High Risk Life Insurance: Tips to Find Low Rates with Medical Conditions & Risky Occupations, and The Best High-Risk Companies

by Jeff Root

Last Updated: February 2021

There are dozens of different things that could cause you to be considered a high-risk applicant for life insurance. In general, high-risk life insurance policies are going to be more expensive, and in some cases, you could be declined for life insurance coverage altogether.

The key to finding affordable high-risk life insurance is knowing how to shop and find the right carriers for your situation. There are plenty of options to get high-risk life insurance coverage.

It’s not as easy as a traditional plan, but if you have an experienced insurance agent, you can still find an affordable policy. Below, we’ll show you how to get the best high-risk life insurance policy with affordable rates for your situation.

Life Insurance is Boring. Let’s Get To The Root Of It! Here are the key takeaways…

High risk life insurance is more complicated & more expensive than traditional life insurance. People with high-risk medical conditions, diseases, occupations, hobbies, or habits can still get life insurance. Work with an experienced independent agent to find the best life insurance company for your situation.

What is High-Risk Life Insurance?

High-risk life insurance is a type of life insurance for people who are considered risky to insure. Typically, high-risk life insurance is more expensive because the person being insured has been deemed more likely to pass away by the life insurance company.

Here are several examples of people who might need high-risk life insurance.

  • If you have health complications or medical conditions that don’t allow you to qualify for traditional life insurance, like cancer or diabetes.
  • If you have certain lifestyle habits like smoking, many companies will consider you a high-risk applicant.
  • If you have a hobby or a profession that puts you in life-threatening situations, like skydiving or scuba diving.

Not all your medical conditions, hobbies, or lifestyle choices are considered high-risk. We’ll go over more below.

Life Insurance for Over 26 High-Risk Medical Conditions & Diseases

If you have been diagnosed with a medical condition or a disease and still need life insurance, you need to look at all the best life insurance companies for your specific situation.

To make it easier for you to shop for life insurance, we have written guides on how to shop for life insurance with different medical conditions. Here are several common high-risk medical conditions that may place you in the high-risk life insurance category. We have experience helping people with all these conditions find affordable life insurance.

You will find articles within each category below for more specific conditions and diseases.

Other Common Medical Conditions and Diseases

In addition to those categories, we have written guides on other common medical conditions that might make finding life insurance more challenging.

Doctor for high risk medical conditions

We have worked with hundreds of high-risk life insurance applicants with almost every medical condition. Fill out the quote tool, or give us a call to speak with you about your situation and find the right high-risk life insurance company for you.

Life Insurance with High-Risk Occupations, Hobbies, or Habits

If you have a high-risk occupation, hobby, or habit, you can still find affordable life insurance.

Below are occupations, hobbies, and habits that life insurance companies might consider high risk. Click on the risk to see how to find the best life insurance for each.

Finding the best life insurance with a high risk occupation is possible if you find the right carrier. Fill out the quote tool or contact us to get quotes from multiple companies.

You Might Not Be a High-Risk Applicant If…

If any of the following apply to you, you can likely still qualify for preferred or preferred plus life insurance rates from an insurance provider:

Best High-Risk Life Insurance Companies by Age

The best life insurance company for you will depend on your specific condition, however, we have found the following companies to be great for these particular age groups.

Age Company
39 & under Banner Life Insurance: the way Banner Life prices their substandard business makes them lower cost for high-risk individuals. They approve many risks that other companies decline.
40 – 49 AIG Life Insurance: AIG has lower priced substandard niches.
50 – 59 Prudential Life Insurance: Prudential has underwriting advantages for those with Prostate Cancer, Diabetes, and more.
60 – 69 Banner Life Insurance: the way Banner Life prices their substandard business makes them lower cost for high-risk individuals. They approve many risks that other companies decline.
70 – 75 AIG Life Insurance: AIG has low rates for this age range.
76+ AIG Life Insurance: Not many carriers offer term coverage at this age. AIG does and it takes on more risk than the others.

*Depending on the type of risk you have, the companies above might not be the best fit for you. It’s always best to compare multiple life insurance companies and work with an experienced independent life insurance agent.

8 Tips to Find Low Rates on High-Risk Life Insurance

As a high-risk applicant, you will likely pay more for life insurance. However, there are several ways you can ensure you get the lowest rates possible.

Tip #1: Always Compare Multiple Life Insurance Companies

When shopping for life insurance, you need to know that each life insurance company is going to look at every health issue, occupation, or high-risk situation differently. They all have their own underwriting process and guidelines.

If you want cheap life insurance, you need to pinpoint the company which is going to view your application through the best lens. Some life insurance companies will be more lenient with applicants that have certain medical conditions over others.

Obtaining several quotes from different life insurance companies gives you the opportunity to compare rates and choose the lowest costs possible for high-risk life insurance.

Tip #2: Choose the Right Type of High-Risk Policy

Typically term life insurance is cheaper than permanent coverage. However, for high-risk applicants, that is not always the case.

Sometimes you will find that it is easier to qualify for permanent coverage with a whole life insurance policy than it is with a term life insurance policy. There are ways you can possibly qualify for standard rates with different companies based on the credits and programs they offer for permanent policies.

Tip #3: Work with an Experienced Life Insurance Agent

A good independent agent will know what companies look at certain risks most favorably and paint your risk in the most favorable light to an underwriter. It truly takes an experienced and skilled life insurance agent to work with high-risk individuals.

For example, one agent may get an offer for Table 4 rates at $200 per month with Mutual of Omaha. A more experienced agent might get a Standard rating for you at $100 per month for the same risk with the same exact company, saving you $100 per month!

It matters who you use.

Tip #4: Improve Your Health Class

Underwriters will always offer the best possible rate class, given their findings during the life insurance application process, medical exam, and medical records. However, a good high-risk life insurance agent can sway an underwriter’s opinion if they’re on the cusp of one health classification or another.

High-risk whole life insurance is underwritten differently than high-risk term life insurance.

For example, you could receive a quote for $300 per month for a term life insurance policy but receive a lower offer for a whole life insurance policy for the same exact risk.

Tip #5: Follow Your Doctor’s Recommendations

Make sure you’re following your doctor’s orders in regard to your health. Whatever health problem you may have, if the life insurance carrier sees that you’re doing all you can to control it, you will get lower rates.

Tip #6: Stop Unhealthy Habits

Smoker with high risk life insurance

Cutting bad habits is a great way to save on life insurance.

Maybe it’s late-night junk food binges or smoking cigarettes. When carriers see you making better lifestyle decisions, they will give you lower life insurance quotes.

Tip #7: Purchase the Right Amount of Life Insurance Coverage

It’s also important that you purchase the right amount of life insurance coverage. If your plan is too large, you could be wasting money on additional coverage that you don’t need.

Before you apply for insurance coverage, it’s important that you calculate how much life insurance you need. If your plan is too small, your family could be left with additional bills, but too large of a plan will be a waste of money.

Tip #8: Look Closely at the Underwriting Guidelines

Many providers will publish their life insurance underwriting process and guidelines that will clearly define how they evaluate each life insurance application.

Some companies will look at your blood pressure, family history, height, and weight, and then take that information to see which rating class you may fit best into. You can then use that information and the underwriting guidelines for each insurance carrier to see which insurance company is offering you the best rates.

Consider Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance for Serious Medical Conditions

For those with very high-risk factors, including those looking for life insurance with HIV or cancer with a negative outlook, consider guaranteed acceptance life insurance.

These are more expensive and typically have a 2-3 year waiting period before full benefits are paid. However, almost no one can be declined for this type of coverage.

Work with Our Experts to Find a High-Risk Life Insurance Policy

At Rootfin, we help people find affordable rates after receiving high quotes or even being declined for life insurance coverage. In many cases, we perform a life insurance pre-qualification.

Here is the process:

  1. We complete an anonymous “pre-qualification” letter with detailed information regarding your health and send it out to all our life insurance companies.
  2. The life insurance companies will make tentative offers (or decline).
  3. We sort through all of them and present you with the best one. It takes about 2-3 days for all the offers to come in.
  4. If you decide to apply, we get that “pre-qualification” offer in writing and attach it to your formal application. As long as everything in your medical records and lab results confirms what you told us, that will be the rate you get.

Be honest and detailed about your health, and let us do the life insurance shopping for you. We work with different health issues every day and understand how different health issues will affect life insurance.

How to Apply for High-Risk Life Insurance

Depending on your risk, it will be difficult to know which life insurance company is best to apply with. Our experienced agents have helped thousands of people secure affordable high-risk life insurance by knowing which companies are best for each applicant, and comparing quotes.

You won’t pay any extra fees by applying through an agent.

Just call us at (888)430-7668 and ask for a high-risk life insurance quote.

We’ve helped people find affordable high risk life insurance policies for over a decade and have probably helped someone with a similar situation to you.

About Jeff Root
Jeff Root
is the owner of Rootfin. He is an independent life insurance agent, licensed in all 50 states & the District of Columbia. Jeff is also licensed to sell disability insurance and medicare insurance. Jeff is an accomplished author and a speaker at industry-leading insurance conferences around the US. He has helped 1,000's of people purchase insurance online and over the phone.

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