Term Life Insurance with High Blood Pressure

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Chris Huntley

Yes, it is possible to qualify for term life insurance with high blood pressure. As for the cost of life insurance, it will depend on how well controlled the blood pressure is and your average readings over the past one to two years.

It’s important to distinguish between having controlled and uncontrolled blood pressure. In both cases, you may be able to qualify for guaranteed term life insurance coverage, but all things equal, you’ll pay less if your blood pressure is controlled. Controlled simply means you’re taking a medication or having some other form of treatment.

Best Term Life Insurance Rates with Controlled Blood Pressure

A 50 Year Old Male with high blood pressure, who is otherwise in good health, would qualify for the following 20 year term life insurance rates:

Most Recent BP Reading Premium – (All Quotes for $500,000 Coverage)

130/84 $945 Per Year

135/ 89 $1120 Per Year

140/92 $1510 Per Year

155/94 $1820 Per Year

Can I Qualify for Term Life Insurance if I Take Medication?

Yes, if your pressure is controlled. Many people call us and tell us they have high blood pressure and are being treated for it. Upon further questioning, we find their most recent readings are normal. These are excellent candidates for preferred life insurance ratings, since these people don’t really have hypertension anymore; they have controlled blood pressure with treatment.

However, not all life insurance companies offer their best term life insurance rates if you take medications for hypertension, as seen below.

Best Companies to Buy Life Insurance from with Hypertension

There are many life insurance companies who will not only offer term life insurance with blood pressure treatment, but some will even offer their best available ratings if it is treated and has been stable for at least a few months. Some of these companies are Genworth, Banner Life, and Transamerica.

Transamerica is a bit odd in that if you’re 49 years old or younger, or over 81 years old, you can’t qualify for their best rating, Preferred Plus. You must be between the ages of 50-80 years old.

The key is to find a life insurance carrier who states in their underwriting guidelines their maximum blood pressure readings allowed “treated or untreated”. If they don’t state that they allow treatment in a specific health class, then they don’t allow treatment. Many companies state that they do NOT allow blood pressure medications in their best classes, such as Prudential/Pruco and ING/Reliastar.

If you apply to Prudential or ING and take meds for Blood Pressure, you cannot qualify for their best rate, Super Preferred. Their Super Preferred guidelines state “No history of treatment for hypertension”. Prudential’s “Preferred Best” guidelines read “Without Medication”. Both of these companies do allow treatment in their second best class, however.

Another company who I really like, but doesn’t allow treatment inside of their best class is West Coast Life.

Term Life Insurance with Uncontrolled Hypertension

An individual with controlled blood pressure sharply contrasts the individual who simply has high blood pressure, and isn’t treating it in any way. If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and you don’t do anything about it, you probably won’t qualify for the best life insurance rates.

“But I don’t take any medication!” — I hear this one all the time. Life insurance underwriters would actually prefer that you do take medication and get your blood pressure under control, than to let it go unchecked. If you are trying to control it with diet and exercise, it’s best if your doctor is on board and has noted this treatment in your medical records.

Your best bet to find preferred rates for term life insurance with high blood pressure is to follow your attending physician’s recommendations to a tee. Life insurance underwriters are not amused by individuals taking matters into their own hands, and going against their doctor’s prescribed treatment plan. Total compliance should be your goal.

What if I have Other Health Impairments?

While high blood pressure does put an individual at greater risk for strokes, heart disease, artherosclerosis (hardening of blood vessels), and kidney disease, we have already determined that insurance companies will still offer low cost term life insurance with blood pressure. However, this assumes there are no other medical risks involved.

If you’ve had a history of heart disease or diabetes, and have high blood pressure (controlled or uncontrolled) on top of that, your odds of qualifying for preferred rates are very low. If you smoke cigarettes or are obese, your mortality risks are greatly compounded with high blood pressure levels. So, it’s important to understand that when I say you can qualify for preferred rates with high blood pressure, this assumes all else is normal health wise.

Term Life Insurance for Males?

We have found over the years that many of the medical conditions that plague men, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, are conditions we have been very successful at helping people with. Since insuring individuals with these particular health risks has become a specialty of ours, we do end up writing more men than women. But yes, we do provide coverage for males and females. So if you are a female with high blood pressure, everything in this article will apply to you as well.

Applying for Term Life Insurance

Once you have used our instant quote form on the right, you may click one of the “request application” options, which will prompt a call from myself or one of our representatives. Most applications require a brief medical exam, although we do have No Exam options as well. The bottom line is we have helped hundreds of males and females apply for term life insurance with various medical problems, and are eager to help you too.

25 Year Term Life Insurance – Quotes and Description

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Chris Huntley

25 year term life insurance is a type of policy that offers guaranteed level premiums for a 25 year term duration.

After the initial term has expired, the premiums will increase mightily, so if you need coverage longer, you might consider a 30 year term or guaranteed universal life contract as an alternative.

Interesting Fact… Who Sells 25 Year Term Life Insurance???

Very few. I represent dozens of life insurance companies, and many of the large carriers do NOT offer a 25 year term option, such as Genworth, Prudential, and Met Life. All of the above offer 20 or 30 year policies, but not 25.

The companies who do offer a 25 year term policy are:

Savings Bank Life – the product name is “25 Year Term Guaranteed 25”
American General – Product name is “Select-A-Term 25”
ReliaStar/ING – Product name is “TermSmart 25”
Transamerica – “TransTerm UL 25”. Note: this is a term/universal life hybrid, which means at the end of the 25 year initial term, the policy automatically “converts” (you might say) to the underlying universal life policy structure on which it is built.
Protective Life – Product’s name is “Secure T 25 Year No Lapse UL”, and the same note applies here as to the TransTerm UL 25 above.

… and there may be a few more, but I don’t represent them.

Cost of a 25 Year Term Policy

As for cost, it will probably cost a bit more than 20 year term life insurance and a bit less than 30 year term. You can quickly get a quote using our form on the right. We have dozens of companies to compare, so you can be sure you’ll find the most competitive rate.

Be Careful! — Fewer Options means Less Competition

One word of advice. If you have any type of health history or any other risk factors such as hazardous occupation, travels, or hobbies, a history of drug or alcohol abuse, or mental health disorder such as PTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety/depression, be very careful about being narrow minded about “having to have” a 25 year term life insurance policy.

Remember that since only a handful of companies offer it, you may be shooting yourself in the foot by only having these companies to apply to. It’s very possible that a different company (such as Prudential, Genworth, or Met Life) would offer you a lower rate class than the companies offering 25 year term.

That could mean that for the same price or lower, you could purchase a 30 year term policy instead. Keep your options open and be sure to speak with a knowledgeable agent about your needs, as well as your health history.

We at Huntley Wealth Insurance are also happy to help with how to buy 25 year term insurance if you call us at 877-996-9383.

Thanks for reading our article. If you liked it, please share on Facebook or Google Plus 1.

Monumental Life Insurance Review

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Chris Huntley

I’ve been in the insurance industry for 7 years, and have heard some good things and bad things about Monumental Life Insurance. We don’t offer their products because we are an independent agency. We prefer to keep it that way so we can use any insurance carrier we want for a particular client.

This is not an option with Monumental, unfortunately, since they require their “career agents” to be captive, meaning they can only sell Monumental Life Insurance policies.

A bit of history on Monumental

They’ve been in business since 1858. They have quite an impressive line of insurance related products, including term life, interest sensitive whole life, cancer policies, and accident insurance. Generally speaking, due to their age and great size, they are considered one of the most respected life companies in the U.S.

A few Positives – Financial Strength

They are rated A+ by the rating agency A.M. Best, which is issued to those carriers with superior financial health. They also have over $88 billion of insurance in force, and over $32 billion in assets, both as of 2010 financial statements. Compare that to the insurance giant, Prudential , whose life insurance company (Pruco Life) has just over $22 billion in assets.

Another advantage of doing business with Monumental is their parent company is Aegon, same as parent company for Transamerica Life Insurance, Stonebridge Life Insurance Co. This is a multi-national, enormous company, so it’s hard to think of Monumental ever becoming insolvent under the Aegon Group.

Monumental Products – Term and Whole Life

They seem to offer a wide variety of products and payment plans. Of course Monumental, has your traditional term life insurance policies, but nothing out of the ordinary such as 25 year term life insurance, like ING Reliastar has.

Many reviews pointed to the fact that their whole life policies do grow nicely as far as cash accumulation is concerned, and at guaranteed rates to boot….(continued on page 2)

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Yes, You Can Still Qualify up to Age 85. Sample Quotes Below.

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Chris Huntley

Yes, you can still purchase life insurance between the ages of 81 to 85, and in some cases, even to age 90. Before reading too much below, let’s look at some sample cost of insurance rates.

I always feel it’s best to discuss life insurance pricing right out of the gate when dealing with my clients over age 80, since sometimes the premiums are prohibitive.

The quotes below are for a male age 81, 82, 83, etc in good health, who can qualify for the best health classification, and purchasing a 10 year term policy.

Age                        $100,000              $250,000
Male Age 81       $395                       $903 per month
Male Age 82       $453                       $1049 per month
Male Age 83       $531                       $1245 per month
Male Age 84       $620                       $1468 per month
Male Age 85       $718                       $1719 per month

Note: Life insurance for people over 80 listed above are valid as of 12/2/2011 and subject to change. Not available in all states, and based on Preferred Non Tobacco User.

Psst! As an added bonus, you can find out what my picks are for the best life insurance companies – click here to read more!

Please keep in mind you can also get quotes for $25,000 or $50,000. You don’t have to buy $100,000 if the premiums are out of your budget. Use our quote form on the right for a quick quote.

You should also be aware that if the cost of life insurance as a senior is prohibitive, you can potentially save thousands per year by purchasing a second-to-die policy, which only pays a death benefit upon the second death. This could be the perfect solution for a estate planning need or to leave an inheritance to your children.

How to Purchase Life Insurance at Ages 81 to 85

The key purchasing life insurance at age 82 or 84 years old, or any age for that matter, is your health. If you’re healthy and have had no history of serious medical impairments, such diabetes, COPD, or heart disease, you will pay a lower premium than the policyholder who has had medical problems.

Having said that, be sure to speak to an experienced independent agent such as myself, Chris Huntley, about your health history. A good agent will know which company will give the best health classification, and therefore lowest premium….(continued on page 2)

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