Recently we refianced our home and elected to include insurance in the event that one of us died the majority of the mortgage would be covered. One of the questions of the application asked if we participated in activites such as skydiving or scuba diving? Have any of you been denied life/mortgage insurance because you scuba dive?
Life Insurance and Scuba diving
- Thread starter ColdH20diving
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ColdH20diving:
You may be asked to answer some questions regarding the type of diving you do. As long as you are a recreational diver you should be ok. Being a pro diver can be a problem that could result in a denial ,exclusion of that risk or a higher premium.Good luck.
Before our child was born late last year, my wife and I bought life insurance. I was able to get it but it was expensive compared to my wife's premium. It wasn't the recreational diving or instructing that pushed the cost up. It was the technical diving and instruction that did it. There was a section on the application in which the applicant must list the number of dives and depths. Get this; the more diving you do, the higher the rates. You would think with more experience you would be less of a risk. Turns out the more you dive, the more chances something might happen. If you are thinking about pursuing technical diving, it might be best to get the insurance before you take the course (even if you aren't married or have no children) so you can lock in the policy premium. My 2 cents...
bhapps24
Guest
I got my policy no problem answering the questions honestly three years ago. It did not push up the cost at all. I am only ow certfied. I went with SBLI and am happy with them. good luck.
When my existing life insurance policy was issued, SCUBA diving didn't really exist in the States. Of course my Dad bought it when the only diving I did was in the womb! No concerns about answering any questions re: SCUBA since I don't believe in adding any more policies.
Hank49
Contributor
I was asked this by my agent selling me insurance a couple years ago. But when I told him I was OWSI, he said it didn't matter. But I guess the premiums would be higher if you're a diver.
I'm a licensed life insurance agent (amongst other things) here in Canada and what happens here with people who dive, it really depends on the situation. Divers are asked to fill out an addendum to the application to explain the details of their diving, including types of dives, frequency, certification level, etc. For new divers and those who are planning to learn, it can potentially be a bit more of an issue (note that it may not always be the case). For experienced divers and those who dive frequently (as well as professionals such as DMs and Instructors) it is generally not an issue, and your premiums would be no different than if you were a non-diver. As long as you answer the questions to the best of your knowledge, you generally should have no problems.
abitton
Contributor
What happens if you had a policy before you considered and began diving? Are you obligated to inform your insurance company?
Warren_L:
abitton:
No. The insurance company evaluated you when you made application; events arising thereafter are not relevant. If you died while diving during the policy's "contestable period" (generally, two years from date of policy issue), the insurance company would investigate to see if you in fact were a diver at the time you bought the policy, and thus had misrepresented your diving on the application. After the end of the contestable period, though, any misrepresentations on the application cannot be used to deny a claim.
abitton:
Valwood is correct. The key is misrepresentation. If when your policy was underwritten and you really had no plans or intention to dive, and that's what you stated, then you are fine if you subsequently decided to take up diving. If, however, you planned all along to do so and misrepresented yourself, and the insurance company somehow found out, then you're going to run into problems.
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