Smoker & Life Insurance

Have you ever thought of how much impact smoking has on your finances? Health Canada’s cost calculator finds that smoking half a pack a day can cost up to $2,500 per year. Meanwhile, on a nationwide scale, the Canadian Cancer Society reported that smoking generates $6.5 billion in healthcare costs yearly. And, the expenses don’t end there – not if you’re looking to get life insurance.

What does life insurance have to do with it? Your life insurance rate depends on how healthy you are right now. But it also depends on whether you’re putting your health at risk with lifestyle choices like smoking. Here’s how this costly habit can affect your life insurance premium.

How smoking can affect your life insurance premium - To start, let’s look at the basics of life insurance. You buy a policy that provides financial protection and pay for it with monthly or annual fees, called premiums. What happens if you die while the policy is still active? Your beneficiaries get a specific amount of money stated in the policy, known as the death benefit. They can then use that money to help pay off debts, mortgages, loans, and other living expenses.

Basically, life insurance can help give your family financial assistance and security after you die. So, how do insurance companies put a price on that security? A lot of the cost of life insurance depends on your current state of health and your family history. But what’s one of the biggest factors insurance companies look at when assessing your health risk? Whether or not you’re a smoker.

Underwriting is when an insurance company reviews your health risks after you’ve applied for life insurance. This process lets an insurer calculate the coverage you’re eligible for. It also ensures your premium reflects the level of risk.

Simply put: Your risk level affects your premium. Being a smoker puts people at a higher risk of smoking-related illnesses. And this translates to higher premiums.

How much more do smokers have to pay for life insurance? - Smoking comes with a price. But exactly how much higher are life insurance rates for smokers? A lot of people I’ve worked with were surprised to find that compared to non-smoker premiums, life insurance rates can be much more costly for smokers.

For instance, let’s take a 30-year-old, non-smoking man with a $700,000, 20-year individual term life insurance policy. He might get quoted a monthly premium of $50.13. But if he turns out be a smoker, his monthly premium could become $98.01. And what happens if he takes up smoking before it’s time to renew his policy? Then he can expect to pay a lot more than if he had remained tobacco-free.

Most insurers would categorize people as smokers if they regularly use tobacco or nicotine in any form. This includes cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, chewing tobacco, and smoking cessation products like nicotine gum and patches

Does vaping affect your life insurance? - An application might not ask about vaping. But many applications require medical tests. These tests can detect the nicotine in your blood or urine regardless of how you consume it. So if you vape, you could still be listed as a smoker.

Does cannabis affect your life insurance? - What if you’re a casual cannabis user, less than once a week, who doesn’t combine marijuana with tobacco? Then you could fall into the non-smoker category for life insurance.

What happens when a smoker buys life insurance online? - Online coverage can’t distinguish between smokers and non-smokers, so the rates are usually blended. In other words, you could pay somewhere between the smoker and non-smoker rates even if you don’t smoke.

What happens to your life insurance premium if you quit smoking? - The year you quit smoking, you’ll see a drastic improvement in both your health and your finances. In terms of your life insurance policy, you may be eligible for non-smoker rates if you can sign a non-smoking declaration stating that you’ve been a non-smoker for the last 12 months, have a urine test to prove there’s no trace of nicotine in your system, and confirm that there haven’t been any significant negative changes to your health.

What if you choose to quit because you’ve just had a serious health complication and your doctor advised it? - Then they’re not going to categorize you as a non-smoker. Let’s say you bought a permanent individual life insurance policy as a smoker. But you’ve decided to quit smoking after surviving a heart attack. At this point, your health still puts you in a high-risk category. This means your insurer is unlikely to remove the smoker rating from your policy – even if you quit.

Getting a premium reduction can be difficult if you have other health risks holding you back. But it’s still possible – especially if you quit smoking while you’re still healthy. Bottom line: If you can quit smoking, you can start saving. If you’re ready to quit smoking, these tips and resources can help you get started:

How to buy life insurance - Ready to seal the deal on your life insurance? In most provinces, you can either purchase life insurance online or through an advisor.

Usually, when you buy life insurance through an advisor, the policy you’re applying for will be fully underwritten. The underwriting requirements will depend on many factors, including your age and how much insurance you’re looking for. Buying guaranteed-issue life insurance online, however, typically requires no health information from you, other than whether you’re a smoker.