Functional Neurological Disorder & Life Insurance

We understand that having functional neurological can be a complicated illness to be diagnosed with. You are displaying neurological symptoms but no-one is able to give you a clear answer over what is going on.

When it comes to insurance, insurers quite like it if medical conditions have been given clear diagnoses. We are here to support you and find an insurer that is open to looking at your application for life insurance.

Things we need to know so that we can help:

• When did your symptoms start?
• What symptoms do you have?
• What tests have you had done?
• What medications do you take?
• Are you due any further tests?

When you have functional neurological disorder and apply for life insurance, your application will be looked at on an individual basis. This means that we cannot say what terms you might be offered, there’s no one set rule.

You and your symptoms are individual and the insurer will treat your application that way.

If your symptoms have been fully investigated and tests have shown no known neurological conditions, then life insurance may be available at normal terms.

This if most likely if your life insurance application is placed with specific insurers that can consider the cover for someone with FND. We research the market on your behalf to find the right insurer for you.

Normal terms may be available, but it is possible that the life insurance could come at an increased premium. This will be highly dependent upon your specific symptoms e.g. fibro fog, chronic fatigue, blackouts etc.

If you are currently under investigation to see if you have functional neurological disorder, your life insurance application may be postponed until your doctor has confirmed the diagnosis.

There are some specialist insurers that can be approached for life insurance, whilst you are still undergoing tests. We will talk you through all the options that are available to you. 

Critical illness cover pays out a cash lump sum of money, if you are diagnosed with a medical condition that is listed in the insurer’s claims set e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke.

Critical illness cover for people living with functional neurological disorder will need to be placed with carefully selected insurers.

It is likely that most offers of critical illness cover will come with sort of an exclusion. to the policy claims set. It may be possible to find a policy without an exclusion, but a high premium instead.

This is because there are quite a few neurological conditions within critical illness contracts e.g. stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis. As you already have neurological symptoms you are seen as being at a higher risk to develop further conditions, even if these have been ruled out for the moment.

The insurer will base their decision upon they types of symptoms that you have, how often you have them and how much they affect your day to day living.

It is possible that some symptoms may lead some insurers to decline critical illness cover. Our expert advisers are here to help you and we can place your cover with specialist insurers, if that is needed.

Income protection pays you a replacement of your monthly income, if you are unable to work due to ill health.

When you apply for income protection and have functional neurological disorder, the insurer will want to know if the condition has caused you to have time off work.

For someone that has mild an infrequent symptoms, income protection may be available with an exclusion to the claims set. This would mean that you can have income protection, but it will not cover claims relating to the FND.

If you have had regular time off work, experience excessive tiredness or have significant muscle pain, it is likely that your options for income protection will be limited. You may even find that you are declined income protection with many insurers.

There are a number of specialist options that we can research for you. We will let you know what is available and give you our honest opinion, if we think it is worthwhile. When you speak with us there are no obligations or tie-ins, to taking out a policy.

For people that are declined long-term income protection, there is the potential of an Accident, Sickness and Unemployment policy. These short-term policies offer you 12-24 months income replacement if you are unable to work due to long-term injury, disability or involuntary redundancy.

You can arrange one of these policies regardless of the FND, but you must be fully aware that any claim related to your existing health will be excluded from the claims set.

When you go on holiday it is a good idea to make sure that your insurances are right for you and your health. To find out more, please visit our travel page here.