Life Insurance for Smokers
Worried your smoking could make buying life insurance difficult? Learn how tobacco use can affect your rates, so you can find a plan that fits your needs and budget.
Worried your smoking could make buying life insurance difficult? Learn how tobacco use can affect your rates, so you can find a plan that fits your needs and budget.
Buying Life Insurance as a Smoker
Life insurance is designed to protect your family financially if something happens to you. Since your insurance company is actually insuring your life, it looks at how healthy you are when you buy a policy – including whether you smoke.
In most cases, smoking will increase your life insurance rates. The good news? There are still affordable smoker’s life insurance options for tobacco users, and if you quit smoking, you may be able to lower your rates even more. Here’s how it all works.
How Does Smoking Affect Life Insurance Costs?
When you apply for life insurance, one of the first things insurance companies will ask about is whether you smoke. Your life insurance rates also depend on how you use tobacco:
- If you smoke cigarettes: Even for occasional smokers, life insurance will usually cost more. Most companies just look at whether you smoke, not how much, so it won’t matter if you have a pack-a-day habit or just smoke one cigarette on the weekend.
- If you use e-cigarettes: Though most of them don’t use smoke, e-cigarettes still count as tobacco use on life insurance applications. In most cases, you’ll likely get the same higher rates as a smoker.
- If you smoke cigars: There’s a little more wiggle room here. If you smoke cigars frequently, your rate will be higher. But if you just enjoy the occasional cigar, some carriers may give you a non-tobacco rate.
- If you chew tobacco: Similar to cigars, some carriers will give you non-tobacco rates and some won’t.
Since rates for tobacco use depend so much on the life insurance company, it’s important to work with a life insurance agent when shopping for a plan. A knowledgeable professional can help you compare policies to see which carrier is best for your situation.
Quitting Tobacco and Life Insurance
Recently quit smoking? Quitting isn’t just good for your health, it’s also great for your life insurance rates.
In general, carriers want to see that you’ve been smoke-free for a little while and may give you non-tobacco rates as soon as 12 months after quitting. Once five years have passed, you should be eligible for preferred non-smoker rates with most insurance companies. An agent can help you find which option works best for you, depending on how long you’ve been smoke-free.
The Best Types of Life Insurance for Smokers
If you’re in good health overall, you should still qualify for traditional term life insurance or permanent life insurance options as a smoker:
Term Life Insurance for Smokers
Term life insurance is the most affordable type of life insurance and keeps you covered for a set period of time, typically 10 to 30 years.
Permanent Life Insurance for Smokers
Permanent insurance provides lifelong coverage and also allows you to build cash value over time. It’s more expensive than term life, but it may make sense if you have financial needs that last a lifetime.
Both term life and permanent life insurance typically require a medical exam from your life insurance company to help determine your rates. If you have health issues or other concerns about taking an exam, a simplified issue or guaranteed issue policy may be a better fit.
Questions about life insurance forsmokers
Life Insurance Quotes for Smokers Through eFinancial
At eFinancial, we’re dedicated to providing personalized support as you shop for life insurance. We offer access to plans and products from more than 20 leading insurance companies and a team of agents to guide you through the application and approval process. Let us help you get covered.
To get started, request your free, no-obligation online quote, or call 866-388-3996800-957-9525 to talk with one of our agents.