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Budget Rates Life Insurance |
Impaired Risk Considerations
by Steve Modell
For many years, people with significant health history such as heart problems, diabetes, cancer, drug or alcohol problems, or conviction for a felony, were often unable to obtain life insurance. Recently, some companies have adopted a more aggressive stance towards such substandard, or "impaired risk," underwriting. These companies are better equipped to give you a reasonable rate for insurance because they evaluate each case on an individual basis, rather than just looking at a table or chart.
If the impaired risk or substandard companies can not issue a policy for you, then you will need to purchase a guaranteed issue policy. These policies are available to anyone and ask no health questions. Typically, these are the most expensive policies of all and have graded death benefits.
This means that if the insured dies during the first 2 or 3 years that the policy is in force, the company will return the premium paid plus 8, 10 or 12 percent interest. Usually they include a provision that will pay the full death benefit if the death is from an accident even if it is during the graded period.
If you are having problems getting insurance because of health problems, it is probably because you don't know where to look. If you need help,
Steve Modell is an independent agent representing many companies, with extensive experience obtaining coverage for clients with health problems. You may access his home page at http://www.smodell.com