Are you a U.S. citizen?
One of the first questions a life insurance company will want to know if you are a Foreign National or plan on doing Foreign travel, is if you are a United States citizen?
If not, here are some of the questions you will need to answer:
- Are you a permanent resident (holder of a permanent resident card)
- If yes, please list your permanent resident number
- If no, please list the type of visa you hold? How long have you lived in the United State?
- Your full name as stated on the Permanent Resident Card or Visa.
- Date of issue on your permanent resident card or Visa.
- Date of expiration on your permanent resident card or Visa.
- Country of Birth
- Do you own a home in the United States?
- If yes, you will need to provide the address.
- If married, does your family live with you in the United States?
If the answer to the first question of yes you are a United States citizen then here are some of the typical questions you will to answer:
- Are you employed in the United States?
- If no, you will need to provide source of income while living in the United States.
Other questions that might come up for foreign nationals or those who are traveling to a foreign country are:
- Do you plan to travel outside of the United States in the next two years?
- Where do you plan to travel?
- What is the purpose of your travel. In other words, is it foreign business travel or foreign pleasure travel?
- How often do you travel?
- Average period of time for each trip?
- What was the date of your last trip?
Why do life insurance companies need this information?
If you have never applied or purchased life insurance before you may be curious why a life insurance companies needs this information. Life insurance companies evaluate risk for each person applying for coverage.
As you probably are aware a couple of factors make up the most important factors when evaluating risk. Your age, your sex, your medical history are the primary underwriting factors that determine your rates.
But, a life insurance company also has to take into consideration other factors such as do you possibly do rock climbing or race cars or in this case travel overseas to potentially dangerous parts of the world.
Do all life companies look at foreign nationals and travel the same?
With over 1,000 life insurance companies in the United States you can expect most companies to underwrite risk about the same. But, not all do. In fact, just like some life insurance companies are less expensive for people with diabetes, heart disease or history of cancer, some companies also specialize in better rates for foreign nationals and those that do foreign travel.
How to find the best companies for foreign nationals and foreign travel
In most cases, it takes too much time for one individual to call around and find out who are the best carriers. So, since this is a specialty niche area of life insurance underwriting, you need an agent or agency that specializes also. An independent life agent should have access to hundreds of carriers in the life insurance arena.
If the agent is experienced, or has been in business for many years, he will also be able to know which particular company would look at your situation the most favorable, since they have probably had several people in the past that have applied for coverage that were foreign nationals.
In addition to the information needed above regarding the citizenship and foreign travel here are the other most common questions and underwriter will need to evaluate you for protection:
- Date of birth
- Male or female
- Tobacco use in last 5 years
- Height/weight
- Are you currently taking any prescription medications
- Have you experienced any major medical history such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.
- Amount of protection needed
- Plan of coverage needed? Term, whole or universal life?
Once the above information is collected, a good agent should be able to offer you several alternatives for protection.
Conclusion-
If you are a Foreign National or plan on doing some foreign travel and would like to know your options for life insurance protection, contact us at 1-888-393-9003 or by email at mike@specialriskterm.com
