Buying life insurance - additional medical questions?

[ricelife]

So I'm trying to purchase term life insurance and have contacted the standard companies like Manulife, Sunlife, PolicyMe etc.

One of them is asking for consent from me to provide my family doctor's information so they can get more information on a specific medical condition I mentioned. When I questioned what they were looking for, the insurance guy wrote "treatment follow-up, clinical notes, consultations with specialists, as well as any other significant medical history that may have been recorded over the past 3 years".

Is this standard to ask?

I'm a little peeved because I find this very intrusive.

[OttawaNeal]

I think it is standard when there is a medical condition, yeah.

If anything, if one company is asking to speak with your doctor and the others are not, I would think the others are operating on the principle of "let's just assume the worst (or the average) and not bother with the expense of our own insurance company doctor's follow-up time," whereas the company asking is digging deeper to see if the severity is low enough that they can save you some money (or high enough not to).

Life insurance can get pretty intrusive depending on how much the policy is for.

[ricelife]

Okay thanks @OttawaNeal ! I feel a little better giving the information now. I was so skeptical before because it’s very intrusive

[GilesMM]

Seems fair to "intrude" into your private health condition if they are expected to insure it, no?

[Metalcat]

Absolutely.

Unless you are only buying a tiny policy that doesn't require medical underwriting, they can demand an insane amount of health info and tests.

[techwiz]

Over 20 years ago my wife and I got term life insurance instead of mortgage insurance. It was a great value and had better coverage.  We did find the process of getting approved a little intrusive as the insurance company sent a nurse to our house that gave us a physical and even took blood. We figured the intrusion was worthwhile for the million dollar coverage at such a cheap rate.  Once we were approved there was never any more follow up.

We did end up cancelling our life insurance after we turned 40 as the monthly rates really jumped(more than doubled), with our mortgage paid off, kids out of daycare and better coverage at work it didn't make sense to have another million in insurance coverage.

[ricelife]

Over 20 years ago my wife and I got term life insurance instead of mortgage insurance. It was a great value and had better coverage.  We did find the process of getting approved a little intrusive as the insurance company sent a nurse to our house that gave us a physical and even took blood. We figured the intrusion was worthwhile for the million dollar coverage at such a cheap rate.  Once we were approved there was never any more follow up.

We did end up cancelling our life insurance after we turned 40 as the monthly rates really jumped(more than doubled), with our mortgage paid off, kids out of daycare and better coverage at work it didn't make sense to have another million in insurance coverage.

thanks! This is the first time I have inquired about purchasing personal life insurance so I'm not sure the processes/procedures.

I have had my identity stolen before so I'm very careful around my privacy nowadays. There's a lot of crooks out there in this world who can do a whole lot of harm to innocent people.