When setting up life insurance the applicant must disclose age, height & weight lifestyle choices, occupation, health and more so protection can be assessed and approved.
Clearly some landscapes are more risky and complicated than others. Specifically around health it can become more problematic. What we feel as a consumer is healthy may be different to the medical professionals and life insurance companies. Therefore extra validation is sometimes required this is done be confirmation of health by a Doctors report.
There is no charge to the consumer for a request for a Doctors report (this is actually paid for by the life insurance company without obligation) The cost is actually whilst this admin process is happening the life insurance is not live and guaranteed (price fixed) and therefore the premium keeps going up!. Typically GP reports take 7 weeks and more to be turned around then the assessment of the life insurance can be made and fed back to family. (The data within the report can clearly impact on premium in addition with the delay in time!)
HSBC has tried to streamline their life insurance application process by doing more Nurse screening sessions rather wait for the Dr to send the report back (as we have zero control on this) Not only does this champion their protection for being better for the consumer its much quicker in getting the life insurance decision many instances.
A great move forward for HSBC life insurance however we need to be mindful of all the other impacts around the application process ranging from BMI lifestyle choice and family health to get the best and most complete protection for family.
Golden Rock Solutions give free advice on life insurance and family protection enabling quick application process, cost effective and affordable premiums and the correct mix to protect your family. Please get in touch for more information