Life insurance for technical diving

[Jake]

I know life insurance has been covered elsewhere on the board. That said, I'm having difficulty getting the exact answer that I want from reading through search results. So, to that end, I want to see what others have to say about my particular situation and if anyone has recommendations for what to do about life insurance.

As of this writing I have about 130 dives in just over 12 months (I got O/W certified late January 2006), and now work here and there as a PADI DM. I have a decent amount of experience to about 100 feet, and only a few dives past that. I plan on taking the PADI deep specialty in the next two months, and I have overhead and wreck training, but not much experience as of yet. I'm also EANx cert'd to <= 40%.

I am in good physical shape, currently enrolled in a 4-6 day/week Krav Maga program (martial arts), and don't have any other risk indicators besides scuba. That is, no other hazardous activities, and no specific dietary or behavioral issues (e.g. smoking, bad family histories), though I suspect my cholesterol might be a little high. I'm currently 29 and unmarried, no kids.

Technical diving is in my plans. I have a strong scientific background and technical activity background (e.g. used to rock climb, I'm good at technical hike planning, etc.); couple those with a ridiculous attention to detail and dive planning and good physical fitness, and I think I'm the ideal candidate. However, based on the equipment required, I'm looking at about a 2-year delay before I have everything in place.

To finally get to my question then, what do I do about life insurance? I don't know if it matters to insurance companies that my technical diving plans primarily include deco/gas switch dives to a limit of about 200 feet, with the target being primarily external and limited penetration wrecks (something like the 130fsw+ wrecks at Truk Lagoon). Cave is not planned, nor is rebreather. I don't know enough about technical gas planning to know if such dives will require hypoxic mixes or not (I've heard that could be an issue with these companies).

Should I not tell the insurance company about this, and wait to start training until after the two-year period (I've heard that insurance plans often have a 2-year "probation" period) and just sign up now? Do I wait until after I have the certs and then sign up? Or, are there firms that don't care or just specialize in this type of insurance and it doesn't matter?

Any similar experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SHRIKE]

Hi Jake, I'm an agent in Louisiana. The way Life and any other insurance works is that you are underwritten at the time of your application. If you are not doing Technical diving at the time of your application then you don't need to mention it. You usually have to fill out a SCUBA Diving form to go along with your application, but you only put your current diving stats on the form. If you want a copy of the SCUBA form that we use just PM me a fax # or email. Personally, I would take out any insurance I was going to get before I started Technical Diving.

 

[Blackwood]

^^

That's pretty much my experience. When you apply for insurance, they ask about your life/lifestyle as is, not as it may be in the future.

 

[Warren_L]

It works pretty well the same here in Canada. I am a life agent (amongst other things) and have done policies for divers before. In fact, the more you dive, or hold a professional certification (DM, instructor) the less of an issue it is. The belief is that this means you're going to be more proficient in general.

 

[captndale]

When I last applied for life insurance I was asked if I was a diver. When I answered, "yes" I had to fill out a seperate form which asked a series of questions about my diving. It asked questions such as, "What was the average depth of your deepest dive?" I answered them truthfully. You would be surprised how shallow the "average depth" of a very deep technical dive is.

 

[VinceDS]

If you are going to go the techical route, get all of the insurance you can get now (and extra insurance you may remotely anticipate needing in the future)...before you get into technical diving. As the posts above allude to, when you apply for insurance it is based on your current history and does not take into account things you may consider undertaking in the future.

To give you an idea on costs, the last policy I took out (pre-tech diving) was based on my diving 110 dives a year, 30% of the dives in the 100 to 120 fsw range. All dives withing NDL. For a 500K policy, 20 year term, I am paying 1,800 per year. I don't smoke and am in very good shape. I went with a top rated insurance company.

 

[ianr33]

When I last applied for life insurance I was asked if I was a diver. When I answered, "yes" I had to fill out a seperate form which asked a series of questions about my diving. It asked questions such as, "What was the average depth of your deepest dive?" I answered them truthfully. You would be surprised how shallow the "average depth" of a very deep technical dive is.

Now thats funny!

 

[caymaniac]

I am an agent in Mich. You don't want to give any more info to an insurance company than you have to. I go along with the idea to get as much as you can, preferedly term.
I see you are 29, the rates should be inexpensive for a 20 or 30 year term, I suggest you do not purchase whole life, variable life or any combination that you might recieve a quote on. Find an agent in CA to help you, look for a independent - an agent not tied to one insurance ( it's called a captive agent), but one that can quote from 5 to 6 companies. I have wrote other divers for life insurance, my latest client paid alittle more because he was a diver.

 

[Jake]

When I last applied for life insurance I was asked if I was a diver. When I answered, "yes" I had to fill out a seperate form which asked a series of questions about my diving. It asked questions such as, "What was the average depth of your deepest dive?" I answered them truthfully. You would be surprised how shallow the "average depth" of a very deep technical dive is.

So in addition to helping you off-gas, long hangs are good for lowering life insurance premiums as well! Is there anything they can't do?

 

[Bullswan]

I'm pretty surprised by some of the answers you've had. I too am in the "insurance world" but a quick look through the forms I have handy shows that ALL of them ask if you "currently or if you anticipate in the future" doing any of these hazardous activities ie. Hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving, rock climbing........

If you answer truthfully, yes, then a new form follows up with specifics. If you answer not truthfully, and something happens to you in the next two years AND they investigate and find out your answers were less than truthful then they can either deny the claim or pay the claim based on how much coverage your policy would have been for IF you had been truthful.

After two years then all bets are off and you can stand up and scream "HA I WAS AND AM A SCUBA DIVER AND YOU DIDN'T FIND OUT and nothing will happen to the policy.

The choice is yours.