Prostate cancer history and insurance underwriting

The most common version of this disclosure is not a cancer diagnosis at all. It is a raised test result that is being investigated or monitored, and it usually leads to a deferral rather than an adverse rating. Underwriters will not price a file while a result is outstanding, and they will say so. That is a timing outcome, not a judgement, and it typically resolves.

Where there is a treated history, the assessment follows the same shape as other cancer underwriting: the recorded staging and grading, the treatment given, the date it finished, and the surveillance record since. Where monitoring rather than treatment was the approach, insurers ask about that specifically because it changes what the file looks like.

The questionnaire separates the investigation pathway from the treatment pathway early.

• Whether a diagnosis has been made, or whether investigation is ongoing.
• Test results and their dates, including earlier ones for comparison.
• For a diagnosis, the recorded staging and grading.
• What treatment was given, or whether monitoring was the approach, and the dates.
• The surveillance schedule and the most recent review.
• Whether any further treatment has been recommended.

Evidence commonly requested

• A urology or oncology report.
• Full GP notes including the test result history.
• Recent surveillance results.

What underwriters look at over time is accumulated years since treatment, stable surveillance results, no recorded progression, and a recent specialist letter. Where the approach is monitoring rather than treatment, insurers generally want a run of results before offering their better terms, so applications made very early in that pathway are the ones most likely to be deferred.

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

• That an outstanding test result will usually stop an application until it is resolved.
• That monitoring rather than treatment is a distinct pathway and is asked about as such.
• Whether a loading offered reduces with time or is fixed.
• Whether a trauma exclusion names the diagnosis or covers cancer generally.
• That the full test result history, not just the latest figure, will reach the underwriter.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications with a cancer 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.

• Insurer appetite for this history differs and moves with reinsurer views, which an adviser tracks.
• An adviser can pre-assess anonymously rather than letting an investigation-stage application create a decline.
• Where a deferral is likely, an adviser can advise waiting rather than submitting and being postponed.
• For a treated history, having the urology report in the file at the outset saves weeks.

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.