Have you ever wondered why there are so many advertisements for life insurance of the type that promise to guarantee you a policy? Where are the ads encouraging you to get life insurance that would require that you take a medical exam as a condition of being granted a policy? Is it possible that insurance companies would rather sell you a guaranteed life insurance policy?

Yes it is possible, and in this brief article I will explain why you have to pay more for this guarantee. I will also tell you why applying for life insurance with no guarantee of being insured, that also involves the hassle of a medical checkup, might actually be the better route to take.

Life insurance companies have very sophisticated methods to determine how much risk they are undertaking when they sell you a policy. The more information they have, the better they can quantify their risk. If you are in poor health and the insurance company knows about it, you may still be able to find life insurance coverage, though naturally it will cost you more. But what if you’re in average or even above average health? Unless this is documented by a complete physical, the company has no way of essentially giving you credit for it and is forced to keep you in the “unknown” category. Note that it really cannot even be assumed that you are in average health in this case, because without a physical there is no way to make any assumptions about your health at all.

You can be sure that an insurance company that offers you a guaranteed acceptance term life insurance will cover themselves against the possibility that you have unknown health problems. This is the reason why the “guarantee” portion of the policy will make it more expensive to you then similar coverage for which you agree to undergo a medical exam. They know how attractive and convenient guarantee issue life insurance sounds to you, hence the aggressive advertisements, but as with so many products that offer convenience, you run the risk of overpaying for the feature. Remember that this is not lunch-at-a-drive-through-restaurant convenience. This is convenience that you might pay for for 20 or 30 years. It might be one of those times that you should accept a couple of hours of inconvenience.

So what if your medical exam reveals that you are in less than perfect health? There is of course a chance that you might have a previously undiagnosed condition that renders you uninsurable. Barring that, even with minor ailments you might be surprised to learn that your premium payments might still be lower than if you had gone for the guaranteed issue life insurance. After all, the point here was to give the insurance company an objective indication as to your health, not necessarily to prove that you have no health problems at all, though of course that’s the best case scenario. Giving them a medical basis for ruling out the presence of ailments that make it statistically much more likely that you will pass away during the term of your policy, should definitely result in lower premiums for you, with a NON-guaranteed life insurance policy. And by the way, you might be in better condition than you think.

Guaranteed acceptance life insurance sounds great until you consider just how much more you will spend to save a little time. Over the long run, is it really worth it?

You have probably wondered what a so-called guaranteed life insurance policy is. It sounds like a way to be sure that you won’t be turned down when you apply for life insurance, and that is exactly what it is. Maybe you are a little skeptical because insurance companies advertise this guaranteed life insurance so aggressively. Well you should be skeptical. In this short article I will outline exactly why guaranteed insurance might not be the best way to go.

“Guaranteed” implies that there are no conditions getting insured. Clearly the condition that you as the customer would like to circumvent in this case is getting life insurance without having to go through a medical exam. But what will you have to pay for that privilege?

The insurance company has to charge you more for guaranteed acceptance life insurance because of the increased risk they are assuming, because your health is a total unknown to them. They have nothing to gauge their risk except the likelihood of the “average” person passing away during the term of policy they will sell you, if guaranteed term life insurance is when you are selecting. Obviously the category of “average” includes people who are in poor health. You will get your guaranteed issue life insurance but your premium payments will be high enough to cover the risk that the insurance company is taking in case you are unfortunately one of those people who are in below average health.

This may be a reasonable trade-off if your aren’t in the best shape, but the take-away from this article should be the following: even if you have a minor health condition or two, you may still be better off in taking a deep breath and getting the medical exam. If you can prove to the insurance company that you have no ailments that put you squarely in the “below average” health category, you can look forward to the prospect of lower life insurance premiums for years and possibly even decades.

And what if you are in good or even excellent health? In this case, for similar coverage your premium payments should definitely be lower than if you had not taken a medical exam. Guaranteed life insurance may be very tempting to you, but the prospect of paying lower premiums-over many years-should have you giving at least serious consideration to taking a medical exam before you purchase term life insurance. At the very least, don’t go “guaranteed” because the exam seems like to much trouble. The potential savings make it worthwhile.