If you're asking whether you'll qualify for preferred vs standard life insurance premiums, the answer is — we don't know (and neither does any life insurance broker). There are however some things we can do in order to mildly increase your chances. Further, we recommend that you assume standard premiums (because this is what you'll most likely receive), and there's no downside to assuming this when you apply.
However, before we get started, you should know that in the past, life insurance companies offered preferred premiums to those that qualified, down as low as $100,000 of life insurance. Today however this feature has mostly disappeared. Some life insurance companies do not offer preferred premiums at all. Others require a minimum of $2MM of life insurance coverage to be considered. Which means for most of us, preferred premiums are not available — best case is standard premiums.
Therefore, we recommend that you ignore the idea of preferred premiums as unrealistic and unlikely. However if you feel that your coverage amount is high enough, and that your insurability means you would qualify for preferred, the following is how to mildly increase your chances of getting preferred premiums. And then prior to applying, speak to your broker to make sure the company you're applying to actually offers preferred premiums today.
So, if you're determined to try anyway:
How it works
The reason that we can't definitively tell if you'll receive preferred premiums is because the life insurance companies don't disclose all of the requirements to receive the preferred premiums. While some companies do publish some minimal guidelines, no company publishes all of their requirements. In addition, a large number of common conditions will preclude you from getting the preferred premiums and place you in the standard health class. For example, even if you qualify for the preferred premiums on your own, a large number of family health history conditions will qualify you at standard premiums instead. This means that most Canadians, even those that believe they should qualify at preferred premiums, will actually qualify at standard.
Because we are unable to determine if you receive preferred premiums or not — and because most people receive standard premiums, we recommend that you assume standard premiums when you apply. There's no downside to doing this, because your application does NOT determine the rates you receive — only your health and medical history determine it. So there's no downside to assuming standard — if you qualify at preferred you'll receive the premiums automatically.
Conversely, if you assume preferred premiums when you apply, there's a strong possibility that you won't qualify. This can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment. This is also why our website at The Term Guy quotes standard premiums in all of our quotes. We could quote preferred premiums, and 'appear' to have lower premiums but then we'd be quoting premiums that we believe are unlikely that you'd qualify for. As we noted above, if you compare policies based on standard health class, occasionally you receive a pleasant surprise when the policy is issued standard.
Further, preferred premiums are only available from most companies on higher coverage amounts — sometimes as high as $2,000,000. Life insurance policies with lower coverage amounts, on their own and without regard to your health and insurability, cannot qualify for preferred premiums under any circumstances.
What can you do?
Well, there's two things you can do that can mildly increase your chances of getting preferred premiums.
First, when you do your medical history questionnaire, take your time and fully disclose everything you can think of or remember. Full details are important, and no detail is too insignificant to disclose. This level of disclosure often puts the underwriter in a frame of mind where if they're able to qualify you at preferred premiums, they're actually comfortable doing so.
Secondly, if a blood and urine test is required, we recommend that you do these tests first thing in the morning, before any exercise and before you eat or drink anything. While blood and urine tests don't technically require this in most cases, we believe that taking these tests in this fashion can help bump your numbers to be mildly more positive.
If you believe your coverage amount and insurability would qualify you for preferred premiums, please contact The Term Guy and we'll confirm if your selection qualifies for preferred premiums, and provide you with a quote.