International Men's Day 2022 - protection insurance

International Men’s Day 2022 – protection insurance

Being physically born a man comes with a number of unique medical conditions, as well as others that you might just be more susceptible to. What’s important is knowing what those conditions are and how, if possible, you could avoid them or relieve symptoms. 

Another thing to bear in mind is how they might play a role in other aspects of your life, such as applying for protection insurance. Protection insurance can be super helpful, and really can ease some of the money worries you might have about the future. In this blog, we are going to talk about a couple of the common medical conditions that men come to us with, and what you might expect when applying for insurance.

Prostate or Testicular Cancer

Receiving a diagnosis of prostate or testicular cancer can have a complete range of different outcomes when you apply for protection insurance. Sometimes the insurers aren’t too concerned as your body has responded well to treatment, other times it might be that insurers decide that they can’t offer you the cover. Everyone is individual and the insurer will review your personal circumstances to make their decision. 

There are some things that the insurer will want to know about your cancer:

• When were you diagnosed with cancer?
• Testicular Cancer – What was the stage and grade of the cancer?
• Prostate Cancer – What was your PSA reading when you were diagnosed, what is your PSA reading now?
• Prostate Cancer – What was your Gleason score when you were diagnosed, what is your Gleason score now?
• What treatment did you receive?
• When did you last receive treatment?
• Do you have any long-term symptoms?
  
  

It’s important that the insurer has all of the information that they need, so that they can fully assess your application.

If a while has passed since your treatment, it could be that you’re offered life insurance with standard terms, meaning there’s no price increase. If the cancer was a high stage or grade, or you’ve had treatment recently, you might see a price increase on the policy. If you do find that your premiums have increased, don’t assume that this is the price forever. It’s important to review your policy regularly and the more time that has passed since your diagnosis, the more likely it is that you will get better terms of cover.

Critical illness cover isn’t quite as straightforward but is possible. This is similar to life insurance in the sense that if a while has passed you might see standard rates, but there could be a price increase or exclusion if the cancer was more recent or it was a higher grade or stage.

As well as the questions mentioned already, the insurer will want to know if you have had any time off work over the past few years from being ill if you’re applying for income protection. Income protection policies tend to come with a price increase or exclusion if you have previously been diagnosed with cancer.

With all of these details above we have been talking about personal protection insurance, ones that you set up for yourself and pay for out of your own money. There can be a lot more options available if you are able to access what is known as group protection insurance. This is arranged through a Ltd company and it can make it much easier and cost effective to access life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection.

Mental Health

We have arranged many life insurance policies for people with a mental health condition, the terms that you might be offered are dependent on your own individual circumstances. Again, there are certain questions which come up on most applications:

• What is the mental health condition?
• When were you diagnosed? 
• Do you take any medication? 
• Have you tried any therapies or seen a healthcare professional?
  
  

There are also some other questions that can be more sensitive, such as about self-harm and attempted suicide. The insurer is wanting to see a full clear picture of your health and your mental health condition, which is why it might seem like they ask a lot of questions during the application process.

For life insurance, there are some insurers that might offer you standard rates, or potentially a price increase, depending upon your mental health history. It completely depends on the condition that you have. For example, depression or anxiety might be accepted straight away by an insurer. For any condition, it really comes down to the symptoms that you have had, when you last had symptoms and the type of treatment that you had.

An application for critical illness cover is very similar and will ask roughly the same questions. An income protection policy might also be available to you but in many circumstances it can come with a mental health exclusion on the policy claims set. If there have been recent symptoms (within the last 3 years or so), the insurer is likely to add an exclusion of any claims relating to mental health.

With cancers or mental health conditions, there are specialist insurers that we can apply to if we haven’t yet found a policy that really suits your needs. This is something that one of our advisers can look into for you.

Applying for protection insurance might be daunting, but we like to think that we’re there to help make it that bit easier for you. Our advisers help to complete the application and will chase it’s progress right until the insurer has made a decision. They’re also on hand to answer any questions, no matter how big or small.

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