This isn’t a fun blog post, but it’s an important one. Most people know that the best time to purchase an insurance policy is when you’re young and healthy. We’ve written blog posts about it in both the life insurance and disability insurance context.
Purchasing insurance when you are healthy is the best way to lock in low rates and save yourself money. But the reality is that it is quite possibly the only time you’ll be able to purchase life insurance or disability insurance. Unfortunately, we encounter this issue on an almost daily basis. Hopefully by sharing some of our saddest insurance leads below, it will serve as the nudge some people might need to protect themselves with an insurance policy while they’re still healthy.
Terminal Cancer
A Navy veteran, who now works as an electrician, called hoping to purchase term life insurance to protect his young children through their college years. He had been recently diagnosed with mesothelioma (a terminal disease caused by exposure to asbestos) and wanted to insure that his children wouldn’t have to pay for their education themselves and that his wife wouldn’t have to get a job. It was truly heartbreaking explaining to him that he is essentially the definition of uninsurable.
Osteoporosis
We received a disability insurance referral for a flight attendant. She had received the results of what she called a “bone mineral density” test that revealed she was in the early stages of osteoporosis. She feared that as the disease progressed she would no longer be able to work as a flight attendant, so she hoped to protect her income with an own occupation disability insurance policy. Unfortunately, her diagnosis made her uninsurable.
Lymphoma
A newlywed father called us hoping to purchase life insurance. He and his wife had just purchased a house and had plans to start a family. He also had been diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. He explained to us that the survival rate for his specific diagnosis was almost 80%, but that he wanted to make sure that if the worst should happen, his new family would be protected financially. As you’ve probably guessed, he was uninsurable.
This is just a small sample of some of the uninsurable candidates we’ve tried to help. Unfortunately, these stories are not uncommon. More than 1 in 4 of today’s 20 year olds will suffer a disability before they retire. Buying life insurance and disability insurance when you are young and healthy is not only the best time to buy because you’ll get the lowest rates, but also because if you wait too long, you may become uninsurable.
By Troy Baccus
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