Life Insurance for Dangerous Hobbies
In life, there are many activities and hobbies which present themselves as dangerous or even life threatening. People who participate in extreme hobbies may be wondering if there's special life insurance for dangerous hobbies. The answer to that question is that yes, you can get life insurance coverage if you participate in dangerous hobbies, but there isn't necessarily a special kind. If you want to get life insurance for extreme hobbies, what I would recommend is applying with an independent agent that can shop your application to different carriers because they're all going to rate extreme hobbies a little bit differently. At Life Insurance 420 we help all kinds of applicants apply for life insurance, and have access to an independent underwriter that can consult on your specific activity to help us find you the cheapest rates for your specific activity.
If you're wanted to get started, click the button or scroll to the bottom of the page and fill out our instant quoter. We'll be in touch to help you shortly after.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get back to dangerous hobbies, because what we may think is extremely dangerous may not be as dangerous from a statistical standpoint, so this article is to help you understand which hobbies and activities can increase your life insurance rates, and which ones surprisingly don’t.
Motorcycles are a personal topic I enjoy. My dad rode dirt bikes and cruisers as a kid, but had to end that hobby when my older brother was born. I was raised to believe that riding motorcycles is inherently dangerous; I mean, just look at them. Gravity is pulling you over, cars have a harder time seeing you, there’s no seatbelt or airbag, and your body is just exposed to metal, asphalt, telephone poles, and all other harmful objects on the road at high speeds. Some states still don’t even have helmet laws! But when it comes to life insurance underwriting, they typically don’t care if you ride or not. It’s safe to say that people have the will to live, and while the statics show that motorcycles have a higher death rate than cars do, it’s not significant enough to increase the probability of a large group of people. So if you’re a rider, ride safe, and get some life insurance.
What about those hobbies that do increase your rates? Here's a list of dangerous hobbies that we see life insurance companies asking about on their applications:
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Private Aviation
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Motorized Vehicle or Boat Racing
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Scuba Diving
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Mountain, Rock, or Ice Climbing
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Skydiving
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Base Jumping
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Hang Gliding
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Hot-Air Ballooning
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Bungee Jumping
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Cave Exploration
It's important that you're honest about your extreme hobbies because if the insurance company finds out you participated in something when you said you didn't, and you did die within the first two years of the contract, that could void your contract and no death benefit would be paid out.
If you answer yes to these extreme hobbies, they'll likely have additional questions about your level of participation. Based on these answers, the underwriter would determine if the activity warrants additional premiums, can be approved, or if it doesn't affect your rates at all. Some carriers might give a scuba diver that dives over 100 feet regularly an additional $5 per $1000 of coverage, while another might add $2.50 per $1000 for just the first 5 years of the contract. In other words it's going to vary with every detail and carrier, so the best thing to do is just get started and fill out the instant quoter. From there we can consult on which carrier would be the most lenient on your specific hobby.
If your approved rates come back a bit higher than your budget can handle, we can always adjust the term length or death benefit to meet your needs.
So, back to the subject of motorcycles, they are concerned mainly about motor sport racing. While riding on a track may be perceived as being safer because you don’t have distracted cars on the road, you are pushing your limits at high speeds in a competitive nature, and that will raise some concern and a few questions.
Another one they ask about is scuba diving, which requires various licenses and certifications. If you’re not certified to dive very deep and it’s the occasional thing you did on past vacations, they may not be concerned, but if you’re diving 100 feet from time to time, they will have some questions and may raise your rates due to the risky nature of scuba diving.
Private aviation is another one they ask about. If you’re into flying small, private planes or helicopters, statics show a high level of crashes. Just watch the local news and you’ll see stories about small plane crashes all the time, so it’s no surprise that life insurance companies don’t like private aviation.
International travel is something they ask about too. If you’re applying for life insurance while having a 2 month long trip planned to a dangerous part of the world, they’re going to be a little concerned. Now, if you’re going to the Caribbean for a 1 week vacation, that is normal and generally considered safe. The typical question is going to be – are you planning to travel internationally for 1 month or longer in the next 2 years?
And all the fun, challenging hobbies like Rock Climbing, Sky Diving, Bungee Jumping, Base Jumping, and Cave Exploration are all things they’re going to ask about on your life insurance application. If you participate in any of these, it just means they’re going to have additional questions so that they can get a better picture for how extreme and how often you go. It doesn’t mean you won’t be covered, and it doesn’t mean your rates will go way up unless your activity suggests a high level of risk.
The application process is free for the consumer, so there’s no harm in finding out if you can get approved and what your rates will be, but just be prepared that you might not get the cheapest possible rates if you participate in any of these challenging activities. To get started, fill out your information for an instant quote, and we’ll be in touch shortly to help answer any questions and guide you on the process.