Family history of cancer and insurance underwriting

Family history questions look intrusive and are in fact quite narrow. Almost every New Zealand application asks about parents and siblings only, and asks about diagnoses made before a stated age — commonly somewhere in the fifties or sixties, though the exact threshold differs by insurer. A relative diagnosed above that age generally does not affect the assessment.

What underwriters are looking for is a pattern rather than an event. One parent diagnosed at 62 is usually unremarkable. Two first-degree relatives diagnosed with the same cancer in their forties is a different signal, and it is the kind of pattern that produces a rating on trauma cover in particular.

The questions are short but precise, and approximate answers cause avoidable follow-up.

• Which relatives were affected — parents and siblings, and sometimes children.
• What cancer each was diagnosed with.
• The age at diagnosis for each.
• Whether any pattern of the same cancer runs across more than one relative.
• Whether you attend any screening programme as a result, and what the findings have been.
• Whether any genetic testing has been undertaken in the family.

Evidence commonly requested

• Usually none beyond your answers, since the insurer cannot obtain a relative’s records.
• Your own screening results, where you attend a programme.

Family history is one of the few rating factors that does not improve with time, because the underlying fact does not change. What can change is the evidence around it. A documented record of attending screening, with clear findings, is something underwriters read favourably, and in some cases it is the difference between a loading and standard terms on trauma cover. Insurer appetite here also differs sharply, which makes comparison unusually worthwhile.

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

• That the question usually covers parents and siblings only, and only below a stated age.
• That guessing ages of diagnosis creates follow-up questions — ask the family before you apply.
• That trauma cover is where this matters, and life cover often is not affected at all.
• That a family history loading is rarely reviewable later, unlike a build or blood pressure loading.
• That being screened and having the results recorded works in your favour.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications with a family history 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.

• Insurers set different age thresholds and weight family history differently, so the same answers land differently.
• An adviser can pre-assess anonymously where the family pattern is strong.
• Where trauma is rated, an adviser can show what the same file achieves on life and TPD instead.
• An adviser can make sure a screening record is presented alongside the family history rather than after it.

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.