Build, BMI and insurance underwriting

Height and weight appear on every application because build correlates with a range of things insurers price. It is a plain numeric input: the underwriter puts your figures into a table and reads off a rating. There is no judgement involved, and there is no version of the process in which the number is not asked for.

What varies enormously is where each insurer sets its thresholds. Two insurers reading the same height and weight can return standard rates and a substantial loading respectively, because their tables are built on different data and constrained by different reinsurance arrangements. Build is therefore one of the strongest arguments in the whole underwriting field for comparing more than one insurer.

The questions are short. The consequences are not.

• Your height and current weight, and sometimes your weight a year ago.
• Whether your weight has changed significantly, in either direction, and why.
• Whether any weight-related condition has been recorded or investigated.
• Whether you have had any surgical or medical weight management, and when.
• Blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, which are read alongside build.

Evidence commonly requested

• A nurse visit to measure height, weight and sometimes waist, where the sum insured triggers one.
• A GP report where recorded weights differ from what was declared.
• Blood results, since build and metabolic markers are assessed together.

Build is the rating factor most likely to respond to a review request, because it is measurable and because insurers understand that it changes. Where a loading was applied on build alone and there is now a documented, sustained change recorded by your GP, that is a concrete basis for asking the insurer to reassess. A recent rapid change, in either direction, is usually questioned rather than rewarded — underwriters look for a stable new position rather than a moving one.

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

• That the figures you declare will be checked against a nurse measurement and against your GP record.
• That each insurer’s threshold differs, so a loading at one is not a market answer.
• That build is usually rated as part of a cluster with blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol.
• That an unexplained recent weight change attracts questions rather than credit.
• That a build loading should be diarised for review rather than accepted permanently.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications rated on build 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.

• Build tables are not published, and knowing which insurer is currently most generous is exactly what an adviser tracks.
• An adviser can pre-assess with your figures anonymously before any application is made.
• Where a loading is applied, an adviser can set a review date and manage the request when the time comes.
• For borderline cases, an adviser can advise whether a short wait is likely to change the threshold you fall into.

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.