Mortgage Protection- Question re Mental Health Questions

Rufus50

Hi All

Myself and my wife are looking into mortgage protection for our new home and I have a question on the section you need to fill out on the form for mental health history.

I have read that people have been charged much higher due to past mental health issues and some even refused.

I had anxiety back in 2008. At the time I had no idea what exactly it was and how to deal with it. I went to a doctor and was prescribed any anxiety medication along with anti depressants (both of which I now regret ever taking) and went to see a psycotherapist. It was on these for a couple of months and visited the therapist for approx 5/6 sessions and came through this tough period in my life.

In 2010 I had a flare up of anxiety again due to an extremely tough time and went to see the same psycotherapist and my local gp recommened to take a short course of anti depressants. I overcame this anxiety bout and since then have never taken any medication for mental health.

I have gotten so much into mental health and how to help it and defeat the stigma in Ireland. Looking back I wish I never had taken the medication and luckily it was only short term.

I feel everyone suffers from anxiety in some way and now feel I am as equipped and as knowlegable as anyone to deal with life stressors.

At these tough times back in 2008 and 2010 I never once missed a day of work due to these tough times.

My worry is that by disclosing this information we will get a much higher premium and could worse still, hold the process of our home up.

I do not think this would be fair.

Just wondering if I was to mark this section as 'Never had any mental health issues' and worst case scenario was to die during our mortgae term of say something like cancer would our protection be ok if the insurrance company went to look at my medical records and saw that this bout of anxiety was never disclosed?

Its a bit of a hard one to decide on. I have read a lot of people have lied about this section and let it blank but the last thing I want is to leave my wife with a policy that would not pay off in the worst case scenario.

Would really appreciate people's views

Thanks all
Rufus

Mortgage protection insurance? Why not fill it out honestly with the first company and see what the premium is first before worrying about anything else.

phormium

You must answer honestly, the insurance company will then issue a report to your doc for completing and their decisions will be based on the info provided so if all is as you say then it was not a major issue. It may have no effect on cost or a minimal effect, no way of knowing until insurance company sees report.

If you omit something like this then it is called 'non-disclosure' and in the event of a claim you can be sure the insurance company will go back through your medical records and will discover this, it will then invalidate your policy. It will be irrelevant whether or not the claim arises from anything to do with the past issue or something totally different, they can invalidate a policy full stop for non disclosure so it's not a case of just excluding claims that result from anything they discover, it just doesn't pay out.

If for some reason the premium is very high or they refuse you (I don't think that will happen) then you would need to ask your lender about doing a 'waiver' of mortgage protection, not being able to get life cover does not stop you buying a home however it is at the bank's discretion whether to offer the option or not so banks differ on their policy regarding this.

Rufus50

Thanks for the replies.

Thinking now it has to be all entered. Hopefully the premium should stay as is.

Cheers

Leprechaun77

First of all, I would advise to disclose this information to ensure the policy is fully valid. From what you describe above, I would think you should be ok, however a report from your GP would disclose all the history in more detail. There are a number of factors that would be considered by the insurer, a few of which are detailed below:

*What caused the anxiety
*level of in-patient treatment, if any
*type of medication-has it been altered recently
*symptoms
***date of last symptoms-how long are you without symptoms
*any ongoing treatment outside meds
*any suicide attempts


If you do not disclose the above, the policy is not necessarily invalidated. In the event of a claim for cancer (or something else unrelated), the insurer will most likely find out about the anxiety. They will look at the records then and decide if they would have accepted you had you told them about your condition at outset. Scenarios below:

1.) If you would have been turned down cover when taking out the policy, ALL claims are turned down as the policy could not have been legally incepted at outset if you were honest.

2.)The insurer gets your old medical records and decides that you would have been accepted anyway at normal rates had you told them. Claim for cancer etc would be paid.

3.)insurer gets old medical records and decides that you would have been accepted, but with an increased premium for this condition. Claim is paid for cancer etc, but insurer would reserve the right to reduce the payment based on the level of cover that you would have got for the premium you currently pay (allowing for premium increase that would have applied)