The very thought of trying to find life insurance for someone who has had prostate cancer would send 98% of life insurance agents screaming into the dark. Most would just tell you, without asking any questions, that you are uninsurable.
About 80% of prostate cancer cases are not only insurable, but insurable at rates that someone with no cancer history would be happy with. If you want to win the prize there are three things that your agent should ask for and you need to be able to provide. If the agent doesn’t ask for these things, get another agent.
1. You need to know what the doctor found when you were diagnosed! Their first indication was probably an elevated PSA ( prostate specific antigen). You need to know what that was at the time of diagnosis. From there they would have done a biopsy. From the biopsy they would have determined a stage and grade of the cancer. The stage would be somewhere between A-D. It could be like A2. The grade, also known as the Gleason score would be two numbers added together, such as Gleason 3+3=6. Keep a copy of your pathology report. These numbers become fuzzy with age, but will mean just as much to an underwriter 5 or 10 years down the road as they do 1 year after the cancer has been stopped.
2. Know when your treatment was completed and what your current PSA is. Most companies will want you to be some period of time post treatment, at least six months to a year, and they will want to see that your treatment has achieved the optimal result. As an example, if your prostate was removed, a radical prostatectomy, your PSA should be a statistical 0. If your treatment was by radioactive seed implant, a PSA of up to .5 could be the result an underwriter wants to see.
Bottom lines. If your agent doesn’t ask questions, get an independent agent who does. If you don’t know the information I just reviewed, find it out and get a copy of your pathology report while you researching. Don’t ever let an agent tell you your situation is uninsurable.
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.
My 20 years of experience give me the knowledge and leverage to find reasonably-priced life insurance for people who have been declined or are paying more than they need to.
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