Disability Insurance Underwriting Explained

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What To Expect During Disability Insurance Underwriting
Step By Step
by Anthony Delvecchio

What To Expect During Disability Insurance Underwriting Your agent has gone over all your options and you are now ready to apply for disability insurance. Now what? What do you as the applicant have to do? Here is what to expect during the underwriting process.

The first step is normally a phone call from a third party paramedical vendor. They are going to go over the medical questions from the application. You can expect to be on the phone for about 15 minutes or so. At the conclusion of the conversation, they may ask you to schedule some lab work. The lab work usually consists of drawing blood and giving a urine sample. The results of the lab evaluations are sent to the underwriter. You can expect the results to be mailed directly to you as well.

At the same time the labs are being completed, the insurance company is in the process of retrieving your medical records. This step is normally the lengthiest step of the underwriting process. Most agents will ask you to contact the physicians you have seen and give them notice that you are in the process of getting a disability policy and would like the medical records released to the insurance company. A phone call by the patient usually will make the process of getting the records go a lot smoother and quicker than without this phone call.

Once the records are retrieved the underwriter can now go about the task of making you the best offer. What the underwriter is looking for in your medical records are red flags; major medical concerns, or potentially disabling medical conditions or impairments. Many pre-existing condition that may be found in your medical records can become “excluded” on the policy. The goal here is to make sure you can still get a great policy including coverage for medical conditions which have not been excluded, but that may still disable you. Without the ability to exclude pre-existing conditions the insurance companies would be handcuffed in their offers or not be able to offer any coverage at all. At this point the underwriter evaluates all the information from your file and assesses your insurability.

To sum this all up for you, all that is required on your end is to be available to do the telephone interview, which includes scheduling any required labs, make a phone call to your primary physician, and have a little patience. Within a month or so, an offer is usually made and you are on your way to peace of mind.

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