Life Insurance For the Overweight

Are you overweight? Are you otherwise healthy? You still might have a hard time buying life insurance. Even if you're not obese, there are some cases in which you'll have to pay more for life insurance.
In most instances, the heavier you are, the more you'll pay.Along with age, medical history and lifestyle, life insurance companies take your "build" into consideration on your application. "Build" is your weight relative to your height. Life insurers use standard tables that combine weight and height in a chart to help determine what kind of risk you pose.

The more you weigh in relation to your height, the more potential you have for health problems. That's what the statistics say. Insurers will combine their unique claims history with those statistics to come up with their risk factor for you as a client.
The ideal life insurance customer is someone who is expected to live a long, healthy life. That means that the risk you pose to the insurer is low. Statistics consistently show overweight people pose increased insurance risks, because they are likely to develop health problems as they grow older.
At the same time, the average American waistline is getting bigger. Obesity is considered a silent epidemic. Weight related diseases like diabetes are also increasing at very high rates. Increases are evident regardless of sex, age, race and educational status. Since diabetes increases your risk of an earlier death, an overweight person poses a higher risk to insurers.
If you're just a little overweight, say about 10 pounds, you might see no difference in the life insurance rates you are quoted compared to a friend who is 10 pounds lighter and the same height. However, if you're severely overweight, you'd better budget more money for life insurance. Obesity is clinically diagnosed when you are 20 % or more over your ideal weight. At this level, your insurance rates will likely be increased.
A person can be denied life insurance at some companies if the person is morbidly obese even if that person does not have any other health problems. This is definitely something to keep in mind.