Life Insurance Advice For Overweight People – UK
Life insurance was never something I had really thought about until recently. Even when we nearly bought a house the other year, life insurance just didn’t seem like something we’d be able to get based on what I’ve heard from other plus size people, so we didn’t even try.
Why Do I Need Life Insurance?
Well if you are buying/already have bought a house it makes sure that it’ll be paid off (depending on your level of cover) should anything happen to you. It can be used to leave money behind for your loved ones, perhaps even your funeral. There are different types of cover like Critical Care (serious illness like heart attacks and cancer) and even Income Protection for if you cannot work whilst injured or ill.
Most people know that the higher your BMI (even though it’s ridiculous) the least likely you are to get decent cover, and your 500k life insurance cost UK would most likely be higher, and the same goes for any chronic illnesses and mental health conditions, but it really does depend on what they are and if they can shorten your life span or are likely to cause other health conditions down the line.
Researching
It’s not often you have a database of plus size people ready and happy to help but my lovely Instagram followers are just that! After asking them if they had insurance, what kind of cover they had, and if they wanted to share their BMIs, I realised that it was even harder than I had thought before. A lot of people couldn’t get cover at all and had to rely on their partners. Most people were barely touching the 40s in BMI yet paying over £30-£50 a month, and no one I talked to had a critical cover which was really shocking.
Recommendations
Everyone was more than happy to tell me all the details of their life insurance companies and how they went about getting them. Lots of people recommended a life insurance broker as they’ll do all the hard work for a fee, however, there are companies that will do this for you for free, like Caspian Insurance, which is actually the company I ended up using but more on them later.
Direct life insurance recommendations for plus size people were:
The Exeter
Scottish Widows
Legal & General
Royal London
Every company will have a slightly different policy when it comes to BMI numbers, health conditions, and even genders, and unless you wanted to pay an Insurance Broker (it was recommended to find a local one for the best prices), then I can’t recommend Caspian enough (I’m not sure if there are others like Caspian) where they will look at all of these companies for you, so you don’t have to do all the work and they’ll just get back to you with the best options.
Caspian Insurance
I didn’t realise that they’re not a direct life insurance company. I started typing in for quotes with some of the recommended companies and within seconds my phone was ringing. They are a completely free service where you have a dedicated person that looks through all the companies and their policies to find you the best possible cover. Within an hour I had life insurance! What really sold me was that Caspian had managed to find me a company that would give me critical care and after talking to so many people before with much lower BMIs than me that couldn’t get it, it was a done deal.
They were extremely helpful, even funny which is different when talking about future death, and were very knowledgeable about my health conditions.
Caspian even has a referral scheme where you just have to mention the person’s name who recommended you to get a £25 voucher, so once you’re signed up, tell all your friends and family and you could get a few vouchers. There’s absolutely no need to mention my name, that’s not why I’m telling you, instead check and see if someone who knows has already used them and get them a voucher instead!
My Cover
My BMI is high, I won’t say exact numbers as I try not to be triggering at all on this blog but I’m around a UK24/26 for reference, I have chronic back pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and depression. I disclosed all of this but pain and fatigue don’t affect my life span so although I am chronically ill, it really all came down to my BMI. Which as I mentioned earlier, people with barely BMI40 were struggling. Unfortunately, it’s an extremely fatphobic industry.
I ended up with Esmi which is one of the very few companies that will insure fat and disabled people, however, it also means that they won’t cover anything related to those health issues either. I have £100,000 life insurance and £50,000 critical cover and I’m paying £50 a month. Which I’m extremely happy with!
Bad Reviews
People were very kind as to share some warnings too. There are a few companies who have actually been known to sigh on the phone and huff once they hear that you have a higher BMI or any health problems, including mental health problems. Vitality Insurance and Polly Insurance were mentioned a few times. You really don’t need to entertain anyone who would huff and sigh over your health conditions, put the phone down and try another company.
I hope this helped you in some way and please if you have any more advice to offer, anything I may have got wrong or any other recommendations, leave them below!
