Life Insurance Questions

[Scotttyd]

I as not sure where to post this, but how do most people's life and AD&D insurance treat scuba diving accidents? I do have DAN coverage in addition to my health insurance, so that is not the issue here. I emailed my human resource director and she said
"I will review the plan document and follow up with you within a few days. My initial thoughts is that this would be considered high risk and would probably not be covered but I'll let you know for sure. Thanks."

What are other people's experience with this? If it is not covered, what are some other resources you have used? I am 30 years old and would like approx 300K in life insurance (no kids just a wife).

 

[covediver]

Some policies have a rider on them that will only pay the actual cash value (whole life) if your death is caused by scuba, skydiving, flying a private plane, etc. These riders were quite common in the 1970s. However, not all insurance companies had them, so it does vary. The presence or absence of these riders on a policy is not universal.

 

[whargrave]

My life insurance has a rating for my scuba diving which will cover me if I die in a Scuba accident
My personal disability and critical illness exclude Scuba Diving all together

 

[Scubagolf]

My health insurance does not exclude coverage for diving. Neither does my term life insurance, but I obtained the term insurance the year before I started diving, so I answered "no" to the application question concerning whether I intended to scuba dive, which was true in early 2000. Life insurance will generally cost more for divers, although it will vary from company to company. I think some carriers will rate divers only a little more if the applicant is certified and does not intend to dive below 100'.

 

[BTravlin]

I have a 20 yr level term life policy that I purchased not long ago. The underwriter had me submit written answers to questions regarding average number of dives per year, average depth, etc. Very basic stuff. I think my premium was slightly higher due to diving but I'm fully covered.

 

[I Dive]

This question can't be properly answered for an individual on these forums. We can provide general info, personal experiences, etc... But, when it comes down to it, you are going to have to ask the insurance company. They are all different and it doesn't necessarily matter which company either. A company that may included it in area A may also exclude it in area B. Companies that insure in many states likely have differences in coverage from state to state, possibly even more localized than that. I do, however, think it's great that you threw this out here. It certainly is something people need to think about.

 

[Rick Inman]

All I can say is, if you ever plan on getting into technical diving, get your life insurance before you do. There is a standard scuba diving questionnaire that I recently filled out, and the new rate for some more term compared to what I currently have (bought before I started technical diving) is through the roof!

My agent told me that, as long as I was honest on the application I filled out years ago before I got into tech, that policy will cover me now even if I croak doing a technical dive. But now that I'm doing all that deep diving, getting more costs a fortune.

Here is the questionnaire:

 

[616fun]

My personal experience has been that some insurance companies ask better questions than others. Find the ones that don't ask the really good scuba questions and you'll be fine.

 

[Jayde323]

I work for a life insurance company and I have been told by some of the agents that the magic number is 50 feet. If a diver dives deeper than 50 feet, thats when the underwriter will rate up the policy. I am not an agent and do not know what else is factored in, but the agent that told me this was an agent for almost 40 years and a diver himself. As he told me "When you get life insurance, just remember, you never dive deeper than 50 feet".

 

[nilsdiver]

All I can say is, if you ever plan on getting into technical diving, get your life insurance before you do. There is a standard scuba diving questionnaire that I recently filled out, and the new rate for some more term compared to what I currently have (bought before I started technical diving) is through the roof!

My agent told me that, as long as I was honest on the application I filled out years ago before I got into tech, that policy will cover me now even if I croak doing a technical dive. But now that I'm doing all that deep diving, getting more costs a fortune.

Here is the questionnaire:

Hmmm... They ask for "Average Depth"... Just mix in enough shallow dives... and discount!!!???