Life Insurance

[rotrhd1]

I was just wondering how many of you are forking out for your own term life insurance?

 

When I approached several companies a few years ago about purchasing term insurance from them I asked them up front if what I did for a living would have an affect on the cost of the insurance. Every one of the said that it wouldn't. It's not until you get to the stage of having the underwriter review your information and policy that the truth comes out.

 

If you are an active commercial helicopter pilot and you declare this with an insurance company, they immediately slap the highest rating on you of $5/$1000 of life insurance. Yet, if you fly less than 300 hours a year on a private fixed wing licence there will be no rating applied.

 

I asked each why this was and their response was that flying helicopters was a very risky business. They couldn't say for sure where they got there information but they were adamant that "them were the facts."

 

The last company I approached also dismissed the possibility that I would get rated to the max, but when the rating was applied from the underwriters, the agent was surprised. He had the decency to listen to my argument, which I supported with accident statistic from the TSB.

 

I'm not a statistical guru by any means, but what I interpreted the stats to show was that helicopters fly the same if not more hours than the private/casual pilot yet their accident rate/100 000 hours flown was between 3 and 5 times more. The fatalities from this area of flying were 2 to 4 times more likely than in helicopters.

 

He sent this info to the underwriters and they eventually reduced the rating. Unfortunatley it didn't go away all together but at least it's reduced.

 

I guess I'm just wondering if any others have had experiences like this.

 

If any of you want details on who this was with I'd be happy to give you more info.

 

RH1

[otas]

I presented the same question recently to my agent. In regards to the dangers of being a private/casual pilot apposed to a professional. He made some phone calls and submitted my application for a much lower rate. Should hear back from them soon.

[teabagger]

Hey Guys, basically had the same experience. Although if you're an IFR pilot, Co-operators insurance has a product set up as a group insurance type of senario and rates are actually cheaper than for the regular Joe. As for us VFR guys, still out of luck.

 

What insurance companies are you dealing with?

[JaJR]

Same crap when I bought Life Insurance. I had to do this questionaire that boiled down to if you fly commercially then your rate goes up. Stuff like working fires (check), landing in unprepared areas (check)and external loads (check). Pretty much everything we do in our daily operations. It still burns me when we start comparing relative risks with more mundane things like driving....Ten minutes on the highway each day and I get the *&%$ scared out of me once or twice a week.Way safer chugging around in the Jetbox every day.

[Rosco]

I beleive that if you seach some of CTD's old posts, he mentioned a couple of really good companies that deal alot with pilots & insurance and offer good rates.

 

cheers

 

R