[BDoyle]

Anyone got any experience of life insurance and PPL's. i have just been told that private flying attracts an extra premium. i would have thought that regular medicals would have tended to keep pilot holders aware of health issues and take steps to avoid poor health where possible.
would appreciate any assistance on this. does anyone know if AOPA has taken this issue on. think i recall that the UK AOPA got a result on this some time ago.
thanks.

[StrikeCommand]

When you go to take out a life assurance or mortgage protection policy the insurance company will ask if you fly other than as a passenger on scheduled airline flights. If the answer is yes (e.g. as a PPL) they ask you to provide details of how many hours you fly per year etc. They then apply a loading - which could be 50%. Needless to say the insurers know better than anyone that while flying may be a very safe form of transport, GA flying is a very different story and they consider it a higher risk. If you decide not to tell them about it, they could easily use that as a reason to repudiate your policy later on if you were unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident (God forbid).

[Tolka]

I would advise you to check out other life assurance companies as not all of them regard private flying as an additional risk. When I told my like assurance company many years ago that I had taken up flying they said that it wasn't a problem and there was no increase in premium. I suspect that your company is just looking for an excuse for a premium hike in the current environment. Why not threaten to move your policy elsewhere and see if they drop the additional loading.

[Thermoman]

I had this problem too. They charged me 50% loading on my life cover. I also had a serious illness policy and they said that if I received a serious injury/illness as a result of flying then the serious illness policy was null and void and that they wouldn't stump up. I accepted it at the time but it was a different story when I went looking at it again last year. They company I am with now said that they wouldn't load my life cover if i flew less that X amount of hours in the 12 months prior to the policy start date. They also didn't have an issue on the serious illness side of things. My advice would be to get a good broker let him do the dirty work for you. The guy i used came back with 5 or 6 quotes and I just picked the best (and cheapest) one

[tom in weston]

My insurance company did not increase the premium, but told me they would not pay out if I was injured or killed in a G.A. flying accident.

[Pilot]

When I told my like assurance company many years ago that I had taken up flying they said that it wasn't a problem and there was no increase in premium.

If the policy was taken out in advance of you having any intension to learn to fly then what you chose to do subsequently has no effect on the premium. You filled up the proposal in good faith and the policy won't change. (The build in the risk that you might subsequently decide to do something dangerous). If the didn't then when you chose to do a scuba dive trial while on holidays or go on a jet ski or some other once off thing, you'd have to call them first agree a new premium etc.

If you intended to take up flying when taking out your policy and handn't told them, then that would be different.

I've had various policies taken out since learning to fly, and treatment has varied between won't pay out if accident if flying related to 100% premium loading.

[Paul Short]

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[Paul Short]

Some good news with regard to loadings on Life, Mortgage Protection, and Serious Illness policies.

There has been a significant change in the way certain insurnance companies view PPL's with regard to charging a recreational extra or loading. Until recently insurance companies tended to adopt a blanket approach. Traditionally all insurers automatically imposed a loading to cover private flying. The impact of these loadings would typically increase the premium by either 50% or 100%.
With certain insurance companies significant positive changes have occured.This has arisen due to changes in risk profiling adopted by some insurers of PPL's together with enhanced re-insurance agreements. Competition is an added ingredient. Accordingly PPL's can now get full cover with no loadings subject to flying profile, experience and age. Reductions in loadings can apply to PPL's with existing cover as well as new entrants seeking cover.
We recently reviewed the cover of two PPL's. In both cases we were able to reduce the premiums by 48% and 43% respectively whilst still retaining full cover.
As a consequence of the research we undertook, as part of these reviews, we have acquired an up to date knowledge of precisely how the various insurers underwrite PPL's currently.
Should you require any further information or have any queries in relation to your cover, please feel free to email me at paul@ajshort.com or call (01) 4913131 / 087 2319747
Paul Short QFA. A.J.Short & Associates is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.