Horses for courses: How life insurance is getting personal

You may be looking forward to your weekly Sunday roast: two or three slices of succulently pink roast beef with a huge Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy, or perhaps a crackling topped pork loin surrounded by potatoes roasted in goose fat? But, swop the meat for a far healthier nut roast and it’s not only your heart that might thank you.

Animal Friends Insurance (AFI) is rewarding the health-conscious lifestyles of vegetarians by offering a 6% discount on life insurance premiums for those who can resist temptation and give up meat for good. The policy, which is underwritten by LV=, formerly Liverpool Victoria, has been devised on the basis that vegetarians should pay less for cover because they enjoy a reduced likelihood of suffering a range of chronic illnesses, including some cancers. As with standard life insurance policies, individual premiums will depend on a variety of factors, including your age, weight, and whether you smoke. But according to AFI’s Managing Director, Elaine Fairfax, the discount would mean a 40-year-old non-smoker buying £300,000 of cover could save £393.60 over a 20-year period.

Nor is AFI alone in trying to adapt insurance policies to our more varied lifestyles. We have never led such active lives: surfing, horse-riding, bungee jumping and scuba diving are just some of the more adrenaline-fuelled pursuits of the modern lifestyle. Sure, conditions like your weight, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and respiratory problems such as asthma, may all affect the cost of your life insurance. But any ‘dangerous’ activities that will be seen as heightening the risk of your untimely death will also adversely impact your insurance premiums.

Thankfully, though, insurance providers are increasingly aware that we’re not going to wrap ourselves up in cotton wool to save ourselves a few pounds; nor are we so foolhardy (well most of us aren’t) as to want to pursue extreme sports without some level of security in case we’re injured, or worse. Seeing the potential gap in the market, firms, such as Sinclair Insurance, are offering specific insurance policies for non-professional extreme sport enthusiasts. These may include weekly benefits for loss of earnings, rescue and search fees, and cover for specialized personal equipment all under the one policy. And, although not a part of the standard policy, you can extend the policy to cover accidental death and permanent total disability.

Whatever your lifestyle choices, however, it’s now well worth researching the numerous insurance policies on offer. If you’re one of life’s risk-takers, you’re not realistically going to get around having to pay a little more on your life insurance premiums to get the cover you need. But likewise, your greater exposure to danger means that the right insurance cover is particularly important so that you can be sure of peace of mind, whatever activities you undertake.

Likewise, if you’re a vegetarian who enjoys a truly healthy lifestyle, takes few risks and doesn’t smoke, then you may be able to pay even less for top-notch insurance cover. The key is to think about your circumstances and needs first; then you can properly weigh up the numerous insurance opportunities out there.

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