Mortgage protection insurance with previous medical history

dubliner9

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house. Survey and valuation done. We will Get our loan offer in the next 10 days. We will need to get mortgage protection insurance. My husband was diagnosed with thyroid cancer(stage1) 5.5 years ago.His thyroid gland was removed and he is on life long medication. Would this cause a problem in getting the insurance even though he didn't have any issues since then. We are both working and mortgage is for 240k. Are there any chances of getting declined for the cover? If it did what are the next options? We are really worried about it. Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you.

phormium

There was a previous very similar thread here recently, will try find it.

Basically it could well cause him a problem and he could be either refused, postponed or loaded on a policy.

Best thing to do is check with your lender if any of the above happen that they will allow a 'waiver' to be done so that he does not need life cover.

Some banks do and some are not so sure, it can depend on whether or not his income is the main income supporting the mortgage. It is definitely doable to draw down a mortgage when you cannot either get life cover or the cover you can get is too expensive, this situation is specifically covered in the consumer protection act that stipulates that life cover is needed in the first place but that doesn't mean that banks have to allow it, they can make their own policies on this aspect.

(After searching it turns out the previous discussion I was reading was on Askaboutmoney and not here although there are also a few more minor queries on previous threads here. Here's a link anyway to the AAM discussion which discusses a similar problem https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/mortgage-protection-for-my-wife-recently-treated-for-stage-1-low-grade-cancer.204560/#post-1525064 )

dubliner9

Thanks Phormium for your quick response. Really appreciate it. I'm just worried to contact the bank before receiving the loan offer. We are taking mortgage with EBS and my income is the main income supporting the mortgage.

Thanks again.

pansophelia

We've been in a similar situation recently. We went with an insurance broker in the end - PM me if you want the details. He was very helpful.
Just to warn you that this can delay the whole process as you will likely need medical reports from GP/consultant that can take some time.

pureirish

Hi, I was in a similar situation. 5.5 years clear and was also worried. Without getting into your husbands medical details too much, it sounds like the operation completely removed the cancer and he has been clear since. The medication, I presume is throxine or similar. Assuming this is the case, I would expect (from my own experience anyway) worst case your premium will be loaded.

We used John Geraghty in LABrokers and found him brilliant. https://www.labrokers.ie/

Aviva (in our case) wrote to our GP for medical reports, and honored the original quote without any loading. It does take a few weeks to sort but I wouldn't worry too much.

Let us know how you get on.

phormium

No good to you now but in some ways I would have done things in reverse as in applied for life cover first for an amount and term you think you will be borrowing and see how that worked. Then if you were going to need a waiver I would have picked a lender based on whichever one has no problem with waivers.

However as they say we are where we are so all you can do at this stage is go ahead and apply for the protection policy, no need to contact the bank before doing that and then after you get your loan offer and result of protection application you can take it from there.

dubliner9

Hi pureirish,

Yes you are correct. He is cancer free and uses the medication you mentioned. Thanks for the contact in Labrokers. Will call them tomorrow and see how it goes. Do you think the whole process would take about a month ?

pureirish

I think it was about 3 weeks for us. Best to give John a buzz in the morning and he will know best. I chased our GP and pushed the whole thing.

Best of luck.

JoeyJJ

Best to go to the market for Life assurance and not just your bank partner. I would imagine your case will be referred to manual underwriting which will take some time possibly 2/3 weeks. A lot of Insurance companies will deal with cancer with loadings and some with extra per Mille termed loading so it could be more expensive up until a certain period however this could be 5 years and your husband is probably over that period.

Shop around you will need to go through Risk Assessment interviews with a couple of insurance companies as each will have different outcomes and prices and some may decline.

dubliner9

pureirish wrote: »

I think it was about 3 weeks for us. Best to give John a buzz in the morning and he will know best. I chased our GP and pushed the whole thing.

Best of luck.

John said he won't be able to get us cover :-(. Trying others now.

dubliner9

JoeyJJ wrote: »

Best to go to the market for Life assurance and not just your bank partner. I would imagine your case will be referred to manual underwriting which will take some time possibly 2/3 weeks. A lot of Insurance companies will deal with cancer with loadings and some with extra per Mille termed loading so it could be more expensive up until a certain period however this could be 5 years and your husband is probably over that period.

Shop around you will need to go through Risk Assessment interviews with a couple of insurance companies as each will have different outcomes and prices and some may decline.

Thanks JoyeyJJ for your response. I've just applied to get a quote from Aviva. Will see how it goes.

I actually have mortgage protection with Irishlife on our current mortgage with EBS. My husband is not on the existing mortgage so he is not on mortgage protection either. Not sure if we can keep the existing protection after the mortgage is paid off and transfer the same to new one.

Reputable Rog

If you get refused by three different insurers than the bank has to offer you a waiver.
On the other hand, Irish Life are very good about pre-existing conditions.

Henry Ford III

Get a broker propose "for terms" to all the life offices.

What you don't want is a series of declinatures as these will go on a rated cases database and must be disclosed.

dubliner9

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Get a broker propose "for terms" to all the life offices.

What you don't want is a series of declinatures as these will go on a rated cases database and must be disclosed.

Sorry i didn't understand what do you mean by propose for terms? Could you please explain.

Thanks.

Henry Ford III

dubliner9 wrote: »

Sorry i didn't understand what do you mean by propose for terms? Could you please explain.

Thanks.

Not going to disclose how this is done, but a good broker will know.

Essentially it means to propose "informally".

JoeyJJ

Go to New Ireland, Zurich Ireland also they have good underwriting depts.

JoeyJJ

dubliner9 wrote: »

Thanks JoyeyJJ for your response. I've just applied to get a quote from Aviva. Will see how it goes.

I actually have mortgage protection with Irishlife on our current mortgage with EBS. My husband is not on the existing mortgage so he is not on mortgage protection either. Not sure if we can keep the existing protection after the mortgage is paid off and transfer the same to new one.

Keep your existing mortgage protection, you might need additional cover if the new mortgage is more.

Check existing policy, might have conversion options etc where they offer you same terms as before, however this is probably for you alone and not your partner.

Henry Ford III

JoeyJJ wrote: »

Go to New Ireland, Zurich Ireland also they have good underwriting depts.

Most risks are reinsured ultimately with the same reinsurers, so the underwriting isn't significantly different between any of them.

Lloyd's might be the answer, but it'll probably cost.

ANXIOUS

You need a broker with a good relationship with various life offices, so they as Henry mentioned will get the heads up without actually applying and getting a decline.

dubliner9

Hi all,

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to this post. We got approval from Irish Life today. It did take longer than expected due to postal delays etc..

Also EBS do waiver but they will check if both applicants have certain benefits from work or pension scheme.

Thanks again for guiding us.

pureirish

Congrats - great news.