Life Assurance/Mortgage Protection for Skin Cancer (Malignant Melanoma) patients?

Roy1234

Would any knowledgeable person know how hard it is to raise Life Insurance, to repay a mortgage in the event of death, if the applicant has been diagnosed with Skin Cancer (Malignant Melanoma)?

I've been advised that this diagnosis can make raising life assurance for mortgage purposes difficult. Elsewhere, I've heard that the mortgage lenders themselves are less bothered about health issues, and may not always require life assurance at all, although obviously it is a very desirable thing to have.

I appreciate that there are different degrees/severities of Malignant Melanoma (cases caught early are highly survivable, whilst those caught late are not) So if anyone has had experience about raising life assurance after MM diagnosis, I would appreciate knowing how hard or expensive it proved, and whether the MM condition itself was covered or excluded.

dunstonh

Elsewhere, I've heard that the mortgage lenders themselves are less bothered about health issues

Health condition has nothing to do with lending criteria.

and may not always require life assurance at all

Virtually no lenders require life assurance.

although obviously it is a very desirable thing to have.

If it if you have financial dependents who would be worse off should you die.


The mainstream providers are likely to shy away from offering terms. Although specialist providers are there to pick up the higher risk cases. You would expect to pay rather a lot though to reflect the risks involved.

Roy1234

dunstonh,

Thanks for your reply. I do agree and accept that life assurance is usually essential to avoid leaving dependants in a dire mess in the event of death. Hopefully you'll also appreciate that never moving house again for the rest of my life would also have difficult consequences for dependants. Few of us can live our entire lives in one location, as jobs move and families grow etc.

Have you any idea how bad the loading of a life assurance policy might be?

Cautious_Investor_3

Hi

I think I can help here.

At the end of my time as an IFA a client of main made a claim for skin cancer on his critical illness policy.

The claim was paid out, however as the policy was set up as life or earlier critical illness they lost their life cover. They wanted to replace their life cover, I researched this and found the following:

1. There was no insurer who would provider critical illness cover (hardly surprising!)

2. Most mainstream insurers would consider life cover and the indicative loading was five times the original premium for about five years after which time is would fall back to ordinary rates. This rating might not be as bad as you think as life cover can be pretty cheap to start with anyway.

Clearly your circumstances may be different to those of my client, however I would suggest the following:

1. You find an IFA who can help, www.unbiased.co.uk is a good place to start

2. Explain your situation, and ask them to research it for you, speaking to the underwriters of life assurers

3. Get the IFA to submit multiple applications to a variety of providers to see who will offer the best terms. You will only accept the best terms and cancel the other applications without penalty.

I hope this helps. If you want to talk in more detail feel free to private message me.

The Cautious Investor