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How to mitigate the cost of life insurance for smokers

Do you qualify at smoking rates on your life insurance? What about marijuana or vaping? And is there a way around the extra premium?

By Glenn Cooke, BMath, MMT

In insurance since 1986

Last reviewed: 2026-07-07

Do you qualify at smoking rates on your life insurance? Is there any way to get around these higher premiums? What about marijuana smoking? Or Vaping? We'll answer all these questions in this article, and show you some strategies to reduce your premiums.

Definition of smoking

When it comes to life insurance, whether or not you qualify at smoking rates depends on your smoking habits and the companies' definition of smoking. It does NOT depend on whether you qualify yourself as a smoker. This distinction is important, as you may smoke only occasionally, not consider yourself a smoker, and still be rated as a smoker by life insurance companies. In other cases, you may smoke actively and receive non-smoking premiums. In terms of nicotine, if you smoke cigarettes, even once in the last year, then every life insurance company will qualify you as a smoker. Vaping of any kind that may include nicotine is similar — even if you don't actively smoke, vaping nicotine even once will qualify you at smoking premiums.

Pipe, cigar and cigarillo's can be an exception. Many companies will still consider any use of these products in the last year to be a smoker. However some life insurance companies may allow for non-smoking premiums, generally under two conditions: 1) very limited use in the last year, i.e. only a few cigars. 2) you must not show any indication of smoking in your urine sample (you have to 'pee clean').

Life insurance for marijuana users

Whether or not you qualify as a smoker while using only marijuana (no intermingling with tobacco or nicotine products) does not depend on how you partake. Edibles, smoking, or vaping all will qualify you as a marijuana user. However, being a marijuana user does not immediately qualify you at smoking premiums. In fact, many marijuana smokers can now qualify at non-smoking premiums. The exact guideline for when marijuana use will qualify you at smoking premiums vs non-smoking premiums varies by company, but they all boil down to the same basic principle. If you use marijuana occasionally and recreationally then you will likely qualify at non-smoking premiums. Any use above amounts that would be considered occasional and recreational would be considered at smoking premiums.

Full article on life insurance for marijuana users →

How to reduce your smoking premiums

You can't directly reduce your premiums if you are considered a smoker — the premiums are the premiums. However there is a strategy that we can implement that can effectively reduce the premiums. The strategy rests on the assumption that you're likely to quit smoking for a full year, within the next couple of years. If that's the case, then here's how you can reduce your life insurance premiums.

Step 1: Purchase the shortest term policy that you can find (generally a term 10), which will be at smoking premiums. This will be a drastic premium reduction over a term 20 or term 30 at smoking premiums.
Step 2: Quit smoking for a full year.
Step 3: Request for reconsideration to reduce your premiums on your current policy to be non-smoking premiums.
Step 4: Exchange your term 10 policy for a new term 20 or term 30 policy.

The effect of this is that you're paying substantially reduced Term 10 premiums instead of Term 20 or Term 30 premiums, until you qualify at nonsmoking premiums — this could reduce your life insurance premiums by half. Then once you qualify at nonsmoking premiums, use the exchange option to switch to the longer term that you originally wanted, but now at non-smoking premiums. Roughly, this strategy will provide you with premiums that are similar to non-smoking premiums.

Full walkthrough of the quitting-smokers strategy →

What if I start smoking later?

If you qualify correctly for non-smoking premiums now, and later smoke in a fashion that would mean your life insurance premiums should be for a smoker, what happens then? The good news is: nothing happens. Life insurance companies cannot retroactively change your policy once it's issued, and they can't take into account your future unexpected actions, at that time in the future. The life insurance company cannot modify your policy in the future if you start smoking, start skydiving, or take up a risky occupation. Your future insurability is the risk that the company takes on when they issue the policy — so, no, if you should smoke in the future it won't change your existing life insurance policies.

Video library

Short-form videos covering the same material.

The insurance definition of smoking explained

Read transcript

In this video, we're going to look at the definition of smoking within the context of a life insurance policy. Importantly, the definition that gets used is the definition used by the insurance company, not consumers. So it's possible that a consumer might say "well I'm not a smoker" and the insurance company says "in our context you are" and you're going to qualify at smoking premiums. Let's look at cigarettes first. One cigarette a year will qualify you at smoking premiums. Any cigarettes at all and you'll be looking at smoking premiums. In terms of marijuana, if you use a low amount of marijuana occasionally or recreationally then many life insurance companies in Canada today will actually qualify you at nonsmoker premiums. But if you cross their limits then they'll again consider you a smoker. The last three are kind of in a group. It's pipe, cigars, and cigarillos. Most companies will consider you a smoker if you smoke even one of those at all. There are occasional exceptions that are very company dependent. If you're a cigar smoker and very occasionally, so if you smoke one or two cigars a year on the golf course, then some companies will qualify you at nonsmoker premiums but any use above that will qualify you at smoker premiums.

Life insurance for smokers — how to save money

Read transcript

In this video, we're going to look at a strategy that can help smokers who are planning on quitting save substantially in the earlier years of their policy. Now typically what you might think of doing is purchasing something like a term 20 policy at smoking premiums and then once you qualify at nonsmoking premiums go through the paperwork, reduce the policy down to nonsmoker premiums. So you pay smoker premiums for a couple of years then you drop it down and now you're paying nonsmoking premiums for the duration of the policy. There's a better way. Instead of purchasing a term 20 initially, we purchase a term 10 policy which will have much cheaper premiums in the early years of the policy but for the same life insurance coverage. Once you qualify at nonsmoking premiums we do two things. Number 1, we re-qualify you down to nonsmoker rates. So now you've got a nonsmoking term 10 policy which isn't what we want — we want a term 20 policy. But then we use the exchange option at the same time to bump you out to a term 20. Net result, instead of paying term 20 smoking premiums in the early years of the policy, you're paying term 10 and saving substantially. So it's a much cheaper strategy for the same end result.

Deep dives

Life insurance for smokers planning to quit

The full quitting-strategy walkthrough with a worked example.

Life insurance for marijuana users

Where recreational use qualifies at non-smoker rates in Canada today.

Term life insurance exchange option

The policy feature that makes the term 10-first strategy work.

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