Ed Hinerman On Life Insurance

Life expectancy! Mortality Experience! Can Someone Just Tell Me How Long I Can Expect To Live?

As a life insurance agent I’ve become used to the term mortality experience, how long a person can expect to live given a set of health issues. It was kind of creepy the one and only time I spoke with someone in the life settlement business. I gave him a scenario based on age and health issues and he said that the client’s mortality experience should be 6 years and 4 months. I asked what day the client could expect to die and the life settlement guy didn’t think that was all that amusing.

But the reason I bring this up is that there are very real, very stark differences in how long you can expect to live depending on your health and lifestyle.

In an article put out by a Dr Rutledge in Nevada, he had this to offer.

” First, How Long will you live?

Life Expectancy calculators are tools that use your personal information to predict how long someone can expect to live. Factors that have been shown to determine life expectancy include the your age, weight, smoking, drinking, your blood pressure and your family’s medical history. These factors are analyzed and compared against recent Mortality Tables.

Try the “The Life Expectancy Calculator”

You can also try “The Longevity Game” to get an estimate of your life expectancy and the effects of weight loss and resolution of high blood pressure and other obesity associated illnesses.

Using the MetLife Life Expectancy Calculator:

Obesity Kills

Research shows that obesity contributes to a slew of medical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease and various cancers. So powerful are certain lifestyle choices that recommended diets along with maintenance of physical activity and appropriate body mass can, over time, reduce the incidence of cancer by 30 percent to 40 percent, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Caloric Restriction Leads to Weight Loss and a Much Longer Life”

Now Dr Rutledge is pushing something called the “mini gastric bypass” surgery, a laproscopic gastric bypass that he touts as safer than a traditional gastric bypass or a lap band. I don’t know much about the procedure or his credibiity, but the life expectancy calculator actually sent me on a search for a better one.

MSN Money has a life expectancy calculator that is supposed to help you come to grips with how long your retirement may be. Good questions. Try it and see what you think.

Bottom line. Family history, health and lifestyle write the script. The good news is that you can change the ending by changing the script.

Add comment August 16th, 2007

Gastric Bypass Surgery and Life Insurance!

Often a person that is extremely overweight resorts to gastric bypass surgery to get everything under control. Gastric bypass, in a nutshell, sews off most of the stomach, leaving the person with a stomach that is easily filled with a minimal portion compared to what they used to eat. Life insurance companies welcome that weight loss….cautiously.

First of all, life insurance underwriters treat gastric bypass weight loss the same way they treat any other rapid weight loss. There is an assumption that the instant success won’t last and if a person really wants to eat, they will keep working at it until the can stretch their new, smaller stomach to accomodate more food.

I recently worked with a client that had kept their weight down in the 240# range for two years after coming down from 370#. We started talking about life insurance and by the time he actually did his insurance exam, he was up to 259#. We still got a good rate, but not as good as if he had kept his weight down. There is real concern when it starts climbing again.

Underwriters want to see at least one year after a person’s weight has leveled off post bypass. Some would rather see two years. Once they have reached these threshholds, they can get rates based on their current weight.

I just read a post on thediabetesblog.com by Diane Rixon that layed out a compelling case for being able to solve weight induced diabetes through gastric bypass. Killing two birds with one stone.

Bottom line. Gastric bypass may not be for everyone, but it might work wonders for some.

Add comment August 13th, 2007