What is fully underwritten Life Insurance?

Fully underwritten can mean greater certainty

One of the key points of confusion can centre around the difference between “fully underwritten” cover, which is assessed upfront, versus products that are not fully underwritten, where a more detailed assessment of health and other factors is made at the time of claim.

NobleOak provides “fully underwritten” Life, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD), Trauma and Income Protection insurance cover. This means that they ask a number of health, occupation and lifestyle questions upfront and sometimes require medical tests and medical record details, to allow them to fully assess the risk they are insuring. This also means the customer has more certainty in terms of knowing exactly what they are covered for. The costs associated with the medical tests, if required, are usually covered by NobleOak.

This process does tend to take longer than cover that is not underwritten, but results in far greater certainty about the risks being taken to insure the customer, and more importantly greater certainty of payout at claim time.

Policies that are not underwritten and assessed at application, usually contain broader exclusion clauses which apply to a wider range of pre-existing medical conditions. In short, this generally means that any medical condition that is currently being treated, or in some cases (depending on the policy) has ever been treated by a doctor in the past, will be excluded from the customer’s policy. With some policies, a claimable event caused by any of these pre-existing conditions may result in a claim being declined.

Although this is becoming less common, some insurance policies exclude all pre-existing conditions from coverage, even though the customer may not have had treatment over the past 20 years.  It always pays to compare a number of policies, and consider how broad any exclusions for pre-existing conditions are.

Policies that are not fully underwritten often result in the Life insurance company performing a more detailed medical history review at the time of a claim arising, and this process will nearly always delay payment of the claim.

At NobleOak, we believe our customers should have a high degree of faith and confidence in their Life insurance cover, particularly as they are paying premiums for the security of being covered. By completing a full underwriting process prior to the Life insurance cover or Income Protection policy commencing, customers will know exactly what they are covered for under their policy with NobleOak.

In some instances, NobleOak’s acceptance may be subject to a medical loading (an increase in premium rates) or an exclusion specific to a customers’s particular situation. In these circumstances, we always ensure the customer understands the basis for the loading or exclusion and that there is agreement to the terms before the cover commences.

A range of fully underwritten life insurance products are available under NobleOak’s FlexiCover, including:

• Life insurance - pays a lump sum if you die or become terminally ill,
• Income protection insurance - helps support lost income for a period if you can't work due to sickness or injury,
• Trauma insurance - pays a lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses listed in the PDS, and
• Total and permanent disablement insurance (TPD) – pays a lump sum if you become permanently disabled as the result of a sickness or injury and are unable to work again.

To get a quote from NobleOak, speak to their friendly team on 1300 108 490 or go to flexicoverlife.com.au/qudos