Life Insurance with Cerebrovascular disease [Ultimate Guide]

Finding Affordable life insurance coverage with cerebrovascular disease

Most people think of cerebrovascular disease as someone that has had a stroke  or mini-stroke. By definition, cerebrovascular disease is a disease that occurs in the blood vessels of the brain. Typically the oxygen supply to the brain is cut off.

Often, the most common causes of cerebrovascular disease is high blood pressure and plaque buildup in the arteries to the brain. Many times a brain scan such as a CT and/or MRI must be done to confirm that a stroke or some cerebral event occurred.

Signs and symptoms that a stroke or event may have occurred include: weakness, numbness, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, speech difficulty and paralysis on one side of the body.

When life insurance companies underwrite life coverage with cerebrovascular disease that will need plenty of details on the actual disease in order to properly rate the prospect.

This article will tell you about some of the more common types of cerebrovascular disease that life insurance companies evaluate and how to go about getting the best rates.

Many times people with conditions of cerebrovascular disease can be offered coverage. Often times it will depend on what type of disease, how long since the disease was diagnosed and the current health of the prospect.

It is important to remember that all life insurance companies look at health and lifestyle differently. In fact, it is very important to use a broker that specializes in the types of companies that underwrite life insurance coverage with cerebrovascular disease.

Often times a large well known life insurance company may decline or highly rate someone looking for life insurance coverage with cerebrovascular disease, while another smaller perhaps not as well known company will actually offer a policy.

I can not stress enough how important it is to use an agent that not only represents multiple carriers, but that those carriers be specialist in the underwriting of pre-existing medical conditions.

Types of disease when evaluating life insurance with cerebrovascular disease

Below are some of the types of conditions that can occur with someone who has cerebrovascular disease:

• ANEURYSM
• ARTERIOVENOUS MALFORMATIONS
• SUBDURAL HEMOTOMA
• CAROTID BRUITS
• CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENT (STROKE)
• CEREBRAL INFARCTION
• THROMBOSIS
• HEMORRHAGE OR EMBOLISM
• TRANSIENT ISCHEMIC ATTACK (TIA)
• BASILAR ARTERY INSUFFICENCY
• VERTEBROBASILAR INSUFFICENCY
• AMAUROSIS FUGAX

So, as you can see there are many different variations of cerebrovascular disease. Let’s take a look at a couple of the more common ones that underwriters see and how they might be rated by the insurance carrier:

1. Aneurysm–  with a single episode and no surgery. Most insurance companies that specialize in underwriting aneurysm will have a pretty significant rating for the first 5 years since the episode. After 5 years and assuming no other risks factors, an insured could possibly qualify for standard rates.
2. Aneurysm- with surgery and no other major risk factors. After 1-2 years since aneurysm possible mild rating. After 2 years possible standard rates.
3. Cerebrovascular Accident/Stroke- single episode with no residual neurological deficit. After age 40 you would be looking at a significant premium rate up based on the number of years since the stroke. 5-10 years after the stroke with no other problems could reduce the rating to about 50% above standard rates. After 10 years with no other problems possible standard rates. Before age 40 would be much higher rates if insurable.
4. Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) with only one two episodes and complete recovery within 24 hours. After age 40 within 3 months to 2 years possible 75% rate up. Between 2-5 years possible 50% rate up. After 5 years possible standard rates. Before age 40 would be double the rates above.

If a prospect has had multiple episodes then the case would have to be evaluated by a medical director before an offer could be made.

These are just a few of the more common conditions that underwriters see when evaluating life insurance with cerebrovascular disease. Other factors can also come into play such as history of high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, height/weight, etc.

With this said there are life insurance companies out there that do a much better job than others in evaluating life insurance with cerebrovascular disease.

The most important thing a prospect can do that is looking for life insurance with cerebrovascular disease is to work with a broker that has many years of experience and knowledge in this specialty niche. Your broker can negotiate the absolute lowest rates in the industry.

Questions to answer when evaluating life insurance with cerebrovascular disease

Below you will find the questions that an underwriter will want to know the answers to in order to evaluate your life insurance request. It is important that you provide as much detail as possible as this will not only save you time but more importantly premium.

• When were you diagnosed with your event?
• What was the name of the event? I.E. TIA, Stroke, Aneurysm 
• What was the underlying cause of the event? I.E. Hypertension, atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease, heart malformation?
• Is there a history of any other cardiovascular disease such as carotid artery disease, peripheral artery disease or coronary artery disease?
• What tests have you had completed? Echocardiogram? Carotid Ultrasound? Brain Scan such as CT or MRI?
• What medications are you taking?
• Have you used tobacco in 5 years?
• Do you have any other major health problems such as diabetes, cancer, seizures, etc.?

In addition to the medical information above it is also important to know how much protection do you need? What type of coverage are you considering? (Term or whole life)

How your agent finds the best life insurance with cerebrovascular disease?

So, now you have the information you need to find out what an insurance company might offer for coverage. And thanks to this blog you now know who to call to find the coverage.

As a special risk life insurance agent, I will explain how when working with an expert agent you can make the insurance companies bid for your business.

By being in the life insurance industry for over 30 years you learn what life insurance company like certain risks. By seeing just about every type of risk over my career, I quickly learn what companies will do the best job underwriting someone with cerebrovascular disease.

You see many agents shy away from prospects that have pre-existing medical conditions. The reason may be they know it will take longer to get coverage approved due to the medical history, etc. Or some agents just have absolute no idea how to go about finding the right carrier for the prospect.

You see the pre-exisiting medical condition life insurance market is a very small niche. There are over 1,000 life insurance companies doing business in the United States. But, perhaps only about a dozen actually want and underwriter the best for cerebrovascular disease.

So, once I have your information regarding your medical history I go to work. I personally call and speak to our representative for each carrier that I think might give us the best offer.

I don’t initially put my customer thru an exam or lab testing until I know that I have a pretty good idea of what they can offer.

I negotiate back and forth with each carrier until I get the absolute best offer in the industry for someone looking for life insurance with cerebrovascular diseases.

Once I have the tentative quote offer from the carrier I will present this to my customer. Based on the offer, the customer will know before even applying for coverage what the final rates will be unless their are some surprises.

If the customer agrees to the tentative offer then and only then will we complete an application and schedule exam and blood testing.

Doing it this way does a couple of things.

• First it lets the customer know what rates to expect once underwriting is completed
• It also keeps the insured from having to fill out multiple applications and get examined by multiple companies
• It initially keeps the insured records out of the MIB( medical information bureau)

Conclusion-

Important– Remember, if coverage cannot be found thru traditional underwriting methods coverage may still be available on a guaranteed issue bases. 

Finding affordable life insurance with cerebrovascular disease history can sometimes seem difficult. But, knowing the right agent and companies that work in this area makes it much easier.

If you are in need of life insurance and would like a free evaluation of your situation, please contact us at 1-888-393-9003 or mike@specialriskterm.com