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Life Insurers And BMI

It is a very good idea to have life insurance. Your life insurance policy is what will cater for your family when you are no longer able to do so. It will help to pay for your funeral as well as any debts that you have on your name when you go. If you have a life insurance policy you are going to be charged premiums. life insurers work out these premiums using a number of factors, one of which is your BMI.

The first question you may be asking is "What is BMI?".

The BMI is the body mass index. It is kind of like an I.Q. test for your weight. The body mass index is a ratio between your weight and your height. It allows a variety of people to compare their weight relative to their height to see if they are overweight or on the right track.

You may also want to know how life insurers allow your body mass index to affect your premiums.

Your weight is an indication of how healthy you are. An overweight person is more likely to have heart and joint problems. They are also more likely to get diabetes and all kinds of other problems. This means that you are a higher insurance risk for life insurers to underwrite. This means that they will charge you more each month to make sure that they can cover their expenses when they have to pay out. The higher premium is to allow for the fact that you are more likely to die young than a person who is the right weight.

What life insurers do is categorise people into underweight, normal, overweight and obese. Each category will have its own set of risk factors and will have an impact on your insurance premium. The more overweight you are the more you can expect to pay. The same can be said for being underweight as being underweight has almost as many risks attached to it as being overweight does.

Do not worry too much if you are suffering from middle age spread. Life insurers will also take your age into account as they are aware that people tend to put on weight as they get older. This means that an overweight twenty four year old will be charged more in terms of their weight than an overweight forty year old.

Weight is not the only thing that affects your life insurance premium. It is also affected by the kind of sports you take part in, more high risk sports will cause a higher premium than something low risk. They will also take into account whether you are a smoker or not as well as any potentially hereditary diseases.

If you want to get the lowest life insurance premium that you can be eligible for make sure that you have a body mass index of between twenty and twenty five and do not smoke or take part in any high risk sports. Other than that you get what you get.