Life Insurance With a Kidney Condition

What Underwriters Look At

How could a kidney condition shape the way an insurer looks at your application?

Each question an insurer may ask, explained before you start, can help you apply ready, with your results in order.

We’ll start with the kidney and urine results an insurer may ask about, and the history behind them.

An underwriter at the insurer assesses each application and decides whether cover is offered, and on what terms. For a kidney, urinary, prostate or bladder condition, the questions can turn on numbers, such as eGFR, urine and blood pressure results, and on history, such as the cause, any biopsy or procedure and any specialist follow-up. Each insurer sets its own questions, so we begin with your own results and history.

What an application may ask about, condition by condition:

• Kidney stones: how many episodes you’ve had, when the last was, and whether any stones remain
• Chronic kidney disease: any stage your doctor has given, with your recent eGFR and urine ACR results
• Blood or protein in the urine: how the result was found, and any urine, kidney function or imaging tests since
• IgA nephropathy or another glomerulonephritis: the date of diagnosis, any biopsy and any treatment since
• Polycystic kidney disease: the date of diagnosis, your kidney function, blood pressure and any specialist follow-up
• One kidney: why you have one, since when, and your kidney function and urine results since
• An enlarged prostate or prostatitis: your symptoms, any PSA results, and any medication or procedure
• Recurrent UTIs, an overactive bladder or interstitial cystitis: how often symptoms occur, any treatment and any time off work

Life Insurance

For the people you care about, what would you want in place if you weren’t here?

Life insurance can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries, money they can put towards everyday costs.

We’ll set out the kidney checks a life application can include, and the results that answer them.

Life insurance can pay a lump sum if you pass away, and its application looks at your health as a whole. An application’s own checks can include a urine test for albumin and blood, and a blood test that looks at kidney function, so recent results from your own doctor are worth having to hand first. For a long-term kidney condition, we’d want to understand your results over time and what any specialist has said about them.

What we set out with you for life cover:

• Albumin and blood in a urine sample, which an application’s own checks can test for
• Kidney function blood tests, which some insurers request as part of an application
• Any eGFR results over time, set out in date order from your GP’s or specialist’s records
• Urine albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) results, if your doctor has measured one, with test dates
• One kidney from birth, after surgery or after donating, with your kidney function results since
• Polycystic kidney disease, the date of diagnosis, and any monitoring of your kidney function since
• The cause of any kidney disease, if one is known, as described in any specialist letters
• A past kidney stone, whether the stone passed or was removed, and the date

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

How could your costs be met if you were ever unable to work again?

Should you be unable to work again, as the policy defines it, a TPD lump sum can help you meet those costs.

We’ll explain how a TPD definition reads against your work, and any time a kidney condition takes from it.

TPD insurance pays a lump sum when illness or injury leaves you unlikely to work again, under the policy’s own definition. An own-occupation definition looks at your usual job, while any-occupation looks at work suited to your education, training or experience. With a kidney condition, any regular treatment or procedures, and how your work is affected, are part of what we’d want to understand first.

What we look at with you on TPD:

• Outdoor, heat-exposed or heavy manual work, and how an own-occupation definition measures that job
• Repeated time off for stone procedures, biopsies or specialist appointments, set out by date for a TPD application
• Regular kidney monitoring and blood tests, and what a TPD application may ask about their effect on work
• Kidney donation, the donation date and the recovery after it, something we’d talk through before a TPD application
• Training or qualifications for seated work, which any-occupation wording considers if a kidney condition limited physical duties
• A TPD sum insured sized with any ongoing kidney tests, scans and medication costs in mind
• Any specialist letters on a kidney condition and your work, ready for the TPD questions
• Reduced hours because of a kidney condition, and how a TPD definition treats part-time work

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Income Protection

What could cover the monthly bills during time away from work with illness or injury?

Money for the monthly bills can come from income protection, which can pay part of your income after a waiting period.

We’ll go through any income protection offer with you, term by term, with any stone episodes or time off in view.

Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, subject to the policy’s waiting period, definitions and exclusions. After kidney stones, urinary infections or a prostate or bladder condition, an insurer may offer alternative terms, such as an exclusion for the condition or a higher premium. An exclusion’s wording sets what it reaches, and a health exclusion can later be put to the insurer for review.

What we go through with you on income protection:

• A stone exclusion’s exact boundary, such as whether a urinary infection after a stone falls inside it
• Days lost to a stone procedure or urine infection, compared with the length of the waiting period you choose
• A CKD diagnosis and the kidney function results an insurer weighs, gone through with you before you apply
• Any premium loading offered after kidney stones or CKD, and what it adds to your yearly budget
• Review requests for a kidney or urinary exclusion later, sent to the insurer with recent results attached
• Recovery time after donating a kidney, something we’d talk through before any income protection application
• Booked stone procedures or prostate operations, which we’d talk through before an application goes in
• Prostatitis or recurrent UTIs, and the dates of each episode from your GP records

Learn more about Income Protection

Trauma Insurance

Is there money in place for the costs a serious illness can bring?

A trauma lump sum can put money in place, for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.

We can read any kidney failure or transplant events in a trauma policy with you, and the treatment each one names.

Trauma insurance pays a lump sum when a listed condition is diagnosed and meets the policy’s definition. Some trauma lists include chronic kidney failure, with wording based on treatment such as permanent dialysis, and major organ transplant of specified organs, which in some policies includes a kidney. A condition you already have may be excluded, which limits cover for it and related claims according to the exclusion’s wording.

What we go through in a trauma policy:

• Chronic kidney failure, worded in some policies around undergoing permanent dialysis
• End-stage kidney failure wording that names permanent regular dialysis or a kidney transplant
• Major organ transplant, which in some policies lists a kidney among the specified organs
• A place on a recognised transplant waiting list, which some policies include in their transplant definition
• Stones, CKD or PKD diagnosed before a trauma policy began, which may be excluded under its wording
• How far a kidney exclusion reaches, read from its exact words, including any later kidney failure claim
• Specialist reports a kidney failure claim would need, as the policy’s definition sets out
• Kidney definitions in trauma wording, and what each one requires for a claim

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Answering the Health Questions

Which of your test results do the health questions actually ask about?

Reading each question together, results to hand, can show which results it asks about, so you can answer just that.

We’ll take the health questions one at a time with you, with your kidney results and referral letters beside them.

Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. If a question’s wording seems unclear, ask us before you answer it.

What we confirm with you before anything is signed:

• Dates of kidney stone episodes and procedures, confirmed against your hospital and GP records
• A urine or kidney function result still being looked into, answered as the question asks
• Childhood reflux or kidney surgery, where a question asks about conditions you’ve ever had
• Referrals to a nephrologist or urologist, listed with dates where a question asks about specialists
• Kidney cysts found on a scan, answered where a question asks about scan results
• Polycystic kidney disease diagnosed in your close family, described in the words the form itself uses
• A urine test result from an earlier insurance medical, where a new application asks about past tests
• Prostate or bladder symptoms, and each question on the form that asks about them

Applying With Help

What would you need to send in, and when, once an application is under way?

Laying out the steps together can show what to send and when, so each item can be ready before it’s needed.

We can prepare the application with you, starting with any kidney questionnaire or pre-assessment an insurer offers.

Some insurers offer a condition questionnaire for kidney, urine, prostate or bladder conditions, which may let an underwriter decide without further medical evidence. Some also offer pre-assessment, which gives an indication before a formal application. Where alternative terms come back, they can be discussed with your financial adviser before you accept.

How the application comes together with you:

• The kidney, urine, prostate or bladder questionnaire some insurers use, completed together from your results
• Imaging reports for stones or cysts, such as a CT scan or ultrasound, copied for the application
• Recent eGFR, urine ACR and blood pressure results, gathered before the questionnaire or application
• Nephrology or urology reports an insurer may ask your doctors for, with your signed consent
• A stone still present, a booked procedure or tests under way, and the timing of an application talked through
• Any urine and blood tests for an insurance medical, arranged around your work and any treatment
• Terms offered after a kidney or urinary assessment, discussed with the insurer and you before acceptance
• The date of a kidney donation and the recovery after it, set alongside the timing of any new application

Cover You May Already Hold

Before switching or cancelling a policy, what might be worth checking first?

Your policy’s current terms, read together first, can show what it gives you, so any change can add rather than take away.

We’ll look at any cover you hold now, including its kidney events, before a change of policy, job or fund.

Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application. We’d also read any trauma policy’s kidney failure or transplant events, and any exclusion.

What we check with you:

• Life or TPD cover that started before a kidney diagnosis, and the terms it still carries
• Kidney failure and transplant events in a trauma policy you hold, if it lists them
• The date a kidney condition was first noted, set against when any super fund cover began
• Fund insurance during long stretches of kidney treatment, checked before any change of work or fund
• A kidney stone or urinary exclusion already on a policy, with recent results gathered for any review request
• Any cover you hold if you’re planning to donate a kidney, checked before the operation
• Income protection held from before a kidney diagnosis, read for its definitions, waiting period and benefit period
• An older chronic kidney failure definition, read against a newer policy’s before anything is replaced

Learn more about Life Cover With a Health Condition