefit. Did you know you can save 10-30% on life insurance with some companies by setting up the death benefit to be paid out over 10 years or more?
- Always use an Independent Agent – As stated above, we independents can save you thousands because we know which carriers will offer you the best rates for your particular health issue. In other words, don’t use agents from State Farm or Farmers who can ONLY sell products from their OWN carrier.
Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance
For most people with pretty standard health issues like:
- diabetes
- history of stroke
- history of heart disease
You can get high-risk life insurance quotes by using our instant quote form on the top right or clicking here for our free quote page.
Simply set your health rating to “Standard” or “Regular.” This will give you an idea of what someone, who’s a non-smoker, pays with an average life expectancy. Depending on your health condition, you might expect to pay roughly double to triple that rate. It’s best to call us to confirm.
However, you may not qualify at all for traditional life insurance coverage and may need to buy guaranteed issue life insurance instead.
Guaranteed Issue Life insurance will cover you even if you currently have cancer or any other terminal condition.
However, it’s Guaranteed Issue for a reason.
These policies also go by another name, Graded Death Benefit policies.
Depending on the carrier, there are waiting periods that can last for 2 to 3 years before 100% of the coverage takes place.
During that period your coverage grades up. The longer you live, the more of the policy that pays out.
Until then your policy usually will pay out all the premiums you paid into it along with a few percentage points added to it if you pass away before the waiting period.
I know this seems a bit extreme; however, if you currently have a condition that most carriers will not approve, like COPD or Cancer, the insurance company looks at this as an ultimate risk on their end.
Usually, we try to exhaust all of our options before offering this type of coverage.
More Impaired Risk Life Insurance Resources:
If you’ve been declined or are paying too much for life insurance and are considering giving us a shot at helping you, please read the following articles, so you understand our process and the success we’ve had.
- Testimonials from TOUGH Cases we have Successfully Insured
- Been Declined or Rated for Life Insurance?
- Our Trial Offer Process
Enter your ZIP code below to view companies that have cheap insurance rates.
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Kristen Gryglik
Licensed Insurance Agent
Kristen is a licensed insurance agent working in the greater Boston area. She has over 20 years of experience counseling individuals and businesses on which insurance policies best fit their needs and budgets. She knows everyone has their own unique needs and circumstances, and she is passionate about counseling others on which policy is right for them. Licensed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,...
Licensed Insurance Agent
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by insurance experts.