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There’s no denying the fact that if you have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than, say 30, it gets harder to obtain life insurance. At this level, you are considered to be ‘medically obese’, and not only might you have to pay a higher premium, but some insurers might automatically reject your application should you apply to them directly.
Your BMI number – your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in metres – is an important consideration for life insurers when deciding whether to offer cover and at what price. They will, however, also consider other factors, such as your age, your personal medical history and the medical history of your close relatives.
The solution here might be to approach a specialist broker such as Moneysworth. We specialise in finding life insurance for clients whose circumstances are a little different – perhaps because they reside overseas, have a riskier occupation or have a mental or physical health concern. We have an extensive knowledge of the criteria used by different insurers and can identify the provider who will offer you the most suitable cover. For example, not all insurers have the same ‘maximum BMI’, so if one provider tells you your BMI is too high, we can approach another insurer on your behalf.
On 2nd August 2023, we were endorsed in the national press (the Daily Mail) as an example of a specialist broker who can assist in situations such as this. Alan Lakey, director at Highclere Financial Services, and a respected name in the life insurance sector, listed us as one of three specialist companies who can assist clients with high BMI and with other health issues.
When we look at 15 life insurance companies used by Moneysworth, we see that:
It’s also important to consider the BMI level that would prompt an insurer to increase your premium. Again, the precise threshold varies between different providers, but most will require you to pay more if your BMI is 32 or above, and some will ‘load’ your premium for a BMI as low as 29.
It’s very difficult for the average consumer to gain a detailed understanding of individual insurers’ criteria. If you have a high BMI, your best option is to make use of a specialist broker such as Moneysworth. We can use our detailed knowledge of insurers’ criteria to find you the very best price available, by approaching the insurers who are likely to consider your application favourably.
Here, it was immediately apparent that a number of insurers were prepared to offer cover to both clients. Where Moneysworth’s specialist knowledge benefitted the clients was that we knew exactly by how much each insurer would increase the premium. Had the clients simply searched a price comparison website and applied to what appeared to be the cheapest provider, this provider may no longer have been the cheapest option once their final offer of terms had been made.
In this case, both partners took out £113,000 of cover over 40 years. The female client’s premium was £12.58 per month, while the male client needs to pay just £9.04.
Then, as a more extreme example of how we can help:
After researching their situation, we told them that while most insurance companies would still say no, we believed we had found a company who might say yes. The insurance company wrote to the client’s GP for a report and the client also attended a brief medical screening. The insurance company was happy with the results and made a definite offer of cover, which the client was happy to accept, of £56,075 decreasing life cover over 20 years for £50 per month.
If you have approached insurers directly and been declined, or have been told by another broker that you can’t get life insurance due to your BMI or any other health issue, then contact Moneysworth today to see how we can help.
Moneysworth director Tim Boddy (centre) receives the Best Small Intermediary award from Jon Brazier, Editor of COVER, and Lucy Porter, the comedian who hosted the event
Moneysworth is thrilled to have scooped two prestigious industry awards in the space of a month.
COVER Magazine’s Excellence Awards ceremony in early November saw us named as the winner in the Small Intermediary of the Year category, an award which is open to smaller companies that arrange life and health protection insurance.
At the same ceremony, we were also shortlisted for two more awards: Outstanding Client Engagement and Outstanding Specialist Intermediary.
This awards success is recognition of our fantastic advice offering and the first-class administrative support we provide all the way from initial enquiry to the point of completion. The judges have also acknowledged the quality of our specialist service where we assist applicants with medical conditions, as well as applicants who are non-UK residents, to obtain life insurance and other protection.
The success at the COVER awards comes just weeks after we landed the Health & Protection Award for Best Small Protection Advice Firm for the second year in succession. Although we have been successful at both of these ceremonies in the past, 2023 marks the first year when we have won an award from both of these organisations.
The COVER judges chose Moneysworth because of our “dedication to securing results for vulnerable clients and those that have struggled to secure cover elsewhere.”
When presenting the Health & Protection award, the judges praised Moneysworth for our commitment to handling “more complex cases” and remarked that we had received “powerful testimonials” from satisfied clients.
We were also shortlisted in the Best Individual Advice Firm category at the Health & Protection ceremony. This award category was open to insurance brokers of all sizes.
Moneysworth director Tim Boddy commented:
“We are delighted to have won this year’s Cover Excellence Award for Small Protection Intermediary of the Year. It is a fantastic achievement and deserved recognition for our dedicated team, who work incredibly hard to ensure our clients receive good outcomes from insurers. This year we also won the same accolade at the Health & Protection Awards, so for the industry to honour us twice in this way really reinforces the feeling that we are getting things right!”
No client circumstances are too complex for Moneysworth and we regularly assist clients with serious medical conditions to obtain the insurance they require. We can also source appropriate life cover for clients who reside outside of the UK.
The industry experts at both awards have recognised that we offer the highest levels of advice and customer service, so if you are a consumer seeking life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance, get in touch with us today.
If you work for a financial services firm, then you can rest assured that your clients will be in safe hands if you introduce them to Moneysworth, so again, please contact us to find out more about what we can offer.
You may be aware of the Consumer Duty, which was introduced by our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), on 31st July 2023.
The Consumer Duty places new obligations on financial services firms to take positive actions to ensure they deliver good outcomes for their clients.
One of the main things the FCA wants to see from firms is known as the ‘price and value outcome’. This relates to whether retail customers are receiving ‘fair value’ for a product or service.
The ‘price’ part of this is easy to address, as when you approach Moneysworth for advice on your life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance needs, you won’t need to pay a fee at any point.
When it comes to delivering ‘value’ to our clients, we promise to:
Our commitment to providing value for our clients also means that we will do our very best to find insurance for you, regardless of your circumstances. We can never guarantee that we will be successful in finding an insurer to accept you, but there are many occasions in the past when we have been successful in securing cover for clients with all manner of different medical conditions.
If you have a medical condition, then it might be the case that the choice of insurers is limited, and you may also need to pay an increased premium. We promise, however, to find the most competitive premium available in the marketplace.
We also have extensive experience of finding cover for people who reside outside of the UK. Once again, these cases can be more complex, but we undertake to provide the very best service and find the best policy available.
If you have been told by another broker that you won’t be able to get life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance due to your health condition, or due to any other reason, then contact Moneysworth today to see how we can help.
You don’t have to have complex circumstances, such as a health condition or being an overseas resident, to be a Moneysworth client either. To get the very best advice on your life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance needs, contact us today and one of our experienced and knowledgeable advisers will be in touch.
Moneysworth is delighted to announce that it has won the Health & Protection Award for Best Small Protection Advice Firm for the second year in succession.
Health & Protection is a leading publication for intermediaries, consultants and brokers in the world of healthcare, protection and financial advice.
This is deserved recognition of the efforts of our directors, advisers and administrators and a fantastic acknowledgement of the quality of service we provide to our clients.
When presenting the award, the judges praised Moneysworth for our commitment to handling “more complex cases” and remarked that we had received “powerful testimonials” from satisfied clients.
No client circumstances are too complex for Moneysworth and we regularly assist clients with serious medical conditions to obtain the insurance they require. We can also source appropriate life cover for clients who reside outside of the UK.
We were also shortlisted in the Best Individual Advice Firm category at the same ceremony. This award category was open to insurance brokers of all sizes.
2nd November could be another very exciting evening for Moneysworth, as we have been shortlisted in as many as three different categories in the Excellence Awards of insurance industry publication COVER.
These categories are:
The industry experts at Health & Protection have recognised that we offer the highest levels of advice and customer service, so if you are a consumer seeking life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance, get in touch with us today.
If you work for a financial services firm, then you can rest assured that your clients will be in safe hands if you introduce them to Moneysworth, so again, please contact us to find out more about what we can offer.
When you think of protection insurance, your first thought might be life insurance. Life cover is certainly important to make sure your family don’t lose out financially, should the worst happen.
Ideally, you should have life cover for the following eventualities:
While life insurance is undoubtedly important, don’t underestimate the importance of critical illness and income protection insurance.
Critical illness insurance provides a lump sum should you contract a serious illness, such as heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and more advanced cancers. This lump sum can then be used to pay off your mortgage and/or to pay medical and care costs and/or to convert your home to make domestic arrangements easier while you are ill.
Another valuable feature of critical illness is that you can also cover your children, so that you receive a sum of money if one of them was diagnosed with a serious illness.
Income protection insurance pays a replacement income should you be unable to work for an extended period due to accident or sickness. Income protection can either be long-term, i.e. it will pay out until the policy ends or you go back to work; or short-term, where the length of time it pays out for is limited to perhaps one, two or five years.
These types of insurance can be of benefit to almost anybody. Anyone can contract a critical illness, and anyone can become ill and need to take time off work, indeed you probably know someone who has been forced to do this at some stage.
If you are single with no dependants, then you might also have little need for life cover, especially if you also don’t have a mortgage. Critical illness and income protection might therefore be a higher priority.
Unfortunately, serious illnesses are far from uncommon. For example, Cancer Research UK says that 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every day. The British Heart Foundation claims that 260 people will need to be admitted to hospital today, as a result of a heart attack. Leading insurer LV asserts that a 30-year old man has a 21% chance of contracting a serious illness before age 70.
Life insurance policies only pay out when you die, or if a medical professional believes you have a terminal illness that will lead to death within 12 months. Cancer Research UK also says that 50% of people diagnosed with cancer live for at least 10 years. This means that people are increasingly likely to survive critical illnesses and to require medical and other assistance for several years while living with the condition.
This is a different type of insurance that normally only covers the direct costs of your treatment. You need critical illness insurance if you want to pay for longer-term care, or to modify your home, or to pay off your mortgage.
This may be true, but remember that they might need to stop work, or at least reduce their working hours, to do this, thus reducing the household income significantly. You might also need specialist nursing care that only a healthcare professional can provide, or you might want to pay for modifications to your home to help with your domestic living arrangements while you are ill. It’s also great to have the peace of mind that your mortgage will be paid off if you become critically ill.
The insurers Moneysworth typically uses all had payout rates of between 87% and 98% for critical illness insurance claims, according to their most recent annual statistics.
Large numbers of people need to take time off work due to illness, indeed you may well know someone who has had to do this recently. Government data shows that, at the time of writing, 2.5 million people of working age in the UK are on long-term sick leave.
Many employers do give you sick pay for a certain time, but how many will carry on paying you for several years? You might need to check your employee handbook very carefully. Even if you know of a colleague who was paid in full for a six-month absence, it is possible that the company did so on a discretionary basis, and that it was not contractually obliged to do so.
One of the best things about income protection policies is that they come with a range of ‘deferred periods’. The deferred period is the length of time for which you need to be off work before the policy starts to pay out. If your employer doesn’t give you any sick pay, you can select a deferred period of four weeks (usually the shortest deferred period available with this type of insurance). If your employer will give you full pay for three months, you can choose a 13-week deferred period.
At the time of writing, state support for those on sick leave is just £109.40 per week, which is clearly a very limited amount. The application process for this benefit can also be very complex.
Income protection premiums can be fairly significant, but this is because the insurer might need to keep paying a significant proportion of your salary for the rest of your working life, in the worst case scenario. Consider that, in return for your premium, you get considerable peace of mind. If affordability is an issue, we can look to arrange a cheaper short-term policy for you, where the payout period might be capped at one, two or five years.
Many insurers will still offer this cover to the self-employed. Also, if you’re thinking that you could still generate an income from the business if you were ill, consider carefully how realistic this is. If it’s a small business and you are a senior manager, it could well be the case that the business is severely affected by your absence.
The insurers Moneysworth typically uses all had payout rates of between 81% and 93% for income protection insurance claims, according to their most recent annual statistics.
Moneysworth are experts in arranging critical illness and income protection insurance. We are a whole-of-market specialist protection broker and we can search the entire marketplace to find the most suitable product and provider for your individual circumstances. Contact us today to find out more.
Moneysworth is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted in as many as three different categories in the Excellence Awards of insurance industry publication COVER.
These categories are:
This is deserved recognition of the efforts of our staff and a fantastic acknowledgement of the quality of service we provide to our clients.
Moneysworth now looks forward to the awards ceremony on 2nd November, when hopefully there will be further good news!
Before then, Moneysworth is shortlisted in the Best Small Protection Advice Firm and Best Individual Advice Firm categories at the Health & Protection Awards. That ceremony takes place next week, on 11th October.
The expert judging panels have recognised that we offer the highest levels of advice and customer service, so if you are a consumer seeking life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance, get in touch with us today.
If you work for a financial services firm, then you can rest assured that your clients will be in safe hands if you introduce them to Moneysworth, so again, please contact us to find out more about what we can offer.