Surviving a stroke can be a hard experience to live through and can change a lot about the way we live life, and view it. It’s a scary ordeal for both you and your family and it’s easy to understand why life insurance may be on your mind. However, the good news is you are reading this article, which means you are survivor! So what does that mean for your life insurance qualification? Can you get life insurance coverage and if so at what rates? Let’s discuss what factors life insurance companies will want to consider, what the possible outcomes are, and what we do to help.
In summary, here is what you will learn in this article.
- You can get life insurance as a stroke survivor.
- It will depend on factors like age of onset, current symptoms, cause of stroke, and overall health.
- If it’s been more than a year you can probably qualify for substandard rates.
- You should always work with an independent, high risk, life insurance agent.
- You’re at the right place.
That’s this post in a nutshell. Now let’s dive into some detail about getting life insurance as a stroke survivor.
What Companies Look At
Life insurance companies will look at a bunch of factors to determine your rate. When it comes to surviving a stroke they will want to know every detail you can provide. Let’s break down some of the key factors.
Current Age/Age of Onset – they will want to know how old you are when the stroke took place. Unlike most things in life, in this case being older is better. A stroke at a young age can mean that there are more serious issues at play and a higher risk of it reoccurring. At an older age it is more expected so life insurance companies see this as an upside.
Current Symptoms – they will want to know how the stroke affected you overall and if it continues to affect you at the moment. They will also want to know the extent of the neurological deficit due to the stroke.
Cause of Stroke – if you know the clear cause of your stroke it helps the life insurance company determine the likelihood of it reoccurring.
Treatment/Lifestyle – detailing what you’re doing to treat it is an extremely important factor in qualifying for good rates after a stroke. Positive lifestyle habits can also influence your rates in the right direction.
Number of Strokes – the company will want to know this for obvious reasons. This helps them determine how the treatment is going and the time between episodes lets them know how likely it is to happen again.
Smoking History – they will want to know if you were ever a smoker or if you continue to smoke after the stroke. Smoking greatly increases your risk rate to the company and can make it harder for you to qualify.
Overall Health – they will also look at your overall health which includes things like blood pressure, cholesterol readings. They will also want to know about any other health issues or concurrent impairments.
The life insurance companies will look at all of these factors together to determine what health rate class you qualify for or if they can provide you with coverage at this time. Let’s look at some of the possible outcomes.
Possible Outcomes
The rate you can qualify for will depend on the company that you apply with. Just because company A declined you, doesn’t mean company B will. Also keep in mind the best rate on the quote engine isn’t going to be the company with the lowest rate for you. The quotes in the quote engine are for fairly healthy, complication free individuals. When it comes to being a high risk, each company has its own niche of high risk specialties. The best thing to do is always work with an agent who can shop all the companies for you. Here are some possible outcomes with the companies that are willing to insure your risk at better classes.
First, let’s break down life insurance health classes so you can better understand what you can qualify for.
Life insurance companies offer Preferred Plus, Preferred, Standard Plus, and Standard rates for life insurance. Preferred Plus is the bet rate you can get if you’re super healthy. Standard is the worst, if you’re in moderate health. However, that is not where the ratings end. Life insurance companies created something called a Substandard rate class for the high risk client. The substandard classes are divided into 10 tables. Each table is a 25% increase in premium from the standard rate. So if you are a table one you will pay 25% more than a standard quote, table 2 will pay 50% more, table 3 will pay 75% more and so on.
Outside of substandard ratings there is something called a flat extra. A flat extra is a surcharge for every $1,000 worth of life insurance coverage. So if you want a $100,000 life insurance policy, you will pay 100 times your flat extra. If your flat extra is $5, then you will have to pay an additional $500 a year on top of your premium.
These are the two ways life insurance companies treat high risk. Now let’s break it down.
Best Case
If your stroke happened less than a year ago then they will most likely postpone giving you coverage. However, after 1 year you can qualify for a substandard table rating, between tables 4 and 6 with select companies.
Typical Case
In most cases you can get a table rating of 4 to 6 or a table 4 with a flat extra on top. The flat extra can range between $2.50 to $10.00 depending on your risk factor.
Worst Case
If you’ve had multiple strokes, then your chances of getting coverage will be rough unless you can show some positive improvement in lifestyle and health. If this is the case, then your best bet is to get a guaranteed issue life insurance policy. Which would be good to cover final expenses. Otherwise your only other option is an accidental policy, which would only cover your death in the event of an accident. These are options that are good to have until you can show improvement in your condition.
The smartest thing to do is to always work with an agent who is familiar with high risk cases to guide you through the process and find you the best company. There are certain things that every agent should do when determining your risk. Here are the required steps we take to make sure you get the best rates.
The Process
We do our due diligence to make sure that you get the absolute best rate on the market. Here is our shopping process for stroke survivors in a nutshell.
- Detailed Questionnaire – first we make sure to get all the possible details about your health and condition. This gives us an idea which carrier would give you the rate. But we don’t stop here, next we use this information and run anonymous quotes with all potential companies.
- Quick quote- this helps us know exactly what the company would approve you for, without giving out your personal information. We submit all the details to the carrier, all but your identity, and ask them what they would qualify you for. Once the carrier returns with a potential quote, we shop with all of them to see the one that returned the best offer for your condition. We then attach this to the application to sway the results in your favor.
- Cover Letter -this is another thing that we attach to the application to describe your situation better to the underwriter. Most life insurance applications are black and white. A cover letter can help bring some color to it. We detail positive things about your condition like treatment, lifestyle habits, and anything else that can help paint a picture of your life after the stroke. This helps tremendously in helping the underwriters what you are doing right.
These things always help sway the rate in the more favorable direction and we make sure to do it for every single one of our high risk clients.
Start Here
As you can see it’s not a process you want to tackle by yourself, that’s why we are here. We’re an independent agency that specializes in high risk and we work with all of the carriers out there to get you the best rate on the market, at no extra cost to you! If you have any questions simply hit the chat button below or give us a call at 888-492-1967. Welcome to InsureChance!
