Smoking and life insurance
Smoking can dramatically increase the premiums for a person’s life insurance, and cutting down on smoking can also cut down the premiums.
Smoking is a bad thing when it comes to life insurance because it’s the one legal habit with the biggest effect on a person’s health and life expectancy. This varies according to age and other health factors, but there’s a strong general correlation between smoking and reduced life expectancy. Because most life insurance costs are judged according to the chance of a death or debilitating illness, and so a pay-out, therefore life insurance premiums are judged on smoking.
Smoking is also seen by many life insurance providers as an indication of other unhealthy habits, such as a lack of exercise, excessive alcohol consumption, or a poor diet. Although these other factors are important when an insurance company assesses an applicant’s life expectancy, smoking remains the primary lifestyle factor that can influence the cost of premiums.
Giving up smoking can lower a person’s life insurance premiums, although it’s likely he or she will not receive the full reduction to the level of a non-smoker because of having smoked in the past. This is particularly true for those who quit after reaching their mid-thirties, as a number of health issues linger for years or for life. But of course there’s still some life insurance benefit from giving up smoking.
Not only does it directly lower the premiums and improve the person’s long-term health, and hence life expectancy, on its own, it is also an indication that he or she has begun taking health seriously and so is likely to have made other lifestyle changes, as well.
Although a person can receive lower life insurance premiums through saying they don’t smoke when they do, this is highly inadvisable. The life insurance can be voided through such a lie, particularly if the person dies through some smoking-related complication. Even if he or she dies through a cause unrelated to smoking, some life insurance companies may still seek to withhold the payout in these circumstances. In short, the money spent on the life insurance will be wasted.
In life insurance terms, it’s better to have never smoked or to have given it up early. However, even quitting late in life can have a dramatic effect on life insurance premiums.