Make sure you can answer basic questions about yourself, your health, and your lifestyle. This may include your age, height, weight, tobacco/alcohol use, hobbies such as skiing or sailing, income, and current life insurance policies you own.
Honesty is of the utmost importance when answering these questions. Insurance companies will clearly delineate that any dishonesty in your application discovered after you have been approved could result in cancellation of your policy. Even worse, if any false information is discovered after your death, the company could refuse to pay out the death benefit to your specified beneficiaries, even though you have faithfully paid all of your premiums. Don’t sacrifice the needs of your loved ones over a simple mistake such as this.
The total process can take anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks.
This includes the initial evaluation and questionnaires given by the insurance company, a medical evaluation by a licensed doctor, and the underwriting process that utilizes information from your application to determine whether you qualify and what your premium payment will be.
Certain firms can process your application much sooner, sometimes same-day, depending on the policy.
Personal health is an important measure of longevity and insurance companies need to know your health status in order to properly evaluate and qualify you for a life insurance policy.
Expect your doctor or nurse to ask various questions about your past medical history, family history, and social history. Your doctor or nurse will most likely measure your height, weight, and blood pressure and may draw blood and urine samples from you to send off to the lab.
Coverage begins when your life insurance policy becomes approved and your first premium payment to the insurance policy is cleared.
It is important to note that if you ever decide to replace existing life insurance coverage, do NOT cancel the previous life insurance policy until your new policy is enforced (policy is approved and your first premium is paid).
Contestability periods are usually 2-years long. During this period, if the insurance company finds that you misrepresented yourself on your life insurance application, the company has the right to cancel your policy and deny any claims. After the two years, they cannot.
In addition, during the contestability period, the insurance company will not pay out benefits if the cause of the policyholder’s death is suicide. If the policyholder dies in the event of a suicide after the contestability period ends, then the company should pay out the death benefit.
No, but you can if you want temporary life insurance.
If you decide not to move forward with the application at any time during the process, you can receive a full refund of premiums paid.
If your policy gets approved and is issued to you, you still have 10 days from date of issuance to cancel the policy with no penalty.
When you are approved for your life insurance policy, insurance companies will offer various modes to pay your premium.
If you decide to pay your premium on a monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis, you will be charged interest (or annual percentage rate, APR) on your payments. Thus you can make smaller payments throughout the year in exchange for paying more in premiums overall.
If you pay your premiums annually, no interest will be charged to you. This can allow you to save thousands of dollars over many premium payments for the duration of your life insurance policy.
Mon-Fri 8am-8pm & Sat 8am-1pm, Central Time
We want to provide you the best advice to protect you, your family and your business.