Battling Parkinson’s Disease is difficult enough, you don’t need the complication of trying to secure life insurance to add on to that difficulty. This is why we want to make your process as simple as possible. So can you get life insurance with Parkinson’s? The short answer is Yes, you can get coverage. Let’s talk about how to get life insurance coverage in place with Parkinson’s disease. Depending on your expectation, you may be pleasantly surprised.
In summary, here is what you need to know about life insurance with Parkinson’s disease:
- Securing life insurance at a “Standard” rating is possible if conditions are favorable.
- The typical outcome is a “Substandard” rating, ranging between a 50% to 400% premium increase from a “Standard” quote.
- The life insurance companies will look at a few factors to determine your rate. These factors include:
- Current age
- Date of diagnosis
- Medication/treatment
- Response to medication treatment
- Severity of disease
- History of falling as indications of dementia
- Compliant medical treatment and follow up
- Any concurrent impairment
*The type of rate you qualify for will depend on a life insurance company’s underwriting guides and severity of your condition.
As you can tell, a lot goes into making sure you can qualify for the best rate. This is why you should let us do all the legwork for you. We work with over 60 companies and shop around to provide the most favorable outcome at no extra cost to you. So if you’re ready to get started, give us a call. Otherwise, let’s discuss life insurance with Parkinson’s in detail.
What Life Insurance Companies Want to Know
During the life insurance application process your life insurance agent should ask you very detailed questions about your condition. These will be specifics that the life insurance companies will need to know to qualify your risk. Based on your answers, your agent will have a better idea as to which company to apply with. If your agent doesn’t ask you these questions, it’s a red flag that he or she is just throwing darts in the dark.
Some of those qualifying questions will be:
- When were you diagnosed with Parkinson’s?
- What kind of treatment regimen are you following?
- Has the treatment been effective?
- What pace is your condition progressing at?
- Are you able to live independently?
- Do you have any history of falling or indications of dementia?
- Any other health conditions?
They will also want an outline of your activities and daily living lifestyle. Outside of the disease, they will also ask you typical life insurance application questions to see if there are any other risks that you pose.
The information provided will create a few possible scenarios.
Best Case
The best case scenario is that you get a standard rate and maybe a preferred in some very rare cases. To qualify for this you would have to have mild symptoms and have the condition under control. If you’re fully active and living independently, you’ll easily qualify for this rating as long as you don’t have any other health risks.
Most Common Outcome
The most common outcome is to get a Substandard table rating. This is considered a high-risk life insurance health class and it ranges in the form of tables 1 through 10. Each table is a 25% increase. In this case, if your condition is moderate and you are compliant with the treatment you can qualify for a table 2 through table 6 rating.
Worst Case Scenario
The worst case scenario is a complete decline in coverage. If your condition is severe and you’re unable to function on your own, you may be declined. Another possibility is that your condition is moderate but you have other high-risk health conditions that would disqualify you from coverage.
>>>>>If all the rate classes are new to you, we have a whole article explaining them in detail here.
Best Life Insurance Companies for Parkinson’s
If you have Parkinson’s it is important for you to know that not all life insurance companies will welcome your application with open arms. In fact, you may have already been turned down by multiple companies and are now, here. Being an independent agency we work with over 60 different life insurance companies but there are only a few that we recommend to our clients when it comes to Parkinson’s. These companies are TransAmerica, John Hancock, Prudential and American General.
TransAmerica – One of the most aggressive companies when it comes to approving individuals with pre-existing conditions. If you have a very mild case of Parkinson’s they will give you a standard/regular rate which you can check out on one of our term or permanent life comparison tools to see what you’d be expecting. For moderate cases, they will hit you with a surcharge of 100% to 200% of the standard rate. If your condition is severe expect to pay 200% to 400% more or get declined.
John Hancock – This company doesn’t need any introduction as it happens to be one of the most trusted and reputable carriers around. And for this reason, their rates tend to be on the pricey side when comparing to competitors, they are a great choice for Parkinsons’s clients. For one, they are the only company that will actually consider giving you a preferred rate if you’re over the age of 80 with a mild case that doesn’t require medications. Otherwise, it’s 150% to 200% surcharge for moderate cases and declines for severe.
Prudential – Similar to TransAmerica from the perspective of giving individuals with medical conditions a chance, Prudential will give similar approvals to TransAmerica and John Hancock. They will also treat each case differently and will go the extra mile to try to get you a policy.
These are the top 3 companies we have found to have luck with, but that doesn’t mean that there are others. In fact, sometimes we have to apply to 5 or 10 different companies until we find the right one for you.
Guaranteed Approval for Parkinson’s Applicants
If you are declined, we still have the option of shopping with another company or getting you a guaranteed issue life insurance policy. This is a no questions asked life insurance policy that has a guaranteed approval for any client. The “catch” is that the coverage is usually capped at $10,000 to $25,000 and there is a waiting period. The waiting period is usually 2 years. If anything happens to you within the first two years of the policy your beneficiaries will only receive the premium paid in. After the two years, they will receive a full death benefit payout.
Another option you have is a Graded Life Insurance policy. This policy asks a few questions but requires no medical exam. If you can answer no to the few health questions you will be approved. This type of coverage increases the death benefit as time goes on. For example, if something happens to you in the first year, your beneficiaries will receive 30% of the death benefit. If it’s in the second year 60% and so on and so forth. The type of graded death benefit will depend on the company and policy type. The cap for this type of coverage can be up to $50,000.
Steps We Take to Get You Qualified
In all high-risk cases, I always mention that the lowest life insurance quote on the quote engine is not the lowest rate for you. Each high-risk situation is unique and it will take expertise and lots of legwork to get you the best rate. Each life insurance company weighs risk differently so it will take an agent that knows where to place you after qualifying you properly. One company may decline Parkinson’s altogether while another will approve you at a table 2 rating. So the key is an experienced independent agency that will work hard on your behalf. The good news for you is InsureChance is that agency. Here are the steps we take to make sure you get approved at the best rate:
- We pre-qualify you by asking for details regarding your health and lifestyle.
- We will look through all of the companies updated underwriting guidelines
- After finding the best companies for your condition, we will submit a “quick quote.” This is when we outline your condition anonymously and send it to all the companies to see what rate they will provide.
- Once we get the company with the best result, we will submit the application along with a cover letter, providing positive notes about your treatment and lifestyle for the underwriter to take into consideration(if there are any).
We have insured clients with Parkinson’s disease over a dozen times and know exactly what to do, to provide the most favorable outcome. We also do all of this at no extra cost to you! Give us a call at 888-492-1967 or hit the chat button below with any questions. Welcome to InsureChance!
*Now that you are empowered with knowledge about life insurance check out this cool article from WebMD about Financial Planning for Parkinsons Disease.
