Family First Life is a insurance marketing organization that provides individuals with various policies, such as life insurance and final expense coverage. In the following article, Family First Life reviews what underwriting is and what it entails.
Life insurance is a must-have for anyone with financial dependents or debts that might not be paid off before death. However, before an individual can get the life insurance they need, they must undergo underwriting — a process that insurers utilize to establish whether an applicant is eligible for coverage.
Family First Life reviews when it comes to life insurance, mortgages, and other types of loans or protections, underwriting is a necessity. Despite this, the majority of the US population is unsure about underwriting, what it entails, and how it works.
Understanding Underwriting
Underwriting is unavoidable; every life insurance applicant must go through it to allow the provider to determine whether they’re insurable, how much they’re covered for, and the costs. While many who’ve endured the process believe it’s far too long-winded, it’s designed to give policyholders the best coverage at the fairest price.
Age, current health, gender, hobbies, lifestyle, medical history, family history, and more are utilized during the underwriting process to establish an applicant’s risk profile.
Family First Life notes that mortality risk is one of the main influential factors of insurance eligibility and cost. Underwriters determine the increased likelihood of someone dying in comparison to others of the same age and gender.
Underwriting’s Inner Workings
Applicants have two underwriting options — full (i.e., traditional) or accelerated. Both require personal information like health and financial histories, prescription histories, and motor vehicle reports.
Taking the Traditional Tract
The traditional method involves a medical exam involving measurements of height, weight, pulse, blood pressure, blood tests, and urine samples.
Family First Life reviews that applicants should expect to wait between 45 and 60 days for the underwriter to complete the process. However, this path guarantees them the best possible price, provided their general health is positive.
Taking the Accelerated Tract
The accelerated option is more streamlined, allowing applicants to skip medical exams and blood/urine tests. By incorporating advanced technologies like algorithms, underwriters predict relative mortality rates, allowing candidates to speed through the process and obtain rapid coverage.
Although, experts encourage citizens to note that they must be no older than 60 and in overall good health to qualify for the accelerated option.
Underwriters: Establishing Applicant Risk and Coverage Eligibility
The main role of the underwriter is to establish applicant risk and ensure they get the right level of coverage with a fair premium. Family First Life reviews that effectively doing this requires them to utilize various records and request a truthfully completed survey covering everything from illicit drug use to smoking to alcohol consumption to family history to driving.
Family First Life reviews that underwriters trust that applicants offer accurate information when completing the roughly 60-question application form. However, they must always be mindful of potential mistruths as well. Thus, they’ve put some safety measures in place, including:
- Supporting evidence for tobacco usage and other important topics
- Lab tests for insights into an individual’s current health and indicators of potential key-organ problems
- Health records
- Pharmaceutical databases
- Financial statements
- Public records
- Motor vehicle reports
Every question serves a purpose, and each one is designed to give applicants an accurate premium price.
Acquiring Medical History for Accurate Underwriting
Medical history is perhaps the one component that applicants fear the most. However, while it does play a significant role in their eligibility and premium cost, insurers don’t expect many people to have squeaky-clean health histories.
Family First Life reviews that, regardless of any current medical issues, individuals shouldn’t wait to obtain life insurance. After all, premiums increase up to 5% every year as one ages, and ratings aren’t stuck with applicants forever — if their health improves, so do their ratings.
Time is precious, and it will pass whether people are insured or not. Thus, now is always the right time to obtain a policy, no matter the underlying health concern.
Streamlining the Underwriting Process
Even though traditional underwriting seems time-consuming and intense, applicants can streamline it. In fact, they can increase the speed of the accelerated tract in the same way, and all they have to do is gather their health information before they begin their application.
Family First Life reviews that providing an accurate, up-to-date health summary boosts the chances of approval, ensures proper coverage, and guarantees fair premium prices. Underwriting is not there to hinder progress, but rather to protect applicants in obtaining financial protection for their families. Be sure to also check out Flex Card Benefits.
