I recklessly went out on a limb yesterday spreading a rumor that a major, well know A+ rated life insurance company was jumping on all of the cancer detection and treatment victories of the last several years and have changed their underwriting guidelines and philosophy to bring huge breaks to their clients.

I wasn’t reckless to the point of putting out information that couldn’t be substantiated or corrected by today. I was a little out in left field trusting my memory and few a few hastily scribbled notes. I said I would have the hard copy of these changes today, and I do. The good news. I only messed up a few of them and I understated more than I overstated. Since the demise of US Financial, no company has gone so deep into clinical underwriting and it is a breath of fresh air for agents and an absolute early Christmas for those needing life insurance with cancer histories. So here are some bullets from the company announcement.

“* Thyroid, uterine and testicular cancers – Standard may now be possible immediately following successful completion of treatment in select early stage cancers.

* Breast cancer – Standard my be possible immediately following successful treatment for specific localized breast cancer for women age 40 and older.

*Prostate cancer – Standard may be possible immediately following successful surgical treatment, SUCCESSFUL RADIATION TREATMENT OVER AGE 50, AND “WATCHFUL WAITING” SCENARIOS FOR OVER AGE 70 If you’re not familiar, those last two items are a huge shift.

* New!! Preferred may be possible after being considered Standard for five years for early detected and successfully treated uterine, thyroid and testicular cancer. I am still checking if they mean a 1. reconsideration to preferred if you were approved standard by them 5 years ago or 2. if they mean preferred if you would have met standard guidelines five years ago. My thinking is #2 is the answer.

* Preferred may be possible after being considered standard for 10 years for several cancers, **Exceptions include certain types of breast cancer and melanoma, all lymphoma and all leukemia.

* Standard Plus may be possible after being consider Standard for five years for many cancers. **Exceptions include certain types of breast cancer and melanoma, all lymphoma and all leukemia.

* Also, certain temporary flat extras are eliminated for clients ages 60 and up with history of cancer, specifically:

1. $5 per thousand for 3, 2, or 1 years
2. $7 per thousand for 3, 2, or 1 years
3. $10 per thousand for 2 or 1 years
4. This means that more clients with successfully treated cancer will receive a STANDARD offer without a flat extra at the time of the application.”

This doesn’t help everyone applying for life insurance but my guess is that could easily impact 100,000+ life insurance applicants or people that already have life insurance and are paying too much for it and could replace it. Has your agent contacted you about this yet. I am combing my database for clients I can help.

You know what I like about this. It isn’t coming from some company that is throwing out a short term underwriting gimmick because they need to beef up their sales. This is one of the big boys. When you’ve been around impaired risk life insurance underwriting for a long time you can see that they’ve made some really smart moves here. Moves that aren’t going to impact their mortality experience but will put them on the leading edge of cancer underwriting. If I didn’t know better I would swear they had hired the old underwriting director from US Financial, the company that coined the phrase clinical underwriting. I don’t think it’s just a fluke that this press release has the title, “A Clinical Approach to Underwriting Cancer – Better Offers Sooner!”

Bottom line. If you read back through this you see that the company is not giving away the farm and they aren’t even walking a dangerous cliff edge. This company is smart and I would be shocked if you don’t see other companies following their lead. If you need life insurance and fit into one of the scenarios above or you are paying huge amounts for your life insurance and think the criteria outlined might save some money, call or email me directly. Let’s talk.

PS. Remember the basics. We’re talking about cancer and in order for me to get a positive response for you from this company you will need to have your pathology report. This has fantastic savings potential so let’s go into it loaded for bear.