Life Insurance with depression history
Finding the most affordable coverage for life insurance with depression history can seem impossible. Unless you know the secret. An agent or agency who specializes in special risk life insurance protection can save you time and money.
You see not all life insurance agents or all life insurance companies are the same. In fact, most life insurance agents and life insurance companies don’t specialize in finding coverage for those with pre-existing medical conditions.
But, fortunately their are a handful of agents and insurance carriers that specialize in underwriting life insurance with depression.
Steps to finding coverage
You have landed on this page, so your battle to find the best priced life insurance with depression is half over. An agent with many years of knowledge and experience in the life insurance industry will already know which few carriers can offer the best rates.
The first steps in finding affordable coverage is to give your agent as much information as you can about your medical history. Every life insurance company looks at medical history, lifestyle, etc. differently. So, it’s important to match your history with the best carrier.
One of the most important steps to find the best rate for coverage is to provide your agent with as much background information as you can in regards to your health, medications, etc.
The agent can then do a “shop” of the carriers that might have an interest in quoting your protection.
It is important not to just apply to several different carriers at the same time. This is a rookie mistake that many life insurance agents allow the customers to do.
You see when you formally apply for coverage by completing an application and submitting it to a carrier this information gets reported to the medical information bureau (MIB).
The MIB is a clearinghouse of sorts for insurance companies. They collect information that shows other insurance carriers if you have applied for coverage. They also can show if you have been denied coverage.
You do not want a bunch of applications hitting your MIB file. This can actually hurt your chances of getting a good offer. So, your best option is to let your agent informally shop your coverage.
What do we mean by informally shopping your coverage? Your agent will gather as much information as possible about your situation and then make phone calls to the different underwriting companies. They will present your situation and ask for a tentative quote on the protection.
A good agent will get 5-6 tentative offers for coverage. Then with the best offer the agent will present that to the customer and if the tentative offer is agreeable then and only then will a formal application be submitted.
Questions to begin the process
- Male or Female
- Date of Birth
- Tobacco use within last 5 years
- Height/Weight
- Any history of diabetes, cancer, heart disease in immediate family before age of 65
- Date of initial episode of depression
- What specific type of depression was diagnosed such as: Bipolar mixed, Bipolar manic, major depression, bipolar depressed, etc.
- Have you been hospitalized for the treatment of depression
- What medications are you prescribed
- Have you ever been treated with electric shock therapy
- Have you had any history of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, personality disorder, psychotic disorder, suicidal thoughts or attempts
- In other relevant medical history
In addition to the information above the carrier will want to know how much coverage you need and who will be the beneficiary?
Securing the protection
Once the agent completes his shopping of coverage and presenting the offer, the next step is to formally apply for coverage. Underwriting a life insurance application typically entails several bits of information.
This includes the application, a medical exam scheduled by your agent, lab work done by a para-med nurse and the ordering of all medical records from your providers.
Underwriting insurance companies will typically get 90-95% of the information they need to make a decision form your doctors records. The exam and lab work usually is used in conjunction to compare and confirm results from your physician.
Once the underwriter completes the evaluation process they will make the final approval of coverage. This offer can be approved at the tentative quote they initially gave or they could make an offer more or less favorably they initially quoted. In most cases, if the agent has gathered all the information up front as possible and their are no surprises in the medial records or lab work the tentative offer will be the final offer.
Now all is left is to bind coverage and protect your family.
Conclusion-
With out a doubt the most important factor in trying to secure life insurance with depression is the choice of the agent and the carrier. A special risk agent will make the process much easier and affordable than an agent with no knowledge or experience in this niche.
If you would like a free evaluation of your protection needs, please contact us at 678-207-8160 or mike@specialriskterm.com
