WHAT SMOKERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BUYING LIFE INSURANCE
If you enjoy smoking, you probably know that it can impact your health. But did you know you will likely end up paying significantly more for life insurance if you smoke? Because life insurance is often an important part of a financial plan, it’s important to understand what to expect if you’re a smoker or use other nicotine and are shopping for coverage.
Why Do Smokers Have Different Life Insurance Rates?
Life expectancy is the basis for life insurance rates. So factors that impact your potential “mortality,” or life insurance expectancy, are factored into life insurance quotes.
So what counts as smoking? Cigarettes are an obvious candidate. But there are many other forms of “nicotine delivery systems” that can peg you as a “smoker,” “tobacco user” or “nicotine user” when you’re shopping for life insurance:
- Vaping & e-cigarettes
- Cigars
- Pipes
- Hookahs
How Do Life Insurance Companies Find Out That You’re a Smoker?
When you fill out a life insurance application, it’s crucial to be truthful with all your answers. Life insurance companies have many ways to verify everything you’ve stated on the application.
A primary method of verification is with a life insurance medical exam, which typically includes taking blood and urine samples. These samples will reveal cotinine in your system, which is a byproduct of nicotine. Continine can also be detected in saliva and hair samples. But testing for cotinine isn’t foolproof. Smokers may be able to slip through if they haven’t smoked in a day or two.
What if I Start Smoking After I Buy Life Insurance?
Once you buy a policy, a life insurance company can’t raise your rates. So if you start deep-sea diving or smoking afterward, you’ll still enjoy the life insurance rates you already locked in. The same is true for health conditions you develop after buying a policy.
The risk for life insurers that you’ll start smoking later in life is pretty low. Nearly 90% of cigarette smokers first try cigarettes before age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control
What If I Quit Smoking Later?
If you purchased life insurance at a smoking rate and have now quit for at least a year, you may be able to get a better price. You can ask your life insurance company how long you have to quit to be considered a non-smoker.
If you’ve passed that time threshold, you can ask for the rate to be reconsidered. That means you’ll make a new life insurance medical exam and your health will be re-evaluated. If you’ve also developed new medical conditions in the interim, those will factor into the new rate, too. So keep in mind that getting a re-rating isn’t necessarily a slam dunk after you’ve quit smoking.
How to Find the Best Life Insurance Smoking Rates
The key to finding the best life insurance rates whether you use nicotine or not is shopping around. By getting at least a few life insurance quotes you’ll get a sense of what’s a good deal.
Independent life insurance can help you shop the market and get quotes from companies that tend to be nicotine-friendly.