Hey, do any of you know of a life insurance company that has good rates for pipe smokers? Reply post if you do please. - Les
Life Insurance for Pipe Smokers
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Being an Independent Agent and owning my own agency representing multiple lines and numerous companies for 41 years, I can tell you that there was a time years ago when pipe and cigar smokers were considered non-smokers for life insurance. However, I am not aware of any life insurance company that I represent currently that has such a classification method any longer. Today, pipe smokers are considered smokers (tobacco users) and the rates are about 30% higher than non-tobacco users. It is unfortunate, but that is the way it is. Still, depending upon your age, height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, urine tests, medications and medical history, competitive tobacco-user rates are still available. In other words, as a tobacco user you will pay higher rates than non-tobacco users. Beyond that, all the other underwriting conditions I stated are extremely important if you would be issued any life insurance and possibly at a higher than standard tobacco user rate if you are not within normal limits.
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I've not heard that the rates are 30% higher for smokers, as previous posts on here make it sound as if it is only $5.00 more a month. I've been not smoking for the past 6 weeks in anticipation of having to take another medical exam for trying to get another Life Insurance policy. It's such BS. The only socially accepted form of gambling that we have. And the insurance companies have been winning for several hundred years.
hobie1dog,
I am your empathetic friend and not your enemy. You will need to be tobacco free for a year to get non-tobacco user rates. A urine test will tell the story! Nicotine will show in your urine for six to 8 weeks after not using tobacco. Furthermore, a life insurance policy is legally contestable for the first two years for mis-statements in your application. It is what it is. Enjoy your pipe and get the life insurance that you need.
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I am your empathetic friend and not your enemy. You will need to be tobacco free for a year to get non-tobacco user rates. A urine test will tell the story! Nicotine will show in your urine for six to 8 weeks after not using tobacco. Furthermore, a life insurance policy is legally contestable for the first two years for mis-statements in your application. It is what it is. Enjoy your pipe and get the life insurance that you need.
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Thanks Bob, in January I had to do a medical exam as part of an LI application and I quit for 5 weeks or so, and nothing showed up in the tests for nicotine. The agent and ING company screwed around for 5 months and produced no results, so now I'm back starting over with another company. My wife and I each have 50K whole life policies, but wanted to get another 300K in just term insurance so that one of us could pay off the house. Since the medical exam was done in January it is likely no good now and we'll have to go through the same BS masturbation process all over again. It's all about them protecting their assets, and having the upper hand to guarantee their corporate profits, which is what governs the world these days. 
They are gambling that you will live longer, and I am gambling that I will die sooner than they think I will. That's just the facts and the way insurance works. People did fine without it for Centuries, then someone found out a way for them to make lots of American dollars off of peoples fears and "protecting their families". And I'm sure you are right that there is always some very fine print which allows them to get out of paying alot of claims. So does it take them going around to your neighbors with a P.I who interviews them to see if they have video of you smoking? Or like when they ask, " do you race cars " and I get to answer "NO", but I race karts that go 110 MPH and that's not what they are asking about. :wink:
Let me rant a bit. 8O There was a guy here in town who had a 4x8 foot sign in his yard that said, " Nationwide won't pay" so I found out that a guy had died of a heart attack while driving down the road and his car ran into this guys yard and crashed into his house. The reason Nationwide would not pay for repairs on the house was that the car was an "unoccupied vehicle" since there was no living human being inside of it. Talk about an unethical way to protect your corporate profits.
If the premium for a smoker was reasonable amount over the non-smoker, then I'd just go ahead and claim it. But I only smoke 2 or 3 bowls per week, don't inhale ever, so we are talking 2 hours or so a week out of 168 hours there are in a week.
doing an activity less than 2% of the week for something as relaxing as this and getting penalized because of getting thrown in with the worthless cigarette people who are ingesting/inhaling 499 chemicals down into their lungs is not right.
So how much more are smokers rates with the companies you represent? I have not brought it up, naturally with my agent. :mrgreen:
They are gambling that you will live longer, and I am gambling that I will die sooner than they think I will. That's just the facts and the way insurance works. People did fine without it for Centuries, then someone found out a way for them to make lots of American dollars off of peoples fears and "protecting their families". And I'm sure you are right that there is always some very fine print which allows them to get out of paying alot of claims. So does it take them going around to your neighbors with a P.I who interviews them to see if they have video of you smoking? Or like when they ask, " do you race cars " and I get to answer "NO", but I race karts that go 110 MPH and that's not what they are asking about. :wink:
Let me rant a bit. 8O There was a guy here in town who had a 4x8 foot sign in his yard that said, " Nationwide won't pay" so I found out that a guy had died of a heart attack while driving down the road and his car ran into this guys yard and crashed into his house. The reason Nationwide would not pay for repairs on the house was that the car was an "unoccupied vehicle" since there was no living human being inside of it. Talk about an unethical way to protect your corporate profits.
If the premium for a smoker was reasonable amount over the non-smoker, then I'd just go ahead and claim it. But I only smoke 2 or 3 bowls per week, don't inhale ever, so we are talking 2 hours or so a week out of 168 hours there are in a week.
doing an activity less than 2% of the week for something as relaxing as this and getting penalized because of getting thrown in with the worthless cigarette people who are ingesting/inhaling 499 chemicals down into their lungs is not right.
So how much more are smokers rates with the companies you represent? I have not brought it up, naturally with my agent. :mrgreen:
lessechler,
That was quite a rant. I don't understand how (after your exam), Underwriting did not make an offer to you within 30 days. I have never heard nor experienced any thing of the sort. I wish I had more facts. It doesn't sound right to me. Your agent should have the answers for you. Have you asked him? What did he tell you was the reason for this unreasonable delay? Anything they uncovered in their Underwriting process will now be a matter of record for other insurance companies to see. That may or may not be a good thing for you. They share information through the Medical Information Bureau (MIB).
I represent Protective Life as my main life company. You should be able to inquire and find a local agent in your area. Or, go to www.Protective.com.
As for an insurance company not paying a claim for an insured auto hitting a house, that doesn't sound right, either. By Law, the insurance policy follows the vehicle, not the driver. So, it doesn't matter who was driving as long as it is with the Named Insured's permission. I can't see any reason why the resulting Property Damage would not be paid by the auto insurance company. Also, the property-owners Homeowners insurance would also cover that loss to their house. Their company would Subrogate that loss to the auto insurer.
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That was quite a rant. I don't understand how (after your exam), Underwriting did not make an offer to you within 30 days. I have never heard nor experienced any thing of the sort. I wish I had more facts. It doesn't sound right to me. Your agent should have the answers for you. Have you asked him? What did he tell you was the reason for this unreasonable delay? Anything they uncovered in their Underwriting process will now be a matter of record for other insurance companies to see. That may or may not be a good thing for you. They share information through the Medical Information Bureau (MIB).
I represent Protective Life as my main life company. You should be able to inquire and find a local agent in your area. Or, go to www.Protective.com.
As for an insurance company not paying a claim for an insured auto hitting a house, that doesn't sound right, either. By Law, the insurance policy follows the vehicle, not the driver. So, it doesn't matter who was driving as long as it is with the Named Insured's permission. I can't see any reason why the resulting Property Damage would not be paid by the auto insurance company. Also, the property-owners Homeowners insurance would also cover that loss to their house. Their company would Subrogate that loss to the auto insurer.
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Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy. I would not want to die and be looking down from Heaven and seeing the insurance turn my wife down because I mis-represented myself when I applied for life insurance.
I do go to the Protective site and noticed that celebrtory cigar smokers could enter "never" in the smoking section. :clap:
Sorry I cannot recall the company name but at the NY pipe show there was a table of an insurance company that claimed they would insure pipe smokers for the same rate as a non smoker. Perhaps somebody else who attended can remember the name.It may have been NY Life.
I dunno. When the wife and I bought our house we added enough life insurance so it could be paid off if something happened to one of us. We were told we would have to take a blood test and my agent (who was a cigar smoker and would hang out at the shop I worked at) said to quit smoking for a few weeks before the test.
I thought about it but figured since I was a tobacconist at the time to let the chips fall where they may. I even smoked a Hoyo Excalibur #1 an hour or two before the blood test. When the results came back, it showed nicotine free and we got preferred non smoker rates (my wife is a cigar smoker as well). I listed that we do smoke pipes/cigars so there would be no issues if a claim had to be filed.
A few weeks later our manager obtained life insurance and did the same as me. He ended up with preferred non smoker rates as well. So, here are the two of us, around pipe and cigar smoke all day long, not counting what we smoked during the day and were fine.
Now my insurance at work automatically charges more and they do not bother to test. Oddly, if you use dip like Copenhagen or whatever, they do not consider that tobacco related!?!
Whatever route you go, I would be honest about it. There would be nothing worse than having to file a claim and have to fight for it if they found out you smoked a pipe/cigar.
Just my .02.
Michael
I thought about it but figured since I was a tobacconist at the time to let the chips fall where they may. I even smoked a Hoyo Excalibur #1 an hour or two before the blood test. When the results came back, it showed nicotine free and we got preferred non smoker rates (my wife is a cigar smoker as well). I listed that we do smoke pipes/cigars so there would be no issues if a claim had to be filed.
A few weeks later our manager obtained life insurance and did the same as me. He ended up with preferred non smoker rates as well. So, here are the two of us, around pipe and cigar smoke all day long, not counting what we smoked during the day and were fine.
Now my insurance at work automatically charges more and they do not bother to test. Oddly, if you use dip like Copenhagen or whatever, they do not consider that tobacco related!?!
Whatever route you go, I would be honest about it. There would be nothing worse than having to file a claim and have to fight for it if they found out you smoked a pipe/cigar.
Just my .02.
Michael
I've been looking around on the web to see what companies offer simple term insurance with no medical exam. It's going to take 2 months again to them to get around to looking over the application, ordering up a medical exam, requesting doctors records, doing some Corporate Masturbation, etc.
I got life insurance about 1.5 years ago. I told our agent that I smoked a pipe (2-3 bowls a day)...and after the physical and blood work, it came back that the levels of what they look for in smokers, was so low...I'm considered a non-smoker...
Have you tried a local agent vs online??
Have you tried a local agent vs online??
That's the trouble, I'm on local agent #2 who represents the large insurance corporations, that think they own the entire world and that the consumer is supposed to wait on them to produce some results. I started back in January and both agents have failed. Humans are so primitive, and incompetent.
Got a preliminary quote from the online Accuquote company and Prudential allows 1 bowl per week.....WOW...I guess they will have to come in to my house and install cameras with date/time stamps to monitor my activity to maintain total Corporate profits. It's simple term insurance.
A life insurance policy is contestable for misrepresentation for twenty-four months following the issue date. Even if you died an accidental death, they can deny a claim on any basis for misrepresentation. Although, in forty-one years of bring an agent, I've not seen that happen. Keep in mind that when you apply, they will do a urine test and nicotine levels will be tested. Nicotine can stay in the urine for a long period of time such as eight weeks.
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