Smoking definitely increases your life insurance premiums. The general rule of thumb is that smoking will double your life insurance premiums – or alternatively, nonsmokers pay half the premiums.

However the most important consideration here is what qualifies as non-smoking premiums. Importantly, what the life insurance company is not doing here is deciding if you’re a smoker or not – you are welcome to judge that yourself. What they are doing is determining if they are going to charge you smoking premiums or not. And that’s a seperate matter entirely and is generally based on facts that may conflict with your personal definition.

The standard definition to receive non-smoking premiums is whether you’ve had any tobacco or related products in the last year. If the answer to that is yes, then you are actually going to be considered a smoker with a few exceptions we’ll cover below.

What if you only smoke a half a pack a week? I think most people will appreciate that while someone might not consider themselves a smoker, a life insurance company will qualify you at smoking rates.

But what about someone who only smokes on the golf course in the summer? Or who only smokes twice a year on weekends away? Or someone who’s smoked only one cigarette last year? In each of those cases, consumers would likely call themselves nonsmoker. But in each of those cases, a life insurance company will qualify you at smoking rates.

So are there exceptions? Yes, a few, and they are very company dependent. If you fall into any of these categories you’ll need to work with a life insurance broker to find a company that will give you an exception or who has lighter rules around smoking. So without further ado, here are some possible exceptions:

• Occasional pipe smokers.
• Occasional cigar smokers.
• Marijuana smokers

Importantly, we know of no Canadian life insurance company that makes exceptions for occassional cigarette smoking.  

Failure to disclose your smoking habits during the application process can void your policy after your death (can, and likely will). However if you do qualify at smoking premiums, you should read our Life Insurance for Smokers article to learn strategies to reduce your premiums.

Life insurance for people who vape

Looking for life insurance, but vape? You’re going to get qualified as a smoker by life insurance companies.

We should clarify – it does depend on what you vape. If you’re using marijuana, you may be able to qualify as a nonsmoker regardless of the delivery method.  

However any other type of vaping, including non-tobacco-non-nicotine options, will still qualify you at smoker premiums.

Clearly there’s correlation between cigarette smoking and vaping nicotine derivatives, so that would seem justified. But why the premium increase for vaping non-nicotine substances?

An underwriter explained this to me once. Apparently much of the non-nicotine vaping products are produced in countries with poor regulation. The underwriter assured me that even in the products labelled as non-nicotine, that there actually was nicotine. And even where there wasn’t, there were substances that were at least as bad healthwise as nicotine.

So what should you do? Fortechniques to mitigate the costs, see our article on Life Insurance for Smokers. 

Life insurance for marijuana users

I remember the good old days when we used CD’s instead of streaming, and life insurance companies treated marijuana users as smokers for the purposes of life insurance policies.

Today however, most Canadian life insurance companies treat recreational marijuana users as nonsmokers. So maybe the good old days are best left behind us - some things are better today!

However you should appreciate that it’s not as clear cut as ‘we disregard marijuana entirely from the equation’. It’s possible to smoke marijuana and have problems with your life insurance application.

First, if you combine marijuana with tobacco, this is a potential consideration – tobacco is smoking with life insurance companies.

Next, the non-smoking designation is intended for recreational users only. If you’re using marijuana consistently and routinely, you may not recieve non-smoking premiums. Marijuana useage is correlated with a number of mortality factors, so companies won’t disregard it’s use entirely.

Lastly, some marijuana users use it for it’s medicinal purposes (another nod to the backwardness of the good old days – I’ve worked with people who’’s medical conditions have prevented them from living a reasonable life, and who’ve almost entirely eliminated their medical conditions using marijuana as a treatment.). And while the treatment itself may not be an issue, the underlying medical condition can absolutely be a concern for life insurance underwriters, and thus impact your life insurance premiums.   

So for most recreational users, you should expect to receive non-smoking premiums – a far cry from years past where a single puff one time could brand you with smoking premiums for a year. For those that fall outside that range, your best bet is to work with a life insurance advisor who can evaluate your useage and suggest a company that tends to be more lenient with related concerns.