Life Insurance Applications

Let's break these down so that you are ready to complete one with your adviser or even on your own.

An insurance application is used for the insurer to assess current or past medical conditions along with potential medical conditions that may mean that they are at a risk, due to pre-existing conditions, to have to pay a claim. The form they require will ask questions about your personal medical history, discussions with your doctor, past symptoms, and outcomes, to help determine their risk in insuring you based on this history.

The below are prompts to think about the conditions and questions that will appear in the application.

Here are some application tips:

• Let your adviser know if you would like them to request a schedule of claims you have made with ACC to be emailed to you, in order to be sure you don’t miss disclosing anything to the insurer.

• Disclosure includes discussions of conditions you’ve had with your GP or sought medical advice and treatment for. It also includes signs, symptoms, screening, tests and investigations you have undergone

• For example:

- If you have spoken to your GP about a fast heart rate which is fine now and didn’t require any investigations, you must disclose this.

- If you have had contraception prescribed for heavy periods and your periods are fine now as a result, you must disclose this.

- If you have discussed a sore knee with your GP, but your knee is now fine, you should disclose this.

- If you had raised glands or were tired and underwent blood screening, you must declare this even if your Doctor told you the results were fine.

• Use ‘other medical condition’ if you can’t find what you are looking for, there are free text boxes to provide details.  Please include date of first and last symptoms when doing this.

• The ‘other medical condition’ box is also useful if you would like to provide context regarding your history or current status.  Often the questions head you towards something much more serious than your symptom. Mental Health is a good example where we regularly do this.