Life Insurance and medical history query

OshayAway

ACG wrote: »

Lazy advisors help to make the good ones look better - put a positive spin on it :-)

I'm all for that! :beer:
It's just a shame to think that some people are paying more due to loadings (or worse still have no cover in place due to decline), where they could have got better elsewhere but unaware of the way insurers underwriting stances vary.

san09

Thanks for that advice.
So basically I need to find a whole of market broker for the most comprehensive advice?
We really do need to find the best and most cost effective insurance as money is quite tight at the moment, but dont want to cut any corners when it comes to the quality of the policy.
I honestly thought it would be as easy as looking on the price comparison websites like with car insurance!
Would anybody happen to know any good local brokers in the Merseyside area?

ACG

I have sent you a PM as i may not be too far away from you (maybe 30-40 mins?). The owner of our company also lives in Frodsham so i could possibly get him to pop round.

comparison sites can be good if your young, no health issues and know what your after. Otherwise what is initially the cheapest may not end up being after any potential ratings/exclusions.

san09

Hubby had rang a broker today before looking at our MSE and he really has shattered our hopes of getting insurance (and thereby of ever getting this house that we've set out hearts on).

He said that if it's angina we havn't got a hope of getting covered.
He said he knew 4 companies that 'may' entertain the prospect of insuring us, but they would probably require medicals which will take time.
Time is what we dont have. The seller of the house have said if the sale isn't completed by the end September then the deal is off.

Is it really that impossible to get life insurance?

Also something else I forgot to mention. My mum died of breast cancer when I was a child. Now I have children of my own it's something I've always worried about. My doctor has referred me on to a breast screening clinic and I have a letter to make my own appointment. This is just for reassurance only, not because I think I've got cancer.
Should this be mentioned as regards insurance? (Hubby told the broker about mum but not about my appointment).

Just feeling really down at the moment as it all seems so hopeless.:(

OshayAway

Did the broker take some time to do research or just give an anwer off the top of his head?

san09

This was off the top of his head during a phone call.

OshayAway

Don't give up just yet. Sounds like a lazy broker IMO. I would put very little stock in the information your hubby was given, especially if it had not been researched. It's rare for a medical condition to prompt a medical.

Normally it would be due to age and sum assured limits or where a condition is controlled with medication and there was no recent reading available. In this case, any insurer would likely write to the GP for additional medical information.

san09

Thanks OshayAway.
Hope you're right. The broker said he would call us on Monday, but if not we're to call him to see if he has any news.
Just read throught the mortgage documents again and it says the only condition of the mortgage was that we're to have buildings insurance.

The mortgage advisor at the bank definitely said we required life insurance though, so much so that we came away thinking this was one of the conditions.

It would be risky to proceed with this house purchase without life insurance already in place wouldn't it?

OshayAway

Life assurance to protect a mortgage is a good idea but not a condition as you rightly say. The bank adviser may have portrayed it that way to put a bit of pressure on you arranging it with them... a common practice.

I would be wary of the broker you're using just based on what you've already been told. Suggesting that only 4 insurers 'may' entertain the prospect of offereing cover is a nonsence. As is the comment about medicals.

san09

Do you really think it's nonsence?
We dont really know anything about him tbh.
My hubby found a local financial advisors in the phone book, and called in to see them. They said they didn't deal with that type of insurance and gave him this brokers telephone number. We dont even know where he's based.
He did make it sound like it would be nigh on impossible to get us cover but would try. He also said he was a whole of market broker, which made us feel even more that we're a hopeless case.