Your weight is one of the many factors that affect the price you pay for life insurance. Your overall health may be perfect but if you are overweight, you might have a difficult time getting affordable life insurance. If you have a healthy weight, you don’t need to worry much about your insurance deals at all. Being overweight does not only affect your way of life and health, but it can also influence your policy approval rate and insurance premium. You need not be obese but if your weight reaches a certain level, you will have to pay more. Generally, the heavier you are, the more you’ll pay. Insurance companies don’t just take into consideration your weight alone. They consider your build – your weight relative to your height. The American Medical Association has come out with a table provides the desirable weight range based on height. Most insurance companies use this table. If you are just a little overweight, like 10 pounds, you may not be charged more but if you are severely overweight, you might have to pay a very high premium. The more you weigh in relation to your height, the more potential you have for health problems.
Insurance companies are generally most concerned if your condition will affect your life expectancy and make you a high death risk. Overweight people tend to have insurance risks because they are likely to develop health problems as they grow older. Most of the people with weight problems do have other health problems, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Some insurance companies may even deny your application if you are grossly overweight or dramatically obese, even if you do not have any other health problems. But there is hope if you are overweight. There are insurance companies and agents specializing in insuring overweight people and offer you their standard rates even if you are overweight by 40 – 60 pounds. These insurance companies and agents offer policies with graded death benefit. The policy pays out varying amounts depending on how long you live. The longer you live, the more money your beneficiaries receive. Another option would be to go in for a guaranteed issue life insurance. Guaranteed issue life insurance is a policy that’s guaranteed to anyone without regard to health conditions. There are no medical exams and no medical questions. So the issue of your weight does not arise.
Never lie about your weight to the insurance company. You will be caught during the medical exam. Also don’t try to loose weight just prior to applying for life insurance. Weight gain or loss is a question on all insurance application. Insurance companies like to see a stable weight for 1 full year.
