Life insurance risks and exclusions

What life insurance calculations are based on

When insurers calculate their premiums for life insurance cover, they'll look at how long they expect customers to live based on their age, medical history and other factors that are likely to impact their life expectancy.

Life insurance premiums for men tend to be higher than life insurance premiums for women because on average, they don't live as long. Premiums will also be higher for older customers and for policies that are taken out for a longer period.

Higher risks and life insurance

Some groups of people will present a greater risk than others – and so will need to pay higher premiums for their life cover, or the insurer may impose an exclusion on their cover.  

 Looking at life insurance, higher risk categories include:

• People working in high risk occupations, such as workers in the oil and gas industries (especially offshore), fishermen, people who work at great heights and those in the armed forces.
• People who take part in dangerous sports or hobbies, such as flying (except as a fare paying passenger),  mountaineering, motor sports and scuba diving.
• People with a poor medical history or existing medical conditions. Also those people who have a family history of illnesses, are overweight or have high blood pressure.
• People who smoke, due to the links with some cancers and other serious diseases.

The definition of 'high risk' varies from life insurer to life insurer and not all life insurance companies offer the same sorts of cover. So it's important to check that your policy provides you with the life insurance cover you want.

And remember that it’s important to answer all of the questions asked when you apply fully and honestly, because if you don’t, it may mean that your policy may not pay out if you need to claim.

Life insurance exclusions

At LV=, we don’t apply exclusions for life insurance policies (although we may do for critical illness or income protection once we've assessed your application).  However some other insurers may impose standard exclusions when they offer cover so it’s wise to check these before deciding which policy to buy.  Typically these exclusions may mean that the life insurance policy would not pay out on death due to:

• alcohol or drug abuse
• active participation in war, war-like and terrorist activities
• suicide, the consequences of attempted suicide and intentionally self-inflicted injuries
• gross negligence and deliberate exposure to exceptional danger (except in an attempt to save human life)