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Life insurance
Sadly you won't find life insurance for cml patients.
The stats that they work on are probably 15 years old. I'm working on it through a broker on the assumption that if he gets me insured that others will follow. I also have my consultant lined up to give expert medical evidence to substantiate my claims on life expectancy.
On the other hand thought in works in our favour on pension annuities. We get more..
I'd love to be able to help, but all I can tell you is that I have a totally inadequate life policy that I took out before I was ill with CML. I am lucky enough to have access to experienced financial advisors through work and have been told that even though it's not a great policy, there's pretty much no way I would get one elsewhere.
I can sort of understand it. Insurance companies are massively risk averse, and they do give us impaired annuities which, let's be honest, aren't needed. So if you're close to retirement age CML will net you more money than you probably 'deserve'.
I just wish I bought the crit illness add-on, because then a good chunk of my mortgage (if not all) would have been paid off. I try not to think about that too often!
I don't have life insurance at all. I used to have when I was first diagnosed over 20 years ago and I was stupid enough to let them know of a change in circumstances. They "offered" me a new policy: 5 times more expensive and basically it excluded paying out on more or less everything anyone was ever likely to die of!
So the policy was cancelled and I got a reimbursement minus their admin charges ... great! NOT. They also told me if I was still alive after 5 years or had a successful bone marrow transplant that they'd insure me. In those days the chances of that were "fat chance"..... but cor blimey I did both.
I've talked to others about this subject and tried twice more to get life insurance and I've concluded it's not worth the effort. It's not going to happen even 20 years on from that diagnosis. Hell I'm healthier and more active and do more physical work than most men 20 years younger than me. But I can't for love nor money get life insurance.
Just be aware that IF you already have life insurance and you've not disclosed your condition and you're "under insured" that it will most likely be invalidated. (read the small print) That can happen even if you eventually die of nothing to do with your illness and get unlucky and hit by a bus!
Hi all,
I was diagnosed with Chronic Eosinophilic Leukaemia (PDG-FRA), a disease similar in pathway to CML.
Like many of you, I struggled to find life cover after being diagnosed. However, I did find cover (which was more expensive), and it is pretty reasonable. Subsequently, I have looked for further top up insurance and the rates have dropped markedly.
Give this broker a call: Simon Dunn 07725 764729 or email him: simon.dunn@life-finder.co.uk
Tell him I send my best regards.
Cheers!
Matt Wilson
That's useful info Matt. Like Darley, I no longer have life insurance other than a general group policy at work, for which I do not have to make any medical declaration. I used to have individual cover but frankly let that go as the cost/benefit analysis in my own situation no longer made it worthwhile. Although for the time I did have it, I was glad I had taken it out quite young. I wish I had taken out critical illness cover too but no matter.
I was interested in the comment that if a patient had a transplant and/or was alive after 5 years, they would be covered for life insurance. I was told exactly that by the underwriters for my travel insurance policy although frankly I didn't believe it. anyway, I have just renewed my medical declaration under that policy - and I am now over 6 years post diagnosis and seemingly alive and well - and surprise surprise the CML is not going to be covered! Being asked whether you've had a stem cell transplant reveals the insurers live in the past. Distant past. Though as Steven says, I will be exploring enhanced annuities - perhaps - which is the flip side perhaps. Fortunately, I am covered under my travel insurnce for everything else so long as there is no connection with CML. That doesn't worry me - we all know that with CML, so long as you are in chronic phase and responding well to treatment, you will have a very long lead time for any problems (however unlikely) so I am more than content not to seek cover for CML at extortionate rates.
Hi All,
I have been looking into Life Insurance again and a broker managed to find me a policy with AIG to give life cover until the age of 65(currently 44) for the small price of £197 per month but would cover me for claims for every BUT CML.
Another broker then put me onto a company called ESMI who offer a non-medically underwritten policy for either £50K or £100K for a fixed fee of £9.56 or £19.12 which would cover me for a claim for anything that was not related to a pre existing medical condition.
This seems better than anything I have managed to achieve in the past so I have requested full T&Cs to review in detail.
I will post an update if the policy looks like a good one as any cover is better than I currently have.
Derren
Hi everyone, first time poster here, thought I'd finally get myself round to registering after seeing this post, this website has been an extremely valuable resource to me!
The reason it stood out is I'm in a similar boat, the only difference is that I'm actually a life insurance advisor, I broker the deals with different providers, based on what's best for the individual. The irony is I never took any out myself, being only 25 and with no commitments, I didn't think to, then I got the bloody diagnosis haha.
What I can tell you is that certain companies, Friends Life for example, can accept you for certain conditions. The way they do this is to exclude payouts for a claim related to the diagnosis, in this case hopefully CML. So realistically it would seem that cancer in general and strokes would be the exception. I'm not sure if they raise the premium too though, so I'd like to double check on that.
There will be many of these companies that can offer guaranteed whole of life cover (runs till you pass away), I would suggest playing around to see who offers the best rates. Most companies offer cover from 50 however some like "Promis Life" can offer cover from 30 (our company doesn't work with Promis Life, they're just a company I've heard about through my job).
I should stress that the older you get, the more expensive it gets. Anyone applying for cover should try not to smoke or your premium will double! Also anyone who had cover before being diagnosed should do whatever they can to make sure that cover doesn't lapse! You'll be surprised how much cover increases once a few years have passed, not including mentioning CML.
If anyone would like any information on any of the insurers, just let me know. I work with pretty much all of them and to be honest, I wouldn't mind being a little more productive! Also please excuse the username, I hope to use these forums quite a lot and there might be some questions or details I may say that I don't want anyone close at home to worry about.
Cheers to all!
Andy