When you are taking out a life assurance policy, companies will have to take the existence or potential of medical conditions into consideration. Consequently, you will generally be asked questions about various of conditions including asthma, bronchitis, heart attacks and strokes, among others. Decisions on the cost and availability of these products depend on the individual circumstances of the applicant, such as age and health at application as well as your past history.
Given the ongoing pandemic, it is understandable that Covid-19 would be included in a new application. This is one of the many impacts of the disease on our country and society.
However, we would like to reassure consumers that it is unlikely that once the applicant has fully recovered from an illness that it would have an impact on the policy they are seeking to take out, although this does depend on the individual case, the severity of the impact of the infection and any residual complications. This is no different for Covid-19.
For applicants who are displaying symptoms, undergoing testing or had a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, the policy may be deferred for a short period. Once the individual recovers and is back in good or standard health, then the policy terms will generally be offered. This would usually be at standard rates unless there were complications.
To date, we have heard of no cases among our membership where a policy has been loaded due to Covid-19 following recovery from the illness. Similarly, our members have reported no declines specifically due to Covid-19.
We are aware that consumers have a number of questions and concerns regarding their policies as a result of Covid-19. We have created a Q&A page which may help customers to understand their options for their policy or new policy application.