ADHD and insurance underwriting

ADHD appears on New Zealand applications increasingly often, particularly where a diagnosis has been made in adulthood. Insurers treat it as its own category with its own questions. What an underwriter is trying to establish is the shape of the diagnosis, what treatment is in place, and whether the record contains anything else that would be assessed alongside it.

The practical pattern is familiar. Life cover is usually unaffected. Income protection is the product where terms tighten, and the restriction offered is sometimes written narrowly to the diagnosis and sometimes as a broad mental health exclusion. Because insurers differ considerably in which of those they apply, this is a history where comparing the market changes the result.

The questions are practical rather than diagnostic, and they are aimed at treatment and function.

• When the diagnosis was made, at what age, and by whom.
• What medication is prescribed and whether the dose has been stable.
• Whether you are under specialist review, and how often.
• Whether any other condition is recorded alongside it.
• Whether any time off work or study has been required.
• Your occupation, which is read alongside the diagnosis on income protection.

Evidence commonly requested

• A GP report covering the diagnosis and the prescribing record.
• A specialist report where assessment or treatment has been specialist-led.

What underwriters look at over time is a settled treatment regime, no time off work, no recorded escalation, and a stable occupational record. Where a broad mental health exclusion has been applied and the file has stayed clear, a review request asking for narrower wording is reasonable. As with other mental health categories, insurers move less readily on exclusions than on loadings.

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

• Whether an offered exclusion names ADHD or covers mental health generally — that difference is substantial.
• That a diagnosis made in adulthood is asked about in more detail than a childhood one.
• That anything recorded alongside the diagnosis is assessed as part of the same file.
• That the prescribing record will reach the underwriter through a GP report.
• That insurer approaches differ enough here to change the outcome entirely.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications involving an ADHD diagnosis 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.

• Insurer treatment of ADHD is inconsistent across the market, which makes comparison unusually valuable.
• An adviser can pre-assess anonymously and find out which insurer would apply the narrowest wording.
• A clear account of treatment and work history usually produces a better result than a bare disclosure.
• Where a broad exclusion is offered, an adviser can ask for narrower wording before you accept.

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.