Does Family History Affect your Life Insurance Premiums?

2024-08-02

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A life insurance policy is the most beneficial investment, which helps your loved ones in times of a financial crisis. It further offers the assured sum to the nominees if the insured person departs untimely before the policy gets matured. When you apply for a life insurance policy, the insurance company takes into consideration certain factors.

They perform a thorough evaluation to identify whether the information you furnished is authentic or not and then tailor a life insurance policy that is suited to you and your family’s needs. Factors such as age, gender, hobbies, etc., are a part of the evaluation. However, the principal basis of this evaluation of life insurance is your family history.

Before confirming a premium value for your life insurance policy, the insurer will check if you or your family has any genetic diseases. The insurer also asks life insurance medical history questions for you and your family before finalizing the premium sum.

Is it Possible to Buy a Life Insurance with a Family History of Disease?

If someone in your family has a medical history of health issues, insurance companies determine this as a predictor of your future health. The premium rates get estimated according to the risk you pose to be. Hence, if you have serious health issues or your risk of dying is higher, the premium rate will also increase.

Also, it might not be wrong to say that life insurance always depends on your family history and your age is given equal significance as your medical background. However, this does not imply that you will not get life insurance. Even if you have a family medical history of any severe disease, you can get insurance by paying higher premiums. Also, you must note that to get life insurance with a family history, you should hold medical records of the past 10 years.

Learn if you can buy a life insurance policy without a medical exam.

Why do Life Insurance Companies Consider the Medical History of the Family?

Since 2006, life insurance accounts for 50-60% of the global insurance industry. Your family's medical history indicates the trend of genetic diseases running in your family, which can also affect you. Even if you are hale and hearty currently, the trends in the mortality of your family can affect your chances of getting sick.

Inheritance to genes of certain diseases like cancer, diabetes, and any other terminal illnesses makes you susceptible to those diseases. Life insurance companies take all of this into consideration and then set a fixed amount for your future premiums.

The insurer further considers trends of genetic diseases, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung cancer, and melanoma, to name a few. However, even after the complications, getting life insurance with a family history of cancer is possible, depending upon the severity of the disease. However, you must prepare yourself to pay higher premiums than usual in this situation.

Understand the difference between life insurance and health insurance.

How do Life Insurance Companies Check Medical Background?

When you apply for life insurance, the process will occur in two stages: an initial application, which helps you and your chosen insurance company to gain a better understanding of which life insurance policy may suit your requirements the best.

The second stage is filling a thorough application to help the insurance company know more about you and your background and determine your policy rates. In your initial application for acquiring life insurance, you will be required to answer certain medical history questions. The executive will ask you if anyone in your immediate family has been diagnosed or treated for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or any such critical illness.

If someone has been diagnosed with any such disease, you will have to provide details about the age they were diagnosed with and, if they are deceased, the age at which they passed away. For getting life insurance with a family history of cancer, you will have to provide detailed information about the type of cancer they were diagnosed with, at what age they were diagnosed, and other similar questions.

Your family having a history of diseases does not make you ineligible for any life insurance policy. But the premium rates may vary and often be higher. Also, some companies may ask you to fill a special medical history form for life insurance. This form will ask for information regarding other terminal illnesses than the ones mentioned above, such as Alzheimer's disease, sickle cell anaemia, stroke, aneurysms, any mental illnesses, or attempted suicides.

Once all your medical records and records of all your immediate family members get evaluated, the life insurance company will conclude the application process and inform you of the premium rates that they can offer on your life insurance policy.

To sum up, we can say that your overall health and your family's health are important for the insurers to determine the future premium of your life insurance. Also, your family’s medical history plays a key role in determining life insurance premiums.

Calculate premium of your life insurance plan.

If you are looking for some comprehensive term life insurance plans that extend adequate coverage with flexible premiums then look no further than Canara HSBC Life Insurance. They offer various life insurance policies with varying premium rates, all precisely developed to suit your requirements.

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