Buy Life Insurance While Pregnant or Wait?

[Gen Y Finance Journey]

I ran some life insurance quotes on term4sale.com, and it seems that companies often take BMI into account when evaluating your health. My BMI is typically in the high end of the normal range, but 24 weeks into my pregnancy, it's now in the overweight range, thus tarnishing my health rating and increasing premiums at many companies. And of course I have no idea how long it will take me to lose all the weight after giving birth (if I even manage to lose all the weight at all!), so I could be in the overweight range for a while. The cheapest policy (30 yr, $1M) I qualify for at my current weight is only $2/month more than the cheapest policy at my pre-pregnancy weight, so it's not like we're talking about a huge sum of money here.

So a few questions:

-Do insurance companies take pregnancy into consideration when they look at your weight/BMI?
-Is there any chance they'd accept my pre-pregnancy weight from a recent doctor's visit just before I got pregnant?
-Do insurance companies even issue policies to pregnant women in the first place?
-Even if I end up having to pay a couple extra bucks per month for the policy, should I just go ahead and get insurance now and be done with it?

Also, in terms of actually applying for the policy, do you typically apply with the insurance company and then get a physical, or is it best to get a physical before you apply?

[green daisy]

I purchased term life insurance while pregnant.  We applied, then they sent a nurse to take blood/urine, and then they reviewed our medical records.  I don't recall there being any issues with my BMI although I think I was around 5 months pregnant.

[Jim2001]

Gen Y,

  If you have decided that life insurance is appropriate for you and the family (which I agree with, especially with a little one on the way), apply for it as soon as possible.  If you are successful after the baby comes at dropping the weight, see if they'll re-do the policy at a better price.  If so, great.  If not, it's already in place.  Worse, if you have some sort of complication (gestational diabetes, or any of the other challenges which are sometimes associated with pregnancy), it will be on your records and the insurance will only be more expensive. 

Insurance is one thing that it NEVER pays to wait on, because if that day comes and you need it, you better already have it!

[little_brown_dog]

Yes - they will definitely give policies to pregnant and post partum women. I got my life insurance a couple weeks after having my baby (I applied prior to the birth, but the physical exam occurred afterwards). The nurse just asked me to give my pre-pregnancy weight for the record, and also made a note that I was 2 weeks postpartum when she recorded my current weight.  I think it really depends on who you get to do the exam and whether or not they are willing to use your pre-preg stats for the application. The amount of weight you gain may also matter - typically lower risk women don't gain more than the recommended 25-35lbs...if you pack on 50lbs during pregnancy that could be a red flag for them. Either way, a few bucks difference really doesn't seem worth delaying the insurance.

[Prairie Stash]

Get it now. The point of life insurance is to provide money to any survivors which is your child. I'm not weighing in on whether its the right choice or not, that's already been decided by you. 

If something bad was to happen to you then your child needs protection from day -60 (i.e. C-section preemie 2 months early) or not at all. Although deaths from childbirth are extremely rare it does happen as does getting hit by a drunk and numerous other ways your child becomes an orphan. Obviously that's why you're getting insurance, if you delay you're leaving the child unprotected, pretty much opposite of your intentions.

You're an excellent mother for considering all the possibilities, even unpleasant ones. I don't mean to make you worry or fret, I'm sorry of I cause any distress.

[Gen Y Finance Journey]

Thanks for the responses! I contacted an agent and will get the ball rolling. I'm still debating how much insurance and how long of a term I actually need. Part of me says I may as well be conservative and do 30 years, $1M because it's not that much more expensive than a smaller/shorter policy, but another part of me says that we'll be financially independent long before then, so why over-insure?

[little_brown_dog]

The amount of coverage you get ultimately depends on your own financial situation and what you think the insurance policy is for. Personally, we don't view life insurance as a way to provide for lifetime expenses for our family (ex: college tuition, decades of income for the other spouse). Instead we view it as a way to ensure that the bereaved spouse has sufficient income to replace the deceased's lost contributions for about 5 years after the death. As a sahm, my policy is large enough to help cover things like childcare for multiple kids, cleaning services, and other things that my husband would need help with if I kicked the bucket. However, some people want to use the policy as a way to ensure their partners/kids are looked after for a much much longer period of time. To me a 1mil policy sounds huge...but then again, if you are the primary breadwinner, your family has high expenses, or you want to look after them for a really long time then it might be on target.

[Jim2001]

Thanks for the responses! I contacted an agent and will get the ball rolling. I'm still debating how much insurance and how long of a term I actually need. Part of me says I may as well be conservative and do 30 years, $1M because it's not that much more expensive than a smaller/shorter policy, but another part of me says that we'll be financially independent long before then, so why over-insure?

Gen Y,

  Glad to see you're moving this forward.  If the price difference isn't that much, get the larger, longer policy.  A very good friend (I was his best man), passed away at the age of 32.  Ten years later it looks like his widow and the three kids are finally starting lead a "normal" life.  If you end up FIREing in twenty years and decide you don't need the policy any more, cancel it.  If you take the smaller and/or shorter policy, you won't have that option.