Many people think that only medical grounds are the prime factors for which a person might get a refusal when trying to get insurance.
Basic common sense tells us that if a patient has a long history of heart problems, an insurer will not cover him for heart problems on a new policy. And if someone is a smoker or a heavy drinker, he could have a higher risk of early death compared to the average person.
For the most part, reasons of medical history is a generally understood and accepted reason for someone unable to get insured.
There are, however, many non-medical reasons for which an insurer may refuse you to insure you.
They are after all, profit-driven entities that are expected to take decisive action in order to reach their specific objective.
Objectives are usually related to making as much profits as humanly possible.
Knowing that premiums provide insurers a long term recurring cash flow that will in all likelihood register at least 50% profits, one wonders why under any circumstances would anyone be turned away from insurance.
Well it must be under unnaturally high risk of losing money for an insurer to say no to someone.
One of such reasons is your lifestyle, if you have hobbies like skydiving, arctic sailing or scuba diving, you are putting yourself under extra risk of injuries and loss of life compared to the average citizen.
These hobbies are considered to be life threatening.
So most of the insurance companies have policies in which they mention injuries and loss of life due to certain hobbies are not eligible for claims.
If a person has an active interest for these physically risky interests, he might get rejected especially in the case of life insurance.
Your profession and other details also matters to a certain extent.
Some professions are generally more dangerous to others.
For example, a driver will in no doubt spend more time on the road compared to the average person and therefore have a higher chance of running into traffic accidents.
Here are some other reasons insurer can refuse you on non-medical ground.
Professions
There are certain professions which come under a sensitive zone in the list of an insurance company. Should your profession come under this dreaded list, you will be wasting your time with an agent.
One such field with a risky profile is the job of a pilot.
There are many companies which have clear guide-lines for not giving insurance to a person who is a pilot.
This field is considered to be a very risky one. Every minute a pilot is in the air, there is a danger that a single event like an eagle flying into it’s engine or a mischievous lightning bolt, that will send the plane hurling to the ground.
Maybe that’s also why it is such a glamorous job.
Do note that due the nature of such professions, most employers recognize them and have alternatives to insurance for their employees. Or in many cases, insurance is offered through their employers themselves.
Other risky professions include underground miner, lumberman, commercial fisherman.
Other than an outright refusal to insure, an insurer may choose to increase premiums to very high levels to offset the risk they are taking on a client.
Hobbies
Other than skydiving and scuba diving as mentioned earlier, other risky hobbies include amateur race car racing, hang gliding, bungee jumping, mountain climbing.
In all these activities, you could sense an air or danger just by mentioning them.
The truth is, one of the reasons enthusiasts of these sports love them so much is the risk factor involved. This means that they implicitly know of the dangers involved.
Age
Age is another cardinal factor for which an insurance company might avoid dealing with you.
Generally, an age of around the age of 40 or below would be a comfortable number to an insurer.
But those who are of 50 years or higher might have trouble in getting any form of coverage for their lives as it is a risky stage to insure the life of a person.
What now?
When you do unwillingly got into the “risky” list, one or all these scenarios will most probably happen.
The first being a straight out major premium increase or setting a time frame.
The second being an emotionless refusal to insure. The third being a decline in a specific rider.
An increase in premium could run in the region of up to an additional of $5 for every $1,000 worth of coverage. So don’t be surprised that you could be paying about 5 times what an average person pays for life insurance.
And if you are buying insurance for the first time, do seek help from friends and colleagues as there are bound to be people experienced enough to warn you of critical factors to consider.