If Youre Not Vegetarian Dont Apply For This Life Insurance
Summary
An innovative new insurance product has been developed by Animal Friends Insurance. The life insurance policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurers will follow AFI’s lead .
A not-for-profit insurance business has introducd a scheme which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced cost life insurance quote .
The deal, thought to be the first of its kind, is being brought to the market by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering veggies a 7% price reductionon life assurance premiums
The firm said that veggies ought to pay less for the product, which pays out if the policyholder were to die, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including cancers.
Amanda Jude, AFI’s managing director, said that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is lowered by up to 42 per cent and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to thirty per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay the same insurance costs as clients who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is unfair and says the life insurance industry should acknowledge the idea that being a vegetarian can create a very positive impact on life expectancy and lower its charges accordingly.
A normal plan is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both insurance plans are marketed by LV=, which was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life insurance policies, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the monthly premium including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.
At the moment, AFI is carrying the 6 per cent price reduction itself from the cash it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s aim was to offer lower premiums on specialist cover. In making the discount the company is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the veggie diet into account.
Indeed there are welcome savings to be had, a 38 year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of life insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year period.
Where critical illness is concerned, AFI believes that insurance companies should begin to treat those that like meat and those that do not eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they assess non-smokers and smokers. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will do something similar.
Some peoplein the insurance industry do not believe there is any proof that veggies live longer, and how any life insurer would know that applicants who had stated that they are vegetarian did not eat the odd spare rib.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you now don’t smoke it’s certainly likely that your GP is likely to know about it. However, this is not the case when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.
But many veggies argue that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a veggie has become a vegetarian, they don’t regress to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.
