Fertility treatment and insurance underwriting

Insurers treat fertility treatment as a medical history to be disclosed and assessed, not as a category that raises questions about you. What an underwriter wants to establish is what treatment is under way or has been completed, whether any underlying condition was identified during investigation, and whether a pregnancy is currently in progress.

The underlying condition, where one has been identified, is usually the substantive part of the assessment. Fertility investigation sometimes identifies a condition that would be underwritten in its own right regardless of the context, and it is that condition rather than the treatment which drives the terms.

The questions are practical and are aimed at the current position.

• What treatment is under way or has been completed, and the dates.
• Whether any underlying condition has been identified during investigation.
• Whether any medication is currently prescribed.
• Whether a pregnancy is currently in progress.
• Whether any complications have been recorded.
• Where income protection is applied for, your current earnings and work pattern.

Evidence commonly requested

• A GP report, and a specialist report where an underlying condition has been identified.
• Occasionally results relating to that condition rather than to the treatment itself.

Deferrals in this area are timing decisions. Insurers prefer to assess a disability benefit once a treatment cycle has concluded and the position is settled, and they will state when to return. Where an underlying condition has been identified, the assessment of that condition follows its own rules and its own timeline, quite separately from the fertility treatment itself.

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

• That an underlying condition identified during investigation is assessed in its own right.
• That a deferral on income protection is about timing rather than about the treatment.
• That any resulting pregnancy brings the usual temporary pregnancy restrictions.
• That life cover is usually available now rather than after treatment concludes.
• That waiting to apply means being uninsured in the meantime.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications during fertility treatment 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 differ on how they handle applications during active treatment, particularly for income protection.
• An adviser can sequence benefits so cover is put in place where it is available now.
• Where an underlying condition has been identified, an adviser can make sure it is presented with the right evidence.
• An adviser can diarise the point at which a deferred benefit should be reapplied for.

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.