Life insurance without a medical exam

There are two separate things people mean when they say they want cover without a medical. One is avoiding a physical examination. The other is avoiding scrutiny of their health history altogether. The first is common and often achievable. The second is not available in any product worth owning, because full disclosure is what makes a policy payable.

This page deals with the first. In New Zealand, most life applications at ordinary sums insured are assessed on a health questionnaire and, often, a phone interview. No examination happens at all. Whether one is required depends on where you sit on the insurer’s evidence grid — your age against the amount of cover — and on whether something you disclosed needs current readings rather than a description.

It is worth saying plainly that avoiding the exam is not a goal in itself. An examination that results in cover being issued on standard terms is a good outcome. The reason to understand the triggers is planning: knowing whether an application will take a week or a month, and whether the sum insured you have chosen sits just over a threshold that could be handled differently.

The most common form is a paramedical examination, carried out by a nurse at your home or workplace, usually taking under an hour.

• Height, weight and sometimes waist measurement, which feed the build assessment.
• Blood pressure, often taken more than once.
• A blood sample, screened for the standard panel — including cholesterol, liver function, glucose or HbA1c, and markers the insurer routinely tests for.
• A urine sample, screened for glucose, protein and cotinine, which is the marker for nicotine use.
• A short set of questions confirming your disclosure, which becomes part of the file.

At larger sums insured or older ages an insurer may also ask for an ECG, an exercise ECG, or a full medical examination by a doctor. These are less common and are usually flagged in advance so you know what to expect.

How to prepare

1. 1Book it for a morning if fasting is requested, and follow the fasting instruction exactly — a non-fasting sample can produce results that require repeating.
2. 2Avoid alcohol for a couple of days beforehand, since liver markers respond to it.
3. 3Do not do heavy exercise immediately before, which can affect blood pressure and some blood markers.
4. 4Take a list of your medications with doses, and the names of any specialists you have seen.
5. 5Be consistent. The answers you give the nurse should match what you put in the application, because both are on the file.

These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.

• Declining a requested examination ends the application. Insurers do not issue terms on an incomplete file.
• The nurse’s questions are part of your disclosure, not a formality.
• A cotinine-positive urine sample where you have declared yourself a non-smoker is a serious problem, not a technicality.
• A GP report is often slower than an examination, and the delay is your practice’s turnaround, not the insurer’s.
• Results from an examination usually stay valid for a limited period if you apply again shortly afterwards.
• Applying for less cover to avoid an exam is legitimate; splitting cover across insurers to avoid scrutiny is not.

Every New Zealand insurer writes how underwriting works to its own wording, and the words are where the money is. Two policies that look identical on price can pay very differently when it matters. Closing that gap is the entire job of an adviser.

• Evidence limits differ between insurers, so the same sum insured can require an exam at one and not another.
• An adviser can tell you in advance whether your application is likely to trigger tests, so there are no surprises.
• They can pre-assess an unusual result informally with underwriters at several insurers before a formal application.
• They manage the logistics — booking the nurse, chasing the GP report — which is most of the elapsed time.

There are three ways to buy life cover in New Zealand, and they are not equivalent. You can buy direct from one insurer, which means you see one product range and one underwriting appetite. You can buy through your bank, which usually means a single insurer’s product sold under the bank’s brand, often with narrower definitions. Or you can go through an adviser, who quotes several insurers at once and is required to put your interests first.

The premium you pay is the same either way. Insurers build adviser commission into their pricing whether or not an adviser is involved, so going direct does not get you a discount — it just removes the person whose job is to argue your corner at application and at claim time.

• An adviser can see which insurer is currently taking your health history on standard terms, and which one will load or exclude it.
• An adviser can structure cover across two insurers if that produces a better outcome than putting everything with one.
• An adviser handles the underwriting back-and-forth, and is the person who chases the claim when a family is least able to.
• An adviser has to document why the recommendation suits you, which is a written record you can hold them to.

We are a referral service, not an insurer. We do not quote premiums and we do not sell policies. What we do is put you in front of one licensed New Zealand adviser who can compare the market properly.

1. 1

   You tell us what you are looking at

   The form takes about a minute. Nobody asks for your medical history on a web form — that conversation happens with the adviser, properly, and only once you have decided to proceed.

2. 2

   An adviser calls you

   A licensed New Zealand adviser talks through your situation: who depends on you, what you owe, what you already have in place, and what you are actually worried about.

3. 3

   They compare the market

   The adviser quotes across the major insurers, checks which of them will take your health history on the best terms, and puts the options side by side in writing.

4. 4

   You decide, in your own time

   There is no obligation and no cost to you. If the answer is that you already have enough cover, a good adviser will tell you that.