Friday, October 17, 2008

101 Life Insurance - How Your Lifestyle Affects Your Life Insurance



Insurance companies operate and make money by assessing risk and pricing premiums based on the amount of risk involved in the lifestyles of their policy holders. There are several factors influencing the lifestyle of how you pay premiums.

1) The physical and mental health

One of the main factors is your physical health. Are you a smoker? Are you overweight? Do you have a medical condition such as diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol, or heart disease? All these things can significantly increase the premiums, because they reduce the average life of the scope and make it more likely that a policyholder will die early. And the medical examination that you must take to be accepted for life insurance coverage will show whether or not you are affected by any of these health conditions.

Excessive alcohol can also affect your premiums. Although there is no way for an insurance company to determine how much a person drinks, the medical examination that is required under the application process including liver function tests and the rising levels of certain liver enzymes are an indicator of alcohol-related liver damage.

While physical health as a risk factor is widely known and understood, many people do not realize that mental health plays a role in determining insurance premiums. Insurance companies believe that people with certain types of mental illnesses such as depression are at higher risk of suicide, and therefore insurance premiums are likely to be increased for those individuals. Not all mental illnesses are perceived in this way-factor such as duration of illness was diagnosed, and whether long-term treatment and management can affect the level of risk.

2) Employment and Leisure

If you are employed in hazardous work, or if you have a hobby that is considered hazardous, such as sky-diving or mountain, then your premiums are likely to be higher. The definition of high-risk varies, it is recommended to ask potential insurers before deciding where to buy a life insurance policy.

3) Various factors

Other factors such as your driving record come into play as well. Many insurance companies consider the driving records of those who apply to insurance, tickets and speeding or other citations may mean higher premiums. And if you are a frequent flyer, you should be prepared to pay more, too.

4)Changing your lifestyle to reduce your premiums

If you have a way of life at high risk, it is often possible to take steps to remedy any problems and get your premiums lowered. If you are overweight or a smoker, quit smoking or lose weight and maintain this new status will result in a reduction of costs of life insurance. If you make improvements to your health, which could reduce your premiums, you will have to undergo a medical examination so that you can prove your new lifestyle is lower risk. You must also be able to prove that you can maintain your lifestyle at low risk; generally, it means that you have to maintain the way of life for some time before being eligible for a reduction in premium.

1 comments:

Jenice said...

Is it really true that life style affects the life insurance policy ? I was aware that before offering a policy insurance company do requests for a medical certificate to ascertain the risk. I am grateful to you for sharing these important factors that influence the lifestyle of how a person pays premium.
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