Applying for mortgage protection

What you'll be asked

• Basic details, and the loan amount and remaining term
• Height, weight, and tobacco or nicotine use
• Health history, current conditions and medications
• Recent hospitalisation, surgery, or pending tests
• Occupation, and hazardous activities or hobbies
• Other life insurance in force or applied for
• Your beneficiary — which should be a person, not a lender, unless you have a reason otherwise

What the insurer checks regardless

Even without an exam, insurers routinely verify against prescription histories, industry information exchanges holding prior application data, motor vehicle records, and other sources.

So the application isn't taken purely on trust. An answer that disagrees with the data triggers review, which is the most common cause of delay.

Why accuracy protects you

During the contestability period after issue, an insurer can investigate and rescind coverage for material misrepresentation on the application. The person who bears that cost is your beneficiary, at the worst possible moment.

Disclose everything, including things you think are minor or resolved. Most conditions affect terms rather than eligibility — a non-disclosure affects whether the policy pays.

How to keep it moving

• Have your medications, dosages and prescribing physicians to hand
• Get approximate dates for diagnoses, procedures and hospitalisations
• Take the current loan balance from a statement rather than memory
• Respond quickly to any request for records or a phone interview
• Don't cancel any existing coverage until this policy is issued and in force

If it goes to full underwriting

A simplified application can be moved to traditional underwriting with an exam and records. That isn't a rejection — it's the normal path when something needs verifying, and it often produces better terms than the simplified route would have.