The life insurance quote checklist

What to have ready

• Date of birth, height, and weight
• Every medication you take, with dosages
• Conditions you've been diagnosed with, and roughly when
• Surgeries or hospitalisations, with approximate dates
• Your doctors' names and contact details
• Tobacco or nicotine use, including when you stopped
• Family medical history for parents and siblings
• Any hazardous hobbies or occupation details

What you'll need to decide

• The coverage amount you're aiming for
• The term length, or whether you want permanent coverage
• Who your beneficiaries will be, primary and contingent
• Whether you want a conversion option
• Any existing coverage this is adding to or replacing

Comparing the quotes

If any of these differ between two quotes, the price difference isn't a price difference.

• Face amount
• Term length
• Whether the premium is level for the full term
• The assumed health class — and whether it's assumed or confirmed
• Conversion privilege, and its deadline
• Riders included versus optional
• Underwriting type: fully underwritten, accelerated, or simplified issue
• Renewal terms after the level period

Answer accurately, not optimistically

Everything on this list is verifiable, and insurers verify a lot of it. More importantly, the application is the contract — an inaccuracy that gets a policy issued today can cost your family the claim during the contestability period.

If a question is ambiguous, say so and ask rather than choosing the reading that flatters you.

The medical detail worth gathering first

Most of the delay in a life insurance application comes from information that could have been assembled in twenty minutes at the start.

• Your physician's name, practice and contact details, and roughly when you last saw them
• Current medications with dosages, and roughly when each was started
• Any diagnosis, with the approximate date and the treating specialist
• Dates of any surgery, hospital admission or significant investigation
• Height and weight, and whether either has changed materially in the last year
• Family history of heart disease, stroke, cancer or diabetes before age sixty
• Tobacco or nicotine use in any form, including vaping and occasional use

The financial detail

Insurers assess whether the benefit sought is reasonable relative to what would actually be lost, which is called financial justification. For larger amounts it can require documentation.

Have to hand: your income, the outstanding balance on your mortgage and other debts, any existing life cover including employer-provided cover and its amount, and the names and dates of birth of anyone you intend to name as a beneficiary.

Where the policy is business-related, expect to justify the amount against something concrete - a loan balance, a valuation, or a buy-sell agreement.

The questions that catch people out

A handful of application questions are routinely answered wrongly, not dishonestly but because the question is read narrowly.

Nicotine use generally means any nicotine, including vaping and cessation products, and generally covers a look-back period rather than only current use. Alcohol questions usually ask about quantity rather than whether you consider it a problem. Hazardous activity questions cover aviation, diving, climbing and motorsport, including recreational participation.

Questions about consultations and investigations mean exactly that - an appointment where something was looked into counts even if the result was normal and nothing was diagnosed.

Answer accurately, including the awkward parts

The application forms part of the contract. An inaccurate answer discovered later is the single thing most capable of undermining a claim, and it does not have to be deliberate to cause a problem.

Insurers review medical and prescription records as a matter of routine, so an omission is likely to surface during underwriting rather than after. Surfacing during underwriting is inconvenient; surfacing at claim time is far worse, and falls on the people you bought the policy for.

Where an answer is complicated - an investigation that came to nothing, a condition long resolved - give the full version. Underwriters see complicated histories constantly and price them routinely.

Comparing on genuinely identical terms

Quotes are only comparable when every variable matches, and there are more of them than people expect.

• The same benefit amount and the same term length
• The same assumed health class - ask which each quote assumes
• The same riders, or none, on both
• Whether the premium is guaranteed level for the whole term or only current
• Whether conversion is included, to what products, and by what deadline
• The insurer's financial strength, which matters on a contract this long

What happens after you submit

Expect a call to verify the application details, an authorisation for medical records, and possibly a paramedical exam arranged at your convenience.

Then a wait, most of which is the insurer waiting on a physician's office rather than making a decision. Chasing your own physician for records is often the fastest way to shorten it.

An offer at a different class than quoted is a normal outcome rather than a rejection, and it is negotiable in the sense that another insurer may see the same facts differently. Do not cancel any existing cover until the new policy is confirmed in force.

Decide these before anyone quotes you

A quote is only as useful as the specification behind it, and arriving without one means accepting whatever specification the seller assumes.

• The benefit amount, worked out from your own gap rather than a rule of thumb
• The term length, matched to when the obligation actually ends
• Whether you want the premium guaranteed level for the whole term
• Whether conversion matters to you, and by what deadline
• Who the primary and contingent beneficiaries will be
• Who should own the policy, which is a separate question from who is insured

Common mistakes at this stage

Most of what goes wrong with a life insurance purchase is decided before the policy is issued, and it is usually one of a short list.

Buying the shortest term because it quoted cheapest, without checking what happens at the end. Sizing the benefit to a salary multiple rather than to the household's actual gap. Cancelling existing cover before the new policy is in force. Naming a minor child directly as beneficiary, which creates a legal process rather than avoiding one. Leaving the contingent beneficiary blank.

And the quietest one: buying the policy, filing the paperwork, and never telling anyone it exists.

A note on timing

Life insurance is priced on age and health, and both move in one direction. The cheapest policy you will ever be offered is generally the one available today.

That is not a reason to rush a decision about the amount or the structure, which deserve proper thought. It is a reason not to leave the application sitting unstarted for a year while you think about it, because a diagnosis in the interim changes what is available rather than just what it costs.

If you are quoting for two people

Couples frequently ask for identical quotes because it feels equitable. It usually is not the right specification, and it is worth deciding before the quotes are run rather than after.

Size each policy to its own gap. The financial consequence of losing each partner is rarely the same, and a lower-earning partner who provides childcare may need more cover than an income comparison suggests, because that work would have to be paid for.

Ask for two single policies alongside any joint quote. A joint first-death policy pays once and then ends, leaving the survivor uninsured at an older age; two singles generally pay twice and can be adjusted independently.

Keep a copy of what you were quoted

Quotes are estimates and the issued policy is the contract, so the useful habit is keeping the two comparable.

Save the quote showing the benefit, term, assumed health class and riders. When the policy is issued, read the schedule against it. Differences are common and usually explainable, but they should be explained rather than noticed later.

This is also what makes the free look period useful. It exists so you can check the contract against what you were told, and it is far easier to do with the original quote in front of you.

Before the call

Ten minutes of preparation changes the quality of every quote you receive, because the person quoting can only work with what you give them.

Have the medical and financial detail listed above written down rather than recalled. Know the benefit amount and term you want and why. Decide who the beneficiaries will be. Then ask, on every call, which health class the quote assumes - because that single variable moves the number more than the choice of insurer usually does.

After the quotes arrive

Line them up on the four variables that matter - benefit, term, assumed health class, riders - and discard any that do not match on all four, because those are not comparisons.

Then look past the premium at two things. Whether the premium is guaranteed level for the full term or only current, since those are different contracts. And the insurer's financial strength, which matters more here than on any other personal policy because the promise may not be called on for thirty years.

Only when those are settled does the cheapest quote mean anything useful.

If a quote comes back different from expected

An offer at a higher class than quoted is a normal outcome rather than a rejection, and it is worth understanding before accepting or walking away.

Ask what specifically drove the classification, because it is often a single factor - a recent test result, a medication, a family history entry - and sometimes it is correctable with a further record or a repeated test. Another insurer may also see the same facts differently, which is the strongest argument for applying through someone who can place the case with more than one carrier.