It’s true, all is not necessarily lost. In writing this I would like to increase awareness and make it known that if someone is turned down for life insurance by one company (or even two or three) it does not have to mean that cover is unobtainable.
Don’t be fooled into thinking the big supermarkets offer their own cover, they simply re-brand other insurance companies products.
A lot of banks are also only brokers for other companies and therefore you might apply to a few brokers thinking they are different companies when in actual fact they all offer the same cover under different names.
As you can imagine, banks and supermarkets have a lot of customers they can sell to which means they are not short of enquiries.
Many of these companies offer very simple, cheap and cheerful life insurance cover.
Now think about ‘business’.
Businesses are run to make money.
A life insurance company will make the most money if they insure people who are not likely to die or suffer a serious illness.
This is why people get turned down by some companies if there is even a sniff of some underlying problem or condition.
Insurers who have no shortage of customers and who want to make the most money out of them will often turn down people who don’t fit their nice, neat criteria.
But all is not lost!
There are dozens of mainstream and specialist life insurance companies to choose from. Many of which are not associated with banks or supermarkets and some that are not available directly to the public and only accessible via certain brokers.
But not all brokers are the same. Some will be scared off when an application is turned down and not bother trying to find out if there are any alternatives.
Submitting an application is not enough when there are medical conditions to consider. Gathering medical information and making direct contact with underwriters is the only way to know in advance if an application will be considered.
The majority of insurance companies evaluate medical conditions completely differently from one another. Some will flatly decline cover whereas others will happily consider an application so only thorough research will reveal if all the alternatives have been considered.
A ‘whole of market’ or ‘independent’ adviser (I forget which term is currently in favour with the FSA) should have access to the majority of insurers but not all will have access to the specialist companies.
Only by asking an adviser will you know for sure if they have full access to the market.
Turned down for life insurance?
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