Life Assurance for Asthmatic

debs3693

My husband and I would like to arrange level term life assurance but I'm worried that because of my history of asthma which has required quite a few admissions to hospital, that I will be either declined cover or have a real penalty in terms of premium.
Does anyone have any advice on how best to tackle this? are there specific brokers who deal with such conditions or is it advisable not to bother trying on the basis it is more harmful to be declined?
Im even wondering if it is possible to have cover but only in the event that my death is not as a result of asthma - not ideal but better than nothing.
Many thanks in advance.

dunstonh

Does anyone have any advice on how best to tackle this? are there specific brokers who deal with such conditions or is it advisable not to bother trying on the basis it is more harmful to be declined?

a decent local IFA or independent mortgage adviser should be able to take the details and ask the various underwriters how they would treat the case without actually submitting the application first so it doesnt appear on any record (so no worries about the "have you ever had insurance declined, offered on modified terms...." question). It also allows you to find out what sort of restrictions or premium rating may exist if it was submitted to them.

ACG

Its hard to say how it would be viewed as there isnt enough info. Companies would want to know when the admissions were and the outcomes etc. Whether you were on any medication either as a preventative measure or just on medication for as and when.
I think whether you are a smoker or not would have some extra baring on it too.

I used to work for a life office and have seen cases go through with no issues what so ever, but on the other hand i have seen loadings being applied to (although in the grand scheme of things they were relatively low ratings).

As Dunston says, if you find a local broker, they can get the information and fire it off to the various insurers and come back with the best deal available for you.

weighty1_2

One factor which will definitely be taken into account alongside the hospitalisations is where or not you regularly need to take steroid tablets such as prednisolone or not. Based on the little information you have provided I would expect there to be some form of loading and as ACG has stated this would be increased if you are a smoker.

I certainly wouldn't say that it's not worth applying in case you are declined. Many life offices now don't even ask if you have been declined elsewhere and those that do still following their own underwriting guidelines