Help with life insurance problems

piperm87

Im after life insurance and Crictical illness cover to cover myself and my partner on our first home purchase and subsequent mortgage. However I keep getting denied due to some past medical issues

Firstly I was diagnosed with Whilmes Tumor when I was 6months old and had it removed when I was 11 months old which was April 1988.

Secondly I've suffered with high blood pressure since I was roughly 13 years old, it's been investigated and I've had medication for it ever since which has helped keep it in check and have regular check up's to make sure Its ok..

However due to these issues Im having life cover refused from every company I've tried

Is there any insurance company's out there that would cover me or take a chance on me or company's that specify on people with past illness's similar to mine who I could try?

Regards

Matt

claretmatt

you need to speak to an ifa or protection specialist who will speak to various companies before applying.

applying and getting rejected is time consuming and demoralising so best to look elsewhere.

i am unsure of your specific past medical history but there are insurers who will cover you, but at an inflated cost

ACG

I would say go and speak to an advisor (Financial or Mortgage).

I used to work for a life office and to be honest i would be very surprised if the blood pressure was the reason for the decline, it would need to be very high blood pressure for that.

The tumour i have never heard of if im being totally honest but it seems strange that something so historical is causing a problem.

If you speak to an advisor they can go and speak to underwriters before you make any more applications - saving you time in the long run.

piperm87

Well when we did it with legal and general earlier it was including critical illness cover too. Yet I'm not so sure we need that at the minute. We're both mid 20's and haven't had any illnesses as of yet requiring long term works lay off so unsure as what to do

I've been looking online and there's so many routes we can go down. Ie

Life cover
Critical illness cover
Income protection
And payment protection


Not sure what to do and who to go with for the best etc.

rs65

piperm87 wrote: »

Not sure what to do and who to go with for the best etc.

You need an independent financial adviser to advise on what your needs are and which companies to use.

ACG

Mortgage and Financial advisors deal with this day in day out.
If you go and have a chat with them, they will do a "factfind". This allows them to see what you have already (through work/pensions etc) and what you dont have.

They will be able to work out a budget and put a protection plan in place - it may include some or all of what you listed above.

We dont just find the cheapest (cheapest isnt always best). We do ensure you know what your buying (this is handy so you know when you can make a claim... i have known people to pay for critical illness cover and have had a heart attack and not make a claim until its been pointed out to them), you have the right cover in place and that its all set up correctly. We can also run situations by the underwriters in advance to save time.

OshayAway

How many insurers have declined you so far?

The suggestion above to seek the assistance of an IFA or protection specialist is key here. It's important that comprehensive research is carried out to enquire which insurer is likely to offer you best terms.

Make sure that they are whole of market (because the more insurers contacted the better). Most likely, an insurer who will not ask about previous adverse decisions will be the answer.

Regarding the blood pressure, if that is now under control it should not be a problem, many insurers don't even write to your GP for the details if you know the last reading, it was in the normal range and you are on less than 3 medications to control.

The difficulty is often finding someone to research the options for you as it can be very time consuming. Don't be afraid to ask for a copy of the underwriting research, only where it's not been carried out properly would that be a problem.

kingstreet

If you've applied for life cover and critical illness cover these would be considered separately. They may have offered terms for the life cover while unwilling to offer the critical illness cover. They have declined both, so they feel there is a significant risk on both options.

I'm another supporting the IFA/Specialist route. In addition to the usual life offices, there are also "impaired life" specialist insurers and you won't find these without intermediary help.

Get a view of the whole market, not just one provider's as you have so far.

If you aren't offered life cover, you won't get income protection and cover like accident & sickness is only underwritten at point of claim and then they'd quote the "existing condition" rule at you and deny you your payout.

You may wish to consider standalone Unemployment cover if you feel this is a priority you wish to address now.

ACG

kingstreet wrote: »

accident & sickness is only underwritten at point of claim and then they'd quote the "existing condition" rule at you and deny you your payout.

I just want to pick up on this...
Ive recently done an AS case for someone and he had a fair few medical conditions, i didnt want to put the policy in force if it would never pay out so i ran it by one of their underwriters first.

They have put in writing that some of the conditions would be covered from month 13 onwards... so it can be worth checking.

This is someone who was rejected for Life cover.

kingstreet

Fair enough. You and I would make sure this was the case, or we wouldn't do it.

I'm pretty sure the average applicant would assume that they would be able to claim on the cover if they answered the questions honestly, when we know that might not be the case.

ACG

Good point.
I did check with 3 companies, their answers all varied. 1 would cover nothing, another would cover some and the last would cover most of the conditions he had. None would cover everything, but if you know upfront then there are no nasty surprises down the line and you (the client) can make an informed decision on whether its worth it or not.

This is another reason why its worth speaking to an advisor (On a side note, the one that covered nothing was actually the most expensive!).