Everyone strives to achieve financial security for themselves and their families. Once you feel financially secure, you immediately seek to protect your family’s future. Buying a life insurance plan is a pivotal step to ensure that your family can support itself even after you are gone. However, life insurance policies can be tricky, and you should ensure that you read all policies carefully before you commit to them.
One way to narrow down your search is to ask your family or friends for their recommendations or even go through global life reviews to see what others find appealing about different life insurance policies. However, the life insurance benefits will vary for different people based on their age, health, and even their location.
Understanding Life Insurance Policies
When buying a life insurance policy, you must sign a proposal which states that you have understood all of the terms. Based on his proposal, the insurance company calculates the risks and then decides on the insurance premium.
According to insurance experts like “Gary P. Cubeta” from “Insurance for final expenses”, the premium depends on several factors. However, the most crucial factor is your health. With a healthier lifestyle, you have lower risks, which helps you qualify for a lower premium.
How Does Health Affect Your Life Insurance?
Your health and factors affecting your health, such as your age, location, and pre-existing conditions, significantly impact your life insurance premium. The healthier you are, the lower will be your premiums.
However, even with pre-existing medical conditions, you can browse through plans which may offer you competitive pricing. However, with prior medical conditions, you should go through a thorough health check-up and disclose your conditions before purchasing any life insurance.
For different policies, you will need to go through different medical check-ups. While some tests are as simple as checking your weight, height, and other key metrics, others may require you to get ECG tests and check your cholesterol levels as well. Hence, it would help if you were transparent about your health conditions. Some aspects of your health that affect life insurance are:
Age and Gender
It is a universal truth that the older you grow, the weaker your body becomes. While you may not be bedridden all of the time or suffering from several ailments, your immunity system becomes weaker, making it harder for you to cope with illnesses. Additionally, women tend to live longer than men. Hence, gender also comes into play when companies are deciding on life insurance premiums.
Pre-existing Conditions
Sometimes people may wait until it is too late to get life insurance. When people tend to get scared due to some health emergency, they quickly realize the importance of life insurance. However, most fear that with pre-existing conditions, their life insurance premium may be too high.
While the premiums may be higher than if you were to get them earlier, several companies offer competitive pricing even with pre-existing medical conditions. Additionally, if you can show that you are taking steps to control and improve your health, you may receive some concessions in your premium amount.
Drinking
Heavy drinking can take a toll on someone’s body. While the occasional drink may not harm the body, insurers will ask about your drinking habits to ascertain whether you are a heavy drinker and base their premiums on how often and the amount you drink.
Smoking Habit
As we all know, smoking contributes greatly to health problems. Hence, smokers generally pay more for life insurance since they are willingly engaging in health risking behavior.
However, if you have quit smoking for several years, you may get reduced premiums.
Hobbies
Everyone loves hobbies, and while having a hobby is not necessarily a bad thing, some hobbies are deemed too risky, such as adventure sports. Insurers may not be willing to offer any concessions even if you take precautions and are careful when pursuing more ‘dangerous’ activities.
Medical History
When deciding your premium, insurance takes your family’s medical history into account. While there is not much you can do to change your family’s health history or your past trips to the hospital, you can incorporate healthy habits into your lifestyle. With a healthier lifestyle, you can show insurance companies that you are actively taking care of your health.
When opting for any policy, ensure that you read what others have to say, as with Globe Life reviews. This not only helps you ensure that there are no hidden costs or terms but that you understand the conditions of your policy altogether. While there are some life insurances where you do not have to go through a medical check-up, such policies have a higher premium cost; ultimately, taking care of your health can help you reduce your premiums.
