Pre-diabetes and insurance underwriting

Pre-diabetes reaches an underwriter in one of two ways: you disclose it, or the GP report mentions it. Either way it counts as material, and leaving it off the application because no diagnosis was formally made is exactly the kind of omission that causes trouble at claim time. It is also, in most cases, a modest issue.

Underwriters treat a raised reading as one input among several. On its own, in an otherwise ordinary file, it commonly makes no difference to the terms offered. Where it appears alongside a high body mass index, treated blood pressure and a family history, the combination is what gets rated rather than any single element.

The question set here is short compared with diabetes, and it is aimed at working out whether this is a one-off reading or a pattern.

• When the raised reading was identified, and in what context.
• What the actual figures were, and whether they have been repeated since.
• Whether any treatment, dietary programme or monitoring plan was recommended.
• Whether a formal diagnosis of diabetes has ever been made.
• Your build, blood pressure and cholesterol, which are assessed together with it.

Evidence commonly requested

• A GP report, or often just the relevant results if the insurer already has the file.
• Repeat results where the original reading was recent and has not been rechecked.

This is one of the clearest examples of a rating factor that responds to time and documentation. Repeat readings that stay stable, or a recorded reduction in weight, are precisely what an underwriter looks for when asked to review terms. A person rated at application on a single reading often has a genuine case for reconsideration a year later.

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

• That it must be disclosed even without a diagnosis, and even where you were told not to worry.
• That an unrepeated recent reading is more likely to produce a deferral than a bad reading that has been rechecked.
• That the surrounding factors — build, blood pressure, cholesterol — usually drive the outcome more than the reading.
• That any loading applied here is a strong candidate for review later.
• That a GP report will show the reading whether or not you mention it.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications with mild rating 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.

• An adviser can tell you whether waiting for a repeat test would materially improve the likely terms.
• Where several mild factors combine, an adviser knows which insurers weight the cluster most kindly.
• Any loading applied on this basis should be diarised for review, which an adviser can manage.
• An adviser can present the reading in context rather than letting it arrive as a bare number in a GP report.

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.