Autism & Life Insurance

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Autism & Life Insurance

In 2021 I was was diagnosed with autism after many years of wondering why I am not the ‘same’ as other people. Autism can be something that comes up when you are applying for life insurance, and I will explain how.

When you approach an insurer for life insurance they will not directly ask you about your autism but they will often ask:

Have you ever seen a psychiatrist?

At this stage you will typically need to answer yes and this can lead to other questions, at which point your autism will be discussed. To help the insurer understand your health it’s useful to share:

When you were diagnosed with autism
If the autism affects your ability to work or do day to day tasks
Any medical conditions that you might have such as anxiety

There can be more questions than this but these are a really good starting point.

Autism is a spectrum disorder and people that are diagnosed as autistic will sit somewhere upon this spectrum. There are different options for life insurance for people living with autism depending upon their specific experiences and the insurance that is needed.

To explain this a bit more, when life insurance is arranged there is meant to be an ‘insurable interest’. This means that there is someone that is going to be financially affected by you dying.

For someone that is living with autism, that is able to work, earn a living and has someone that would struggle financially if they are not there, then life insurance can be needed. This can be situations like when there is a mortgage and a partner and children would need financial support to repay or fully pay off the mortgage.

For many people living with autism, life insurance can often be available at standard rates.

There are however times that people living with autism are not in the situation that I have described above. We are sometimes approached by parents that have children over the age of 18, that would like life insurance for their autistic child. This is usually where their child needs dedicated support and they are acting as a carer, or the child is in a specific care facility.

Life insurance can sometimes be available in these situations but it’s very likely that more specialist policies are needed. The life insurance policy will typically have a value of £10,000 or less. Our advisers will also ask in these circumstances for powers of attorney, so that we can put the life insurance in place.

Autism & Life Insurance Podcast

I have a podcast where I regularly chat to a consultant underwriter about the way insurance works, when you have to answer ‘yes’ to the health questions. Here is the one that we did on neurodiversity.

Autism & Critical Illness Cover

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.

When you apply for critical illness cover a lot of the questions are the same as when you apply for life insurance. It’s likely that your autism diagnosis will be disclosed under the have you ever seen a psychiatrist question. This question is often bundled into questions regarding mental health. Insurers are very aware that autism is a neurological condition, it’s just unfortunately the way that the systems are set up.

The majority of insurers will want to know how your autism presents and what that means specifically for you. Critical illness cover is likely to be offered at normal terms for people that are living with autism and it does not significantly impact their day to day life.

For people living with autism that do require some additional support or assistance from carers, it might be that critical illness cover needs to be placed with a specialist insurer.

Our advisers will find the right insurer for you.

Get a Critical Illness Cover Quote

Autism & Income Protection

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

Income protection has been an interesting policy to look at for people living with autism. Insurers are quite on top of placing exclusions on income protections policies if someone has a disclosure that fits within the medical questions that they ask. That being said, autism should not be an automatic exclusion on your income protection policy. Picking the right insurer is key!

The main things the insurers are going to want to know is if you have had any specific sick leave from work due to your autism. This is something that income protection insurers check with most disclosures that are made in the health questions that they ask. Some insurers might want to place an exclusion for any claim relating to your autism, depending upon how your neurodiversity has affected your ability to work in the past.

Our advisers will find the right insurer for you to get the income protection that you need.

Get an Income Protection Quote

Autism & Travel Insurance

We work alongside a specialist travel insurance broker that can offer you a no-obligation quotation. Using a specialist adviser in this area can you give the confidence when you’re on holiday that you are properly protected. Find out more by visiting our travel page here.

What is Autism?

Autism is a neurological development that affects people in different ways. Autism is something that a person is born with it is not caused by vaccines or diet, it is simply the way that a person is. People that are autistic are called neurodiverse and people that are not autistic are called neurotypical.

Also: Asperger’s Syndrome, autism spectrum condition, autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)

Linked with: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, anxiety, depression, Tourette’s Syndrome, epilepsy, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Possible Effects on Lifestyle

Some potential problems experienced by individuals that have Autism include:

Periods of being non-verbal, or permanently non-verbal
Feelings of isolation and being misunderstood
Sensory overload
Difficulty in being able to work
Difficulty in regulating and expressing emotions
Social interaction

Medications and Treatments

Anticonvulsants
Counselling
Melatonin
Methylphenidate
Occupational therapy
Psychosocial treatment
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)

Common Questions

1. I am autistic and I want to know what the insurers are going to ask me when I apply for life insurance. What can you tell me?

Hi, thank you for reaching out to us. When you apply for life insurance the insurer is likely going to ask you when you received your diagnosis, any treatments or support that you have, and possibly some details of the way that your autism specifically affects your day to day living.

In the not so distant past some insurers used to ask about the IQ of a person that is autistic and applying for insurance. Fortunately, insurers have moved on from this outdated view of autism and policies like life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection can potentially be arranged at standard terms.

2. I am looking for life insurance for my son, can you arrange this?

Hi, it’s lovely to hear from you. In some circumstances yes we can arrange the life insurance for you, but it really depends upon what you are wanting to look at. If your son is able to communicate with us and we can go through our advice process with him, there can be a few options that we can look at.

If your son is not able to communicate with us, we will need to look at a specific advice route to support him in the best way possible. For ourselves if you are wanting life insurance for your son he will need to be 18 years old or older and you will need to have a power of attorney in place. We can then potentially look at life insurance policies to cover funeral expenses and some other insurances that can provide him with some health related claims.

Client Reviews

Cura Financial Services has been rated 5 out of 5 based on 808 reviews.

Review by Alasdair on 13th February 2023

“Superb service and recommendations and extremely professional. Cura took the time to listen to our circumstances, research the policies available and give us a number of options for varying amounts of cover and cost. They went through everything clearly and patiently with us and were happy to make recommendations enabling us to make the right decisions for us. They were available to assist with filling in forms, were patient and not pushy whilst we took the time to do this and we have ended up extremely happy with both the policy and the service they provide. Many thanks to both Ellice and Alan for their hard work and patience, when the time comes to change the policy we will certainly contact Cura again.” - 5 

You can read more of our reviews here.

Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd

Author
This page was written by Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd, an award-winning insurance adviser. To read more about Kathryn please see her bio here

Client Reviews

"Alan and his team were great! Alan helped get me cover where my own company could not (I work in financial services too!) Would highly recommend and will come back in the future."

"Krystle was fantastic throughout and managed to knock almost 50% off my current life insurance premium."

"Leanne couldn't have been more helpful and thoughtful with her questions and work on my enquiry."

"Kathryn and her colleagues were very helpful because of my recent illness."

"Nick was my advisor, Excellent knowledge of products and what I needed, not just pushing me into a sale/policy, will always refer to him in the future."

"I would like to say a very big thank you especially to Amy you really went above and beyond."

"Annaliese was absolutely fantastic, making us both feel at ease and helping us navigate issues that had caused us problems with previous attempts to obtain insurance."