Finding the perfect life insurance plan can be a confusing process. When you apply for life insurance, the company is going to review dozens of different factors to decide how much they are going to charge you for protection. They are going to look at everything from your health to your job.
One factor that they will review is your criminal records, and if you've been convicted in the past, it could play a huge role in your life insurance search. It's important that you understand the different factors of your life insurance and find the best plan to protect your loved ones.
When you apply for coverage, it's the insurance company's job to decide how much risk that you are to accept for life insurance. The more risk that you are, the more that they are going to charge you for insurance. If you have a criminal record, it's going to cause you to be more of a risk. There are several different factors that the insurance company is going to look at in regards to your criminal records.
One important thing that they are going to ask is when were you convicted and what the sentence was. If the criminal activity was decades ago, and you don't have any more red flags since then, you won't be considered as big of a risk. On the other hand, if you were just convicted in the past couple of years, then you'll be a high-risk applicant, and it could get you declined for coverage. Studies show that half of the people that are released from prison end up back in prison within the first three years. Life insurance companies know that. They want to see that you've changed your life around before they give you coverage.
They will also look at the type of criminal activity. If it was a misdemeanor, it won't be looked at as severely as a felony. If you've been convicted of a felony, you're going to have a very difficult time being approved for a traditional insurance policy. That doesn't mean that you can't get life insurance, it just means that it's going to be more difficult and your choices might be limited.
If you've applied for life insurance in the past and were rejected, don't assume that you're out of options or that you can't find a quality insurance plan. There are still several ways that you can protect your family at an affordable rate.
When you're shopping for life insurance, it's important to understand why you were rejected for life insurance, to begin with. Your criminal record might be one of the many reasons that you were declined in the past. Your criminal record is one of the factors that the insurance company is going to review when you apply for coverage. They will also look at your health or any pre-existing conditions that you have or if you use tobacco.
For example, let's say that you're in poor health, a smoker, and have several misdemeanors in the past several years. More than likely, you'll get declined for coverage, or you'll pay a sky-high premium every month. If you fall into those categories, you have several options to get life insurance. You can either improve your health and quit smoking (which will save you thousands of dollars on your life insurance policy), or you can purchase a no exam or guaranteed issue policy. As you can probably guess from the name, no exam plans allow you to get insurance protection without having to take the medical exam. For some applicants, this could be the best way to get coverage. It's important to note that the insurance company will still see your criminal record, but they won't get a picture of your current health.
Getting life insurance without the medical exam, sounds like the perfect option, right? While no exam plans might sound like an excellent option, there are a couple of disadvantages that you should be aware of before you go out and buy one.
One of the drawbacks of these plans is that they are going to be more expensive than a traditional insurance plan. Without all of your health information, the company is taking a greater risk to give you life insurance, and they are going to charge you more for that protection. No exam plans are going to be two or three times more expensive than other types of policies.
Another drawback is that you're going to be limited on how much coverage that you can buy. No exam plans will typically only let you purchase around $300,000 worth of protection. For most families, that isn't nearly enough. Not having enough life insurance is one of the worst mistakes that you could make for your loved ones.
Every insurance company is different, and all of them are going to look at your criminal record differently. That means that every company that you contact is going to give you different rates based on their underwriting and rating system that they use. Finding the perfect company could be the difference in getting an affordable policy or one that declines you for life insurance.
Instead of wasting hours and hours calling different companies to get quotes, let one of our independent brokers do all of that hard work for you. Unlike traditional insurance agents, our independent agents work with more than 30 highly-rated companies across the country and can bring all of the best rates directly to you.
Transcript:
This is Liran Hirschkorn from ChooseTerm.com. In this video I'm going to
talk to you about how to get approved for life insurance even, if you have
a criminal record in your past, coming up in this video.
You might have a criminal record and maybe changed your life around since
and having a tough time getting approved for life insurance. So you want to
know if you can get approved for life insurance. The answer is maybe and
very possibly yes really depending on your exact current situation.
For example if you are currently on probation or parole you're probably not
going to get approved until you are off that parole or probation period.
If you're a multiple offender, you've had multiple felonies, multiple
misdemeanors also going to make it more difficult to get approved for
coverage.
However, if you have a history of one event, one misdemeanors, one felony
and it isn't for anything that is major, perhaps in the past you've had
drug use in your history. And you've cleaned up your life, you're probably
now married or having a child, you've got a job and you're looking to get
life insurance to protect your family. You're trying to do the right thing.
Then it's very possible that if it's an event that happened several years
ago that you've cleaned up your life, that you've changed, then we can
write a letter to the insurance company along with the application telling
them how your lifestyle has changed and we can probably get you approved
for coverage.
So it really depends on the reason for the crime, the type of crime that it
was and it really depends on how long ago. Are you a multiple offender and
are you off your probationary period. If you look at those things then we
can give you an idea if you can get approved for coverage or not. What we
can do also, even before we apply, we can take your situation and submit it
to 30 life insurance companies that we represent so they can tell us ahead
of time if it's most likely that your application will be approved so we
don't waste your time.
At ChooseTerm.com we represent over 30 life insurance companies and we can
help you get approved for coverage. I look forward to speaking with you
regarding your life insurance needs. Thank you.