If Youre Not Vegetarian Dont Apply For This Life Insurance
Summary
An interesting new insurance plan has been developed by Animal Friends Insurance. The new policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lower risk than their carnivorous counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow AFI’s lead .
A not for profit insurance firm has launched an insurance policy which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced cost cheap life cover .
The deal, thought to be the 1st of its type, is being introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The company is offering non-meat eaters a 6% discounton mortgage protection premiums
The organisation claimed that veggies ought to pay a lesser sum for the cover, which pays out if the client were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including cancers.
Elaine Fair, the managing director of AFI, said that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 42% and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is cut by up to 32%, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay the same insurance premiums as clients who eat meat.
She says that Animal Friends Insurance believe this is patently unfair and says the life insurance industry should acknowledge the idea that being a vegetarian can make a very positive impact on life expectancy and lower its monthly premiums accordingly.
A normal plan is also on the market for meat eaters. Both plans are marketed by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life policies, a range of aspect contribute to the cost of the premiums including whether the applicant smokes, their weight, age and sex.
Currently at the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is funding the seven per cent discount itself from the money it earns from from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s objective was to offer lower costs on specialist cover. In ,offering the discount the company is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite yet another insurance policy that takes the veggie diet into account.
Indeed there are worthwhile savings to be had, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.
Where online life insurance is concerned, AFI thinks that life insurance companies should try to treat those that eat meat and people that don’t eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they assess smokers and non-smokers. It is to be hoped that other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.
Some peoplein the insurance industry do not believe there is proof that veggies live longer, and how any life insuranec company would know that applicants who had stated that they were veggies did not eat the odd spare rib.
It’s true that when it comes to smoking there are GP records - if you do smoke it’s possible that your Doctor is likely to know. But this isn’t the case when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.
But many veggetarians say that they are not concerned about people falling off the vegetarian way of eating and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a veggie, they do not regress to meat-eating, that is unlike smokers who tend to drift out and back again into their old smoking ways.
