How does the underwriting process work ?
If you have got as far as selecting the company to which you are going to apply for a critical illness policy you are about to start the underwriting process. It is at this stage when you should think about any previous medical conditions you have or any dangerous pastimes that you may have and declare them to your financial advisors.
After this step you will have to complete the application form, you should always answer all questions as completely and truthfully as you possibly can. Any advisers worth their weight at this stage will help you with any questions you may have with the application form.
This application form then gets submitted to your chosen insurance provider, this will be assessed by them and looked at by an underwriter. An underwriter can decide to accept the application on its merits and offer cover there and then or they could decide to go and get a GP report on the client. The GP report could be very specific or it could be just picking up general medical information. It is worth mentioning at this point that GP’s get paid from the insurance companies for each report they complete, so there should be no excuses when they drag their feet. The underwriter may also ask for a medical examination, normally these are carried out by a nurse at the home or you can sometimes be called into your GP’s surgery. Once all the information has been gathered the underwriter will look back over the case and decide what to do next. They could offer cover on standard terms, ie exactly what was applied for, they could offer it with an additional premium as they believe you are a higher risk, they could defer making a decision or they could decline you.