If Youre Not Vegetarian Dont Apply For This Life Insurance
Summary
An interesting new insurance product has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The life insurance policy offers lower premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their carnivorous counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow the new policy marketed by Animal Friends Insurance .
A not-for-profit insurance business has introducd an insurance plan which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced premium critical illness .
The offer, considered to be the first of its kind, is being pioneered by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering veggies a 6% price reductionon life assurance premiums
The organisation claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser sum for the product, which pays out if the policyholder dies, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including some cancers.
Amanda Jude, the managing director of AFI, said that the danger of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 40% and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to 30 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical premiums as policyholders who eat meat.
She says that Animal Friends Insurance believe that this is patently unfair and says the insurers should acknowledge the concept that being a vegetarian can create have a positive influence on life expectancy and reduce its monthly premiums accordingly.
A standard arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance policies are brought to the market by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life cover, a range of things contribute to the cost of the monthly premium including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.
Currently, AFI is carrying the seven per cent discount itself from the fee it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s objective was to offer lower costs on specialist plans. In making the offer the organisation is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it worthwhile for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are welcome savings to be had, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker purchasing £300,000 worth of life insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty year term.
Where life insurance quotes is concerned, AFI believes that life insurance companies should begin to treat meat eaters and those that do not eat meat in ways that are similar to the way they approach non-smokers and smokers. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will take the same initiative.
Some senior executivesin the insurance industry are dismissive that there is verifyable proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurer would know that those who had applied stating that they are vegetarian did not munch on an occasional bacon sandwich.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you now don’t smoke it’s possible that your Doctor will know. However, this is unlikely to apply when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.
But some veggies contend that they are not worried about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a veggie has become a vegetarian, they do not go back to meat-eating, that is unlike those that smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their old smoking ways.
