Have you made any personal pledges lately? Decided to get fit, quit smoking or reduce your drinking? By making positive changes to your lifestyle you may enjoy the added bonus of reducing your personal insurance premiums.

Quitting smoking

Insurers classify you as a smoker whether you are a casual smoker or a chain smoker – there is no difference to the health risks in the insurer’s eyes. Therefore, if you have quit smoking and continued to do so for at least 12 months, it’s worth letting your insurer know as your insurance premiums may drop substantially. At the moment, smokers’ rates are usually double the rates of non-smokers for the same amount of cover. Double the reason to kick the habit.

Getting fit

With the increase of obesity rates in recent years it’s little wonder that underwriters are using are the body mass index (BMI) as an indicator of people’s health. Insurers use such a measure to determine the risk you present to an insurer – the higher your BMI the greater your risk of mortality.

Therefore, if you have a low BMI and you are of ideal weight, the insurer will consider you in good health with a reduced mortality level which is reflected in lower premiums. However, if your BMI is high and you fall into the obese category, this is taken as an indicator that you could die early as a result of medical complications and loadings may apply to your premiums. This means you will pay more for the same amount of cover as someone with a low or ideal BMI.

If you know you have lost weight since you took out your insurance policies let us know and we can contact your insurer to see if any alterations can be made to your policy to save you money.

Reducing alcohol intake

To put it plainly, your alcohol use could affect your insurance rates.

Because actual alcohol consumption is hard to judge, insurers use several strategies to measure it. One indicator of alcohol use can be found in the series of “lifestyle” questions on the initial application. Specifically, one question asks for details about your drinking habits.

You are also given a paramedical exam and blood test. The blood test checks your liver function, as well as for evidence of drug-use and nicotine-use. Blood test results that show elevated liver enzymes may indicate excessive alcohol consumption.

If you know that you have reduced your alcohol consumption significantly since taking out your insurance policies then you should make your insurer aware of it.

If you would like to review your current policies, please contact me, Amina Spahich, directly on (08) 6169 0504 or amina@demeterwealth.com.