Moneygate

Get into shape to discount life insurance

We are always being told about the health benefits of keeping fit and how by doing so it can help us to lead longer and fuller lives.

But according to Annabel Green of national IFA  Moneygate, the good news is that there can also be hidden rewards for those who stick to their healthy regimes. For as well as the obvious benefits, there can be a financial bonus, as lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise are increasingly used by insurers to calculate the cost of life insurance policies.

Prudential for example set up PruHealth, whereby customers participate in a Vitality programme. By exercising regularly, eating well and looking after their health they can benefit from life insurance policies that are up to 25% lower.

Obviously the industry recognises that there are clear and tangible links between the way someone lives their life and the likelihood of them having to claim on their insurance, so can offer healthier people cheap life cover.

Lifestyle factors are becoming increasingly important in rating life and critical illness insurance too, so it’s worth bearing this in mind if you want low cost health insurance or discount life insurance.

Body Mass Index, the ratio between your height and your weight, has become an essential warning sign for insurers. BMI is calculated by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing this figure by your height in metres multiplied by itself.

The World Health Organisation classes a BMI of 30 or above as obese. Whilst it is quite a crude measure - a very fit rugby player could have a high BMI, for example - it is a key indicator for insurers.

Those with a BMI of 30 to 35 will pay a little extra for cover, those with a BMI of 35 to 40 may have to pay 50 to 100% more and once the BMI passes 40, cover may be hard to come by. You can check your own BMI online at nhs.uk/tools.

Shedding a few pounds before you apply for cover makes a difference as your weight at the start is used to set premiums for the duration of the policy and will help you bag low cost health insurance – but weight is not the only factor.

Moneygate's Annabel Green said: “There is a greater focus by insurers on vices such as drinking and smoking. Questions on how much you drink are already standard, but we may soon see more about what you drink and where you drink as insurers try to build a clearer picture of lifestyle for assessing life insurance policies.”

Stopping smoking will make the biggest difference to your health - and to your wallet. Someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day will save up to £2,135 a year by not buying seven packs each week.

But you have to be patient to reap other financial rewards. Insurers will treat a smoker as a non-smoker only after 12 months without a puff.

Moneygate's Annabel Green added: “People who have managed to give up smoking for a year should be on the phone to their broker now or looking to find cheap life cover or low cost health insurance.”

There is no point fibbing to try to jump the gun and beat the 12-month deadline though as Insurers use tests on a selection of applications for life or health cover to check that people genuinely are non-smokers such as saliva swabs taken from the mouth that looks for traces of cotinine, a by-product of nicotine.

The difference in premiums for a non-smoker can be huge but if you’ve got any questions or queries about how any of these factors may affect what you have to pay out, the best advice is to speak to an adviser.

For more information go to www. moneygate.co.uk