Life insurance giant AIG, American General led the way for years in offering the best deals for private pilots looking for life insurance. They took over the market and dominated for several years……and then they bailed. From my perspective it looked like they had a few claims, some of them worth several million, that they feared was going to somehow collapse their $700 billion dollar empire. They pushed the idea that they were there for pilots and then ran from it at the first sign of checks going the wrong direction for them.

There are other companies that were there before AIG and are still there. Pilots can still find dependable, affordable life insurance through North American, Genworth Life and Annuity and ING Reliastar. It’s not really like these companies stepped in and adopted private pilots. It’s more like when AIG was flaunting low rates, pilots and some agents may have forgotten those companies that had been there for them all along.

There is nothing basically wrong with a life insurance company changing their underwriting criteria, especially in the face of a new or unexpected mortality experience or assumption. Look at all the companies that changed their stance on multiple instances of skin cancer when a study came out showing that multiple instances of basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma could lead to a higher probability of melanoma.

It’s certainly OK for these companies to cover their wealthy little behinds. They need to stay wealthy enough to pay claims. It’s just this agent’s opinion that American General over reacted to what they knew was coming. If you try to claim all of a market (private pilots) and don’t expect any of them to die, someone didn’t do their homework up front.

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.