by Ed Hinerman | Jul 1, 2010 | decline, insurance, life insurance
For most being declined for life insurance feels a little like being convicted of a crime that you didn’t commit. It’s also scary not knowing what to do, whether to try again, whether you will be black balled because of the decline, who knows. The problem...
by Ed Hinerman | Jun 7, 2010 | insurance, life insurance, mortality, mortality risk
A lot of people understand why and know that a standard rate approval is coming on life insurance and are happy to get it. On the other side of the coin are those that receive a standard rate approval and are taken aback by it, taking offense to not receiving a better...
by Ed Hinerman | Jun 3, 2010 | insurance, life insurance, mortality risk
Life insurance rate classes are generally the determining factor in what your premium will be for a given amount of insurance. Plug in your age and the cost per thousand for, say, a standard plus rate class and there it is. While what they are called may vary from...
by Ed Hinerman | Jun 2, 2010 | Anxiety, Depression, insurance, life insurance
Without going into a lot of detail because this blog really isn’t about me, let me say that I am in the midst of coming to grips with some long term depression issues that I have just kept at bay for the last 15 or so years. Because it’s on my mind I...
by Ed Hinerman | Apr 20, 2010 | bipolar, bipolar disorder, insurance, life insurance
I was just doing a double check on underwriting results today and decided to compare how we’ve done in placing policies with clients who have bipolar disorder versus those who have a history of an eating disorder. Now remember we’re talking about life...
by Ed Hinerman | Mar 5, 2010 | insurance, life insurance, mortality, mortality risk
If there is a common thread through the whole life insurance application/underwriting experience, it’s that those applying tend to underplay their mortality while feeling like underwriters really overplay the whole mortality thing. Life insurance pricing and...
by Ed Hinerman | Feb 22, 2010 | diabetes, insurance, life insurance
Just when you think you can count on the life insurance underwriting guidelines, Glaxo SmithKline’s Avandia, becomes a curve ball that no one is sure how to handle. Two US Senators released a confidential study that insinuates a strong link between Avandia and...
by Ed Hinerman | Feb 1, 2010 | family history, heart attack, insurance, life insurance
Family history is one of those issues that just isn’t much fun to explain and frankly, from a life insurance underwriting standpoint, is a little hard to make a mortality risk case for more often than not. Now I’ll give the actuaries the benefit of the...
by Ed Hinerman | Jan 16, 2010 | heart attack, insurance, life insurance
Part of the life insurance business is helping clients understand that companies weigh the mortality risk of each client, and the higher the risk, the higher the premium. I’m often asked by, say, someone who has experienced a heart attack, why the insurance...
by Ed Hinerman | Jan 15, 2010 | basal cell carcinoma, cancer, insurance, life insurance
Some years ago the life insurance underwriting world went into a tizzy because a study had come out insinuating that a person who had multiple basal cell carcinomas, a truly non lethal skin cancer, had a higher chance of having a melanoma, a truly lethal form of skin...
by Ed Hinerman | Nov 30, 2009 | insurance, life insurance, obesity
Like smoking, another issue that gets a lot of interest in life insurance but very little follow through, is weight. I’ve offered several posts concerning companies that will underwrite obesity at fair rates. I’ve also mentioned frequently that what is...
by Ed Hinerman | Nov 5, 2009 | insurance, life insurance, prostate cancer
Prostate cancer has been on of those life insurance health issues that we’ve been able to help a lot with over the years. Like so many other issues it can be an instant decline with a lot of companies and we can shop it and get better than standard offers....
by Ed Hinerman | Nov 3, 2009 | bipolar disorder, insurance, life insurance
Once upon a time life insurance underwriting wasn’t as cut and dried, and frankly brutal, as it is today. There was room for flexibility and negotiation and even compassion when working with underwriters. That was way back then….about 4 years ago....
by Ed Hinerman | Sep 24, 2009 | insurance, life insurance, prostate cancer
I heard through another agent this morning about a 68 year old client of theirs who was declined by Banner Life due to his PSA increasing from 2.1 to 3.1 over the last 15 months. It must be really dark where that underwriter keeps their head. If the client was young...
by Ed Hinerman | Sep 22, 2009 | insurance, life insurance, liver functions
An extremely common cause for the derailment of a life insurance application is an elevated liver function test (LFT) on the life insurance labs. This can result in an unexpected (and unwanted) butt kicking when you had no idea that there was anything going on. To...
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