None Vegetarian Need Not Apply For This Life Insurance
Summary
An innovative new product has been introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The new policy offers cheaper premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurers will follow the policy introduced by AFI .
A none profit insurance firm has introducd a scheme which offers fish-eaters and vegetarians a reduced premium cheap life cover .
The offer, believed to be the first of its kind, is being pioneered by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering non-meat eaters a 6 per cent reduction in priceon mortgage life insurance premiums
The organisation said that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser cost for the cover, which pays out if the plan holder were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including some cancers.
Amanda Jude, the managing director of AFI, said that the risk of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is lowered by up to forty per cent and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to 32%, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical life insurance premiums as policyholders who eat meat.
She says that AFI think that this is not fair and says the insurers should acknowledge the concept that being a vegetarian can make have a significant effect on life expectancy and reduce its monthly premiums accordingly.
A standard plan is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both plans are brought to the market by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life insurance policies, a range of things contribute to the cost of the policies including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.
Just at the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is carrying the 6% discount itself from the commission it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist insurance cover. In offering the price reduction the company is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically worthwhile for LV= to underwrite another plan that takes the veggie diet into account.
Indeed there are significant savings to be had, a 40-year-oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of life insurance might potentially save £393.60 over a 25-year period.
Where life insurance is concerned, AFI thinks that life insurance companies should begin to treat meat eaters and those that do not eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they approach those that don’t smoke and those that do. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will follow the initiative.
Some managersin the insurance industry doubt whether there is robust proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurance company could prove that those who had applied stating that they were veggies did not enjoy the occasional Big Mac.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your Doctor’s records - if you now don’t smoke it’s certainly likely that your GP will know. But this does not apply when it comes to eating meat, an insurance executive observed.
But many veggies argue that they are not worried about people falling off the veggie wagon and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a vegetarian, they don’t return to meat-eating, that is unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.