Stop Applying for Life Insurance!
Okay, here is the situation: you’re a doctor, and you want to buy into a new practice. You have been approved for the bank loan, but the lender wants you to have life insurance in force to cover the debt. This is par for the course.
However, you have recently been diagnosed with Diabetes Type II. You are taking the prescribed medication, but your physician says you have to wait a few months to confirm your blood sugar is under control.
Now you start to panic a bit. The clock is ticking to close on the bank loan, and you are eager to move forward with this new business venture. You are nervous that the newly- diagnosed medical condition may make you ineligible for coverage at this time. You are also concerned that if you can get coverage, it will cost you an arm and a leg.
So you do what you think any prudent businessman would do: you start shopping. You go online, and contact brokers, and start filing applications with as many insurance companies as you can find. Why not? Shouldn’t you have as many irons in the fire as possible?
No, you should not – not when it comes to life insurance for people with a medical condition. Contrary to common belief, this is the exact wrong thing to do. Submitting multiple applications at once with multiple brokers will in all likelihood get you nowhere, waste your valuable time, and cause a lot of aggravation.
Here are three reasons why:
No direction
Not every company will be competitive for a diabetic. Even among those that are, not every one will be able to accelerate the underwriting to meet your loan deadline. The selection of carrier must be very precise. The odds of choosing the right one by shotgunning applications across the marketplace are very remote.
No credibility
How many times have you seen people shop until they drop, yet not buy anything? It happens all the time, and underwriters know it. If you want one to act now and cut you a break, then you have to show that you are a serious buyer. If you come across as somebody who’s going to keep shopping, and play one company against the other to hold out until the very best deal, odds are the underwriter you want will take a pass.
No advocacy
Let’s suppose one of your brokers gets lucky and actually connects with the right underwriter. That is only the beginning of the ball game. A diabetic case – especially one that needs to be placed quickly – has a lot of room for error. Many situations can and will arise that require intervention by the broker on your behalf. If he is not an expert in representing candidates like you, then these issues will not get resolved, and you will not receive an approval as quoted.
The bottom line is that life insurance shopping should be a very targeted process, under the guidance of a seasoned specialist. This will position you to get the product you want, at the price you want, when you want it.
Make sense?