There’s this area of underwriting that has always been a source of annoyance for me. It involves foreign travel, but more specifically foreign travel as a missionary. The whole subject seems to be a stumbling block for almost all insurance companies. They just don’t seem to want to underwrite policies on people who travel around the world helping the poor and needy. Much to dangerous they say.
My confusion comes when these same companies will underwrite someone who is on active duty in the military “as long as they don’t have current orders to a warzone”. In this day no current orders simply means you haven’t received any yet.
My confusion comes when these companies don’t even ask whether you ride a motorcycle or live in a high crime rate area. My confusion comes when the same companies will underwrite you if you vacation in the same overseas areas where they will decline you for doing missionary work.
Being an independent agent has allowed me to scour the earth in search of a company that won’t hold a grudge against those who do the Lord’s work. There have been some break throughs in that area just recently. There are companies that will hang with you even though your reason for foreign travel is not for a vacation. You can’t find these companies without finding an agent who has done the leg work and knows what direction to take you.
So, a breakthrough, finally, for even the oppressed of the life insurance industry.
April 19th, 2007
Shopping for life insurance when you have had prostate cancer is a challenge. Your best bet is to find an independent life insurance agent who really knows the disease and what underwriters are looking for. This is just not a task for your hometown American Family agent. This is another one of those subjects that will send an inexperienced agent running out the door screaming “UNINSURABLE, UNINSURABLE!!!!!!!!!”
80% of prostate cancer cases are actually insurable at very fair rates. It all depends on the stage and grade of the cancer, the PSA at the time of diagnosis and the PSA post treatment.
The grading of prostate cancer is interesting. The medical folks use what is called a Gleason score. As with all cancers, the higher the grade, the more agressive the cancer is. From an insurance standpoint it may seem like you are working with the Richter scale of earthquake measurement. You’ve possibly heard that a 7 on the Richter scale is 10 or 100 times worse than an earthquake measured at 6.
With prostate cancer a Gleason grade of 6, coupled with a PSA below 10 at diagnosis, a low stage of 1 or 2, and an undetectable PSA after a prostatectomy is very insurable at very fair rates. A Gleason of 7 with the same criteria is likely to be very high priced at least for several years and a Gleason of 8 simply won’t be covered for at least 5 years and then at a very high rate. Gleason 9 and 10 are rarely heard of and this is just a guess, but it could be that the survival rate at that grade is very low.
How best to shop for life insurance? Find that independent agent and then come armed with a post treatment pathology report. Know your PSA at diagnosis and your current PSA. Share all the information you have. The more information the agent has, the more successful they can be at shopping the case for you.
April 19th, 2007
