How to find the best life insurance with congenital heart disease?
Finding the best life insurance with congenital heart disease may seem daunting. But, if you work with an expert agent that specializes in representing life insurance companies that deal with cardiovascular disorders, the process can be much simpler.
This article will explain the process of finding the best life insurance with congenital heart disease and how your agent can negotiate the lowest rates in the marketplace.
What is congenital heart disease and what do life companies look for?
Congenital heart disease or congenital heart defect is another way of saying your heart had a problem in its structure when you were born.
When reviewing a life insurance application, the underwriter will be looking at several things to determine how to evaluate your congenital heart disease. They will want to know the type of heart defect and what treatments have been done to correct the defect, if any.
They will also want to review any recent EKG’s or catheterization reports. This helps them determine if the problem is considered mild, moderate or severe. Depending on the outcome of this review, they will then assign a risk category to the individual.
This risk category is typically assigned a class such as standard. Standard refers to no additional premium is needed to cover the risk. If an underwriter determines an additional mortality risk above the standard class is warranted, they will often assign what is know as a table rating.
A table rating in the insurance world relates to additional mortality risk above the standard rate class. These table ratings typically start at Table A, Table B, Table C and so on. Each table rating typically represents a 25% increase in premium above the published standard rates for each insurance company.
Important– it is important to note and to remember that all life insurance companies evaluate your health and lifestyle differently. This is why it is so important that you work with an agent who is experienced in this specialty niche area of life insurance.
Since their are literally dozens of congenital heart defects, it can sometimes be hard to know which life carrier will be underwrite the best life insurance with congenital heart disease. One company may underwrite better for a case involving bicuspid aortic stenosis while another may do better with valve disorders such as aortic insufficiency or pulmonary valve insufficiency.
This again makes it critical to use a broker that has access to all the companies that underwrite congenital heart disease. Let’s look at an example at how life insurance companies may review an individual with a congenital heart defect:
How life insurance carriers may view a congenital heart defect prospect?
Paul is 40 year old non-smoking male with a history of mitral valve insufficiency. Paul has had the mitral valve insufficiency since birth and has had no surgery and has no other cardiac secondary disorders. Paul has no other medical history and feels he is in generally good health.
Paul has determined he has a need for $1,000,000 of coverage using term life insurance to protect his family. But, Paul is concerned that he may have to pay a much higher premium due to his history of congenital heart disease.
Paul is referred to an agent that specializes in coverage for individual with congenital heart disease. The agent describes to Paul that many life insurance companies could possible rate him very high or even decline him outright for coverage.
He explained that most life insurance companies just do not specialize in this type of risk. He explained that the best way to find the lowest rate, was to let him gather some medical history from him, and then personally negotiate with the carriers that do specialize in insuring individuals with congenital heart disease.
Once the agent gathered all the pertinent medical information from Paul, including copies of a recent doctor’s reports as well as an EKG and catherization report, the agent went to work finding the lowest rates available.
The agent explained to Paul that he would speak on the phone to the different underwriter’s to get their opinion on how they would rate Paul before even formally applying for a policy.
This way of informal application kept Paul from getting a decline on his Medical Information Burea report.
After a few days the agent meets up with Paul to explain how the different underwriter’s reviewed Paul’s informal inquiry.
Company A- stated they would be willing to offer coverage with a 50% rate up above the standard premium.
Company B- stated they would be willing also to offer coverage with a 50% rate up above the standard premium.
Company C- stated they would be willing to offer coverage with a 75% rate up above the standard premium.
Company D- stated they would be willing to offer their standard rates based on their underwriting review.
The agent explained to Paul that all 4 life insurance carriers reviewed the same medical history, but he negotiated the best offer with Company D and they were willing to offer their standard rates. Company D felt like there was insignificant disorder, no symptoms and no restrictions on Paul’s activity, normal EKG, normal echo-cardiogram and only slight regurgitation across the stenotic valve.
As mentioned earlier, all life insurance companies review medical history and lifestyle differently. But, it is important to understand that the companies above all specialized in underwriting congenital heart disease.
Paul’s agent did all the legwork saving Paul time, frustration and more importantly hundreds or thousands of dollars in premium.
Other, perhaps more larger well known companies may have simply declined Paul’s application because congenital heart disease insureds did not fit their company underwriting profile.
Conclusion-
When looking for the best life insurance companies with congenial heart disease you must use a knowledgeable and experienced agent that knows which companies out of the over 1,200 life insurance companies in the United States specialize in underwriting these conditions. This will save not only hundreds or perhaps thousand of dollars over the life of your policy, but also countless hours of frustration searching for the right company.
Fortunately, you have landed on this blog and you have found the experts in this niche area of life underwriting. If you would like to discuss your situation please contact us at 1-888-393-9003 or email Mike@specialriskterm.com Thank you for reading this blog.
