Posts filed under 'cigar smokers'
Preventive medicine has been around for a long time. In most cases that takes the shape of being on medication for borderline cholesterol or blood pressure issues. In some cases where women have a better than average chance of having breast cancer, radical mastectomy is considered to be not just a cancer treatment, but preventive medicine.
Women who come from a family with a history of breast cancer, or who have the known breast and ovarian cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, there is a much higher than normal risk of them having breast cancer. For many women, knowing that breast cancer can kill, removing the breasts seems like a viable alternative to the uncertainty.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, but much deadlier than the most common, skin cancer.
Another preventive approach is through lifestyle changes. Everything from increased exercise to increased awareness concerning breast exams can be either preventive or help you in the effort to catch cancer in early stages where it is very treatable and curable.
From a life insurance standpoint, a preventive mastectomy would likely not lead to any different rates than the family history itself. If the procedure is due to genetics it would likely be treated the same as early stage breast cancer which would mean than standard or better rates should be available.
Bottom line. Tough decisions. A radical mastectomy is, well, radical and it is not a guarantee that you won’t get breast cancer. Even the smallest amount of breast tissue that is left can still get cancer. Just a tough decision.
October 1st, 2008
As I wrote that title it occurred to me that I might be showing my age. The advertising slogan for Prudential used to be (may still be?) “Own a piece of the rock”. Anyway, Prudential is a stand alone company when it comes to their treatment.
In an article in Cigar Aficionado a few years back they provided an overview of where cigar smokers could get the best deals. Unfortunately their source of information wasn’t horribly accurate and they wouldn’t entertain any clarification. I did post some updated information on their forum today and hopefully that will lead them to use an article to update their readers.
As recently as two years ago there were a few more companies that would entertain people who regularly smoke cigars, smoke pipes or chew tobacco, and tested positive for nicotine. The positive test is a big deal. There are actually numerous companies that allow “occasional use”, defined as anything from a cigar a week to 4 cigars a year, but if you test positive for nicotine all bets are off and you get a smoking rate.
Today Prudential stands alone as the company that will approve at non smoker rates for nicotine use other than cigarettes, even with a positive test. Any cigar smoker who is paying smoker rates through another company is paying about twice what they need to.
Bottom line. Many agents out there don’t do their homework and are just fine with you paying more than you need to. After all, more premium means more commission. Contact an independent agent today and tell them you want non smoker rates for cigar, pipe or chew use and if they don’t quote Prudential, find another agent.
July 2nd, 2008
Ahh! The good old days when smokers were smokers except with one life insurance company, some smokers weren’t smokers.
This actually wasn’t all that long ago, maybe a year and a half, but there was a company called US Financial who truly looked at things in a different way. This was a company that pioneered what they called “clinical underwriting”, a term that simply meant that they looked at each case on its’ own merit. This differs from traditional underwriting where, literally, each applicant with a health issue or habit is thrown into the same bucket and they are all given the same rate class with very little consideration for differences in control or habits.
This proved to be huge for those people who fell into what US Financial considered a social smoker category. Qualification for social smoker status was pretty straight forward. If you were under age 50, smoked less than a pack a day and had smoked less than 20 pack years (defined as less than a pack a day for 20 years), you could qualify for preferred non smoking rates even though you were in fact smoking.
This differed greatly from traditional underwriting. All the other insurance companies would put you in a smoker category even if you were one of those people who smoked half a dozen cigarettes a month, truly a social smoker. Those companies, which are now all companies since US Financial was purchased and put out of business by AXA Equitable, would have you pay rates 2 to 4 times higher than a non smoker even though there is clearly no clinical or medical link between a very occasional cigarette and the health conditions that are attributable to regular smoking.
But, as happens with most good old days, they disappear. AXA Equitable bought and destroyed one of the best, most innovative companies in the history of life insurance.
Bottom line. Now cigarette smokers are in fact smokers. There is still one bastion of relief for those who use tobacco or nicotine products other than cigarettes. A good independent agent would guide you to Prudential for non smoker rates if you are a cigar smoker or pipe smoker, or happen to chew. Again, all other companies would put you in the same bucket as cigarette smokers for those habits.
June 9th, 2008
I know I’ve been all about the downside of smoking and life insurance this week. I’ve gone on and on about the valid reasons why life insurance underwriters are a bit brutal when it comes to smoking, especially in combination with health issues that are caused by smoking or are exacerbated by smoking.
So, in an effort to end the week on an upbeat note, I thought I would shift gears from cigarettes to cigars. While most of us can probably agree that there are fewer known health risks connected to cigar smoking, primarily because you’ll kill yourself if you inhale, most insurance companies treat cigar and cigarette smokers exactly the same. If you smoke, you’re a smoker.
There are a handful of companies that allow “occasional” cigar use at rates as good as their best non smoking rates, but they are all over the map on what they call occasional. For instance, West Coast Life says 6 per year or less, Banner Life is at 1 per month, and Genworth is 1 per month. Keep in mind that life insurance exams test for nicotine, and there is a requirement with all “occasional use” companies that you test negative for nicotine. I always encourage the “occasional” applicants to lay off the occasions for 2-3 weeks before the exam. One of my clients recently disregarded that suggestion and had a cigar 2 days prior to the exam and blew his chance for some great rates.
There are a few more companies that actually allow you to celebrate all year. American General and ING Reliastar will allow a cigar a week, but again you have to test negative for nicotine. Just in case anyone thinks I am gaming the system by suggesting to clients to lay off for 2-3 weeks, these companies know that if someone smokes 1 per week consistently they will test positive. They also know that the agents recommend a hiatus and as long as the labs show what they want to see, they will approve it.
Many more companies offer their second best non smoking rate for occasional use. Included in that group would be Savings Bank Life who will allow a “few cigars a year”, North American at 2 or less per month and Lincoln Benefit at 1 per month. Again, negative nicotine.
The standout company in the crowd is Prudential who will allow cigars, pipes or chew at standard plus non smoking rates. No limits are required and they expect a positive nicotine result. They are the go to company for pipes and chew and for anyone that will have a problem showing a negative nicotine level.
Bottom line. At least there are options when it comes to cigars, pipes and chew. When it comes to cigarettes, the rate choices are high or higher.
May 23rd, 2008
For all of you that have applied for life insurance and smoke cigars, and didn’t use the right company and agent, you’ve felt the sting of smoker rates. In general, cigarette smokers will spend 2-3 times what a non smoker will spend on life insurance given everything else being equal.
I’ll try not to get on my soapbox too much about how it should be obvious why that’s the case with cigarette smoking. With links to just about every malady known to mankind, an insurance company would be crazy not to figure that into their mortality assumptions and rates. The best you can do as a smoker is to find an independent agent that has access to the best rates available. Right now, in most cases, that would be with Liberty Life and Western Reserve Life.
If you happen use tobacco in some other form such as cigars or chew, and run into an agent that doesn’t know any better, they will probably just quote whatever smoker rate they can find and hope you buy it because, well….because you’re a tobacco user and that means more premium and more commission.
A good indpendent agent on the other hand is going to know that with Prudential you can get non smoker, non tobacco user rates even if you smoke cigars or chew all day long and test positive for nicotine on your exam.
Bottom line. Cutting your rates in half by finding an agent who knows where to take your business and where not to makes sense somehow……unless you want to spend too much money.
March 24th, 2008
There are plenty of life insurance companies out there who will look the other way on cigar smoking as long as you are truly an “occasional” smoker. Each company has their take on what occasional means.
For a few companies you need to save those cigars for true celebrations, and then only for a few a year. You need to pick and choose your occasion wisely if you want them to ignore the habit in underwriting with some companies allowing as few as 2-4 per year. There are companies that must have golfing, cigar smoking CEO’s, These companies have stretched occasional to as many as a dozen a year.
Keep in mind that while these companies are allowing this use without underwriting penalty, they expect you to have negative nicotine results on your labs (yes they test for it). So, if you are an occasional user and would like the break offered, let your agent know so that they can advise you to lay off any occasions for a month prior to your exam. All of us in the business have had clients who have just been overcome with the joy of the moment and can’t resist smoking a cigar the day before an exam. Positive nicotine results lead this group of companies to assume that you are a common smoker and if you stay with them you will pay smoker rates, easily 2-3 times what you were expecting to pay.
The big alternative, and there is really only one left, is Prudential. They stand alone. They allow tobacco or nicotine use, except for cigarettes, even with positive nicotine in the labs at non smoker rates. So, for all of those who chew, smoke pipes or cigars, Pru has a deal that today is not found anywhere else. This is not a small deal if you fall into the category of a tobacco user other than cigarettes. This is huge and can cut your life insurance cost in half.
Bottom line. You’ll never hear about this if you don’t use an independent agent. You’ll never know about this if you aren’t completely honest with your agent about your tobacco habits. Don’t make yourself and your agent look foolish by assuming that you can slide that cigar use past the underwriters.
March 18th, 2008
It is a rare thing in the life insurance industry when there is only one company that takes a stance completely contrary to all of the other companies. Prudential is just that bold.
For as long as there has been life insurance and cigarettes, there has been testing to determine if you have nicotine in your system. Virtually all companies assume nicotine in your system meets the underwriting threshhold for smoker rates. They bulk all nicotine use, whether it is cigarette, cigar, chew, or nicorette gum into the same rate class even though the risk factors are obviously not the same.
Prudential was one of only two companies that took exception to that line of underwriting lack of thinking. They knew that the mortality risk is not the same for a cigar smoker or someone who chews, as it is for a cigarette smoker. The other company was bought up and thrown in the trash by AXA Equitable, so 50% of the common sense in the life insurance business left us last year. That was bad news.
The good news is that it doesn’t appear that Prudential is prone to being gobbled up by some other company and they seem very solid in their stance on this issue.
There are very few companies that will break away from conventional underwriting, but Pru, the Rock, seems to do it consistently. They have the best underwriting when it comes to sleep apnea, mood disorders including bipolar disorder, prostate cancer, student pilots and……..cigars.
Bottom line. As all the other companies languish in mediocrity, Pru stays on the cutting edge. I believe they are one of the only companies that cares about underwriting reality, not letting a book dictate their decisions.
December 14th, 2007
Just when you think you’ve seen it all! MSNBC takes the big bucks from Selectquote to misrepresent term insurance on national TV. Suze Orman is given the green light to puke out life insurance stupidity at Oprah’s expense. And now. CNN has obviously accepted enough money from Insure.com to allow them to completely mislead the life insurance consuming public on the how to’s of buying life insurance. I guess you just have to be huge to have the guts to blatantly mislead on a national basis.
In a CNN article/paid advertisement today, Insure.com purports to be bringing the American public up to speed on the only prices in the country that are coming down, term insurance rates.
They start out by telling CNN that there are dozens, if not hundreds of companies competing for your business. They go on to tell you about only 3. Their first shot is to quote a 40 year old male in good health for $500,000 of 20 year term. They say you should look at Reliastar and Savings Bank Life at $345 per year, or West Coast Life at $355 per year. They left out Banner life at $345 per year even though Banner’s underwriting is more liberal than the other companies quoted. Care to hear why they left the highly rated Banner Life out? Me too!
They move on to hit 8 underwriting issues where they claim to give you good guidance. Here are there 8 points.
– Height/Weight Ratio. Hold the mayo! Allowable maximum weight for a
6′ male wanting to pay the lowest possible life insurance rates are a
reasonable 206 pounds with ReliaStar Life, 203 pounds with Savings Bank
Life of Massachusetts, and 198 lbs. with West Coast Life. If you take
that weight up, say, to 215 pounds, expect to pay about 30 percent
more. - WHAT ABOUT BANNER LIFE AT 207 AND PRUDENTIAL AT 213?BANNER IS THE SAME PRICE AND PRUDENTIAL IS ONLY A FEW DOLLARS MORE, NOT 30%.
– Family History. If a parent or sibling has passed away as a result of
heart disease before age 60, you can expect to pay as much as 78
percent more. Multiple family deaths by cardiovascular disease before
age 60 could bump your rate up by 100 percent. - WHAT ABOUT LIBERTY LIFE
AND JOHN HANCOCK WHO OFFER PREFERRED WITH ONE FAMILY DEATH? WHAT ABOUT WEST COAST LIFE THAT WILL COMPLETELY FORGIVE IT IF YOU ARE OVER 60?
– Tobacco Use History. Here we found that the guidelines contained some
good news for occasional cigar smokers. While most best buy companies
have the stipulation that an applicant cannot have used tobacco in any
form within the past 5 years, ReliaStar Life might offer their lowest
rates to an occasional cigar smoker who can attest to smoking no more
than 1 cigar per week and, through a third party urinalysis test, prove
themselves negative for cotinine, a nicotine marker. - MOST COMPANIES DO WHAT
THEY ARE BRAGGING ON RELIASTAR FOR. WHAT ABOUT PRUDENTIAL WHO
WILL OFFER NON SMOKER RATES TO CIGAR AND PIPE SMOKERS AND PEOPLE WHO CHEW?
– Cholesterol. Allowable maximums for cholesterol ranged from 200 to 240
with a ratio of good-to-bad cholesterol of 4.0 to 5.0. All three
companies may award their lowest rates even if you are taking
cholesterol medication. - AND WHAT ABOUT GENWORTH THAT IS MORE LIBERAL
ON CHOLESTEROL THAN ANY OF THOSE COMPANIES WITH COMPARABLE RATES?
– Blood Pressure. All plans within the best buy range require that you
not have a history of high blood pressure or be on any medication for
high blood pressure. Allowable readings for the 40-year-old were
130/80 with Savings Bank Life, and 140/85 with both West Coast Life and
ReliaStar Life. - LIARS!! BANNER LIFE WILL ALLOW THEIR BEST RATE WITH BLOODPRESSURE TREATMENT OF TWO OR MORE YEARS WITH GOOD CONTROL.
– Driving Record. Life underwriters do not like to insure unsafe drivers
and, therefore, want to know all about your recent driving record. For
example, none of the top 3 best buy companies would allow a DUI within
the past 5 years. Guidelines involving moving violations varied:
Savings Bank Life and West Coast Life permit no more than one in three
years, while ReliaStar Life allows no more than two in the last three
years. - UNDER FAIRLY REASONABLE CIRCUMSTANCES PRUDENTIAL WILL FORGIVE A ONE TIME DUI AFTER ONE YEAR!!
– Intended Foreign Travel. No life insurance company is interested in
granting their lowest rates to Rambo or any other person who has
intentions to travel to dangerous places. Life insurers like to use
the current U.S. State Department Travel Warnings List, a list that now
contains the names of 28 countries and regions, including Israel, Saudi
Arabia, Indonesia and Kenya. While India does not appear on the
current State Department list, be prepared to provide an explanation of
where you intend to visit and for how long if you are planning travel
to India. - IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A FOREIGN TRAVEL PROBLEM, DO NOT CALL INSURE.COM. I’M NOT EVEN GOING TO GIVE THEM THE ANSWER ON THIS ONE.
– Intention to participate in dangerous sports or hobbies. Each of the
lowest-priced companies will rate you up or decline you altogether if
you engage in risky activities such as motorcycle racing, skydiving,
bungee jumping or mountain climbing. - SIMPLY NOT TRUE! IF INSURE.COM
ISN’T WILLING TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK, ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS?
Bottom line. Get an independent agent who isn’t in anyone’s back pocket. There has to be a reason they are willing to mislead people on a nationwide basis with these three companies. Please understand that I write for the same three companies as well, but only when they really are the best game in town.
November 16th, 2007
My grandfather used to do that. He would smoke them and chew them and spit and……well, he had a nicotine habit. Use of nicotine with life insurance companies is a pretty clear cut issue. If you use it, you are in the same rate class as a cigarette smoker. There are a few exceptions to that rule.
Some companies will allow an “occasional cigar” and not punish you. They might define that as not more than 4 a year, some might say no more than 1 a month. One company stands out on this issue as the only company that will allow cigar smoking at non smoking rates with no requirement for occasional use or lack of nicotine in your labs.
Just to give you an idea what that might mean in rates, if you got the best possible smoking rate on a 54 year old male for $500,000 of 20 year term insurance, you would pay $4055.00 annually. If you have an independent agent who knows where to take your cigar habit you could pay $2285.00 annually for the same policy.
This also happens to be a company that stands out as a giant for private pilots and prostate cancer survivors. You may have read my post last week concerning Prudential and their stance on sleep apnea. Prudential, it seems, is one of the last hold outs for sane underwriting.
Bottom line. Have your cake and eat it too if you happen to enjoy more than an occasional cigar.
July 20th, 2007
