High cholesterol and insurance underwriting

Raised cholesterol reaches underwriters in two ways: you disclose it, or the insurer’s own blood test finds it. Because a lipid panel is part of the standard underwriting blood screen, an applicant crossing the evidence threshold will have a current result in front of the underwriter whether or not they mentioned it.

In isolation, it is a mild factor. Underwriters rarely load a life policy for cholesterol alone where treatment is in place and the numbers are moving in the right direction. What changes the picture is accumulation — cholesterol with a high body mass index, with treated blood pressure, with a smoking history, or with a parent who had heart disease young.

The question set is short, and much of the answer comes from a laboratory rather than from you.

• When raised cholesterol was identified.
• What treatment is in place and for how long.
• Your most recent results, and earlier ones for comparison.
• Whether any cardiac investigations have been done.
• Build, blood pressure, smoking status and family history, all read alongside it.

Evidence commonly requested

• A GP report with the recorded results.
• The insurer’s own blood panel where age and sum insured trigger one.

What underwriters look at over time is the trend in recorded results and whether the surrounding factors have moved. Because this is a measured value rather than a diagnosis, a documented improvement is unusually easy to evidence when asking an insurer to reconsider a rating.

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

• That the insurer’s own blood test will show your current results regardless of what you disclose.
• That the ratio between measures usually matters more to an underwriting table than the headline total.
• That cholesterol is generally rated as part of a cluster, not on its own.
• That declining a required blood test is not an option — it simply ends the application.
• That an unusually high result on an unfasted test can sometimes be repeated.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications involving cardiovascular risk factors 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 thresholds for where cholesterol starts to affect terms.
• An adviser can supply historical results showing a trend rather than leaving one figure to speak for itself.
• Where several cardiovascular factors combine, insurer choice becomes the main variable in the outcome.
• A rating set on old results is worth revisiting once newer ones exist.

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.