Have Your Cigar and Eat It Too!!

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.

This post is somewhat dated. Life insurance underwriting is changing and evolving continually. For more updated information check out some of the key word links. If you have a specific question or topic you need information for do a search. If you don’t find the answers you need contact me and we’ll make sure you get the information that is important to you.