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Life Insurance with Schizophrenia

Researcher & Writer
August 09, 2017

Schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder (DID) are both pre-existing medical conditions that can make it pretty difficult to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.

In fact, while it may “theoretically” be possible to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy, in our experiences, here at TermLIfe2Go, we’ve yet to find an insurance company that will approve someone who has been diagnosed with either schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder for a traditional term or whole life insurance product and instead need to steer these clients towards final expense or burial insurance.  Now we won't say that it's totally impossible to get approved, we simply have never seen it happen!

You see…

Insurance companies are not necessarily going to disqualify applicants who suffer from these conditions due to any potential life threatening “symptoms” rather, it’s the overall affect that these conditions will have on the applicant’s ability to function in normal daily activities that will ultimately lead to their insurance denial.

For example…

When we look at schizophrenia, we’ll see that it is defined as a severe, long term mental disorder that involves the breakdown in being able to distinguish the relationships between thought, emotion, and behavior which will typically lead to a faulty perception of reality causing inappropriate actions and emotions.

Which makes…

...qualifying for life insurance pretty difficult because how well one “functions” in society is a pretty good indicator for life insurance companies on how “healthy” one is.

This is why you’ll often find questions on a life insurance applications such as:

  • Are you currently working now?
  • In the past 12 month’s have you applied for or received any form of disability benefits?
  • Do you have any issues with your driving record?
  • In the past 2 year’s have you been admitted to a hospital or treatment facility for any reasons?

These are all questions designed by the insurance companies to learn more about you and how “well” you are functioning in normal daily activities which will make it difficult (but not necessarily impossible) for someone to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.

But the good news…

You don’t always have to apply for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.  There are some “alternative” life insurance products that will be available for those with significant pre-existing conditions such as schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder.

These alternative products are called Guaranteed Acceptance or Issued Life Insurance Policies and provided that you meet their minimum requirements, which are: you are a US citizen and that you are currently between the age of 40-85 years of age (product may not be available in your state), you will be accepted!

But before you get too excited…

It’s important to understand that Guaranteed Acceptance life insurance policies will have their pros and cons which you will definitely want to be aware of prior to deciding to purchase one.

For starters:

  1. The coverage of guaranteed life insurance policies is generally going to be limited to right around $25,000 or less. Which means that if you’re looking for more than $25,000 dollars in coverage, you may be out of luck or you may need to purchase several different guaranteed issue life insurance policies which can become pretty expensive.
  2. Guaranteed issue life insurance policies typically cost more than other life insurance policies. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that your monthly premium will be higher than another life insurance policy, it just means that considering what you may be asked to pay, dollar for dollar it may be pretty expensive when compared to how much coverage you are receiving.
  3. Lastly, Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policies will contain a Graded death benefit.

A graded life death benefit means that in the first two or sometimes three years, your beneficiary will not be eligible to receive the guaranteed issue life insurance death benefit if the insured dies from what is considered an “natural” cause of death.

For the purposes of this discussion, we just want to stress the point that purchasing a life insurance policy that contains a graded death benefit may not be in your best interest.

However, if you cannot qualify for a life insurance policy that will require you to take a medical exam or answer a host of health related questions, Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance Policies that contain a graded death benefit may still be your best bet!

So, what are you waiting for?  Give us a call today or visit our Life Insurance Quotes page and see what we can do for you!

Written by
TermLife2Go
We are a team of life insurance experts with the simple mission of helping you find the best coverage for your unique situation. We research, review, and rank life insurance companies to make that process easier.