Should HIV Positive Persons Get Life Insurance?

Given that death rates of HIV positive individuals have fallen during the past few years, should they be given access to life insurance? 

By:  Ringo Bones 

The good news is, the death rates of persons who are diagnosed as HIV positive have fallen by as much as 40 percent around the world since 2005. The bad news is that there are still some insurance providers who deny them life insurance. Since the 1980s, patients who are diagnosed to be HIV positive have been denied access to fully underwritten traditional life insurance. But as death rates in HIV positive diagnosed persons continue to fall due to the advent of affordable and increased access to anti-retroviral medication, life insurance underwriting for HIV positive diagnosed persons are now available. 

Ross Deerman, chef executive of All Life provides mortgage and life insurance policies to HIV positive diagnosed persons / AIDS survivors during the past few years in South Africa. During the past five years, death rates of HIV positive diagnosed persons on the African content have fallen by as much as 58-percent but the stigma still remains on traditional insurance underwriters not granting life insurance policies to HIV / AIDS survivors. All Life’s program / business model of giving HIV Positive persons access to fully underwritten traditional life insurance has already spread to other countries with local All Life branches. Maybe insurance providers should also offer healthcare packages designed for lower income HIV positive persons that allow them greater access to anti-retroviral medication. 

Chartered Life Underwriter: Recession Proof Employment?

Given that “jobless recovery” is the new normal, is being a Chartered Life Underwriter truly is a recession proof form of employment? 

By: Ringo Bones 

                     

Even though recession has already “officially” ended in America and yet jobless recovery has since become the new normal, it seems that in every newspaper’s classified ads and online job search sites, Chartered Life Underwriters seems to be in hot demand as of late. Given that it has a “claim-to-fame” of being a recession proof form of employment, what is a Chartered Life Underwriter? 

Chartered Life Underwriters (CLUs) are a financial professional designation for individuals who wish to specialize in life insurance, estate planning and wealth transfer. The Chartered Life Underwriter – as a designation – was first given by The American College of Financial Services, also known as The American College, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 

Technically, a Chartered Life Underwriter is a professional who has passed examinations on taxation, insurance and investments. He or she should also have planning experience with regards to life insurance. Chartered Life Underwriters typically undergo ten courses, 3 years of relevant and qualifying experience as well as the knowledge and obedience to the code of ethics as provided to the Chartered Life Underwriter. The courses aim to provide in-depth training that is concentrated on life insurance and personal insurance planning. There is also an exam after the end of the courses. 

 

Genetic Science and Life Insurance Companies: An Unholy Alliance?

As the science of genetics advances to a level where someone’s future health status and life span can be calculated with unprecedented degrees of accuracy. As these tools will be utilized by life insurance companies. Will the establishment of a voluntary code of conduct in the rate - making procedures of life insurance providers be the norm rather than the exception?


By: Vanessa Uy


In a typical contemporary life insurance company, the actuary knows only that ultimately that the policyholder will die. The factors governing the event as they apply to any given individual-the when, the why, and the how-are still a mystery beyond casual prediction. Insurance experts must therefore draw up their actuarial tables entirely from death statistics, separating into categories of such subdivisions as age, sex and occupation. The expert thus starts with known statistics and from these, works out the probabilities. As always in the case of probability, the greater the sampling, the more accurate the resultant forecast will be.

Recent advances in genetic science can now allow scientists to predict with ever increasingly accurate forecasts of the probable characteristics of even the unborn. Characteristics such as height, weight, intelligence, even longevity. These tools now in use routinely by genetic science has become increasingly harder to be overlooked by life insurance actuaries. Surely, the element of gambling can be eliminated if the customer’s premiums are like the proverbial “money in the bank” since the life insurance company will now be less likely to pay out with most of their policyholders are now living as long as sequoia trees.

Will life insurance policies in the future be tailored to the individual customer’s “genetic endowment”? The sad news is that it will be a definite certainty despite the resulting resentment that will be harbored by a working underclass. To me, this is where a voluntary code of conduct should be adopted by “mainstream” life insurance companies to avoid the increased customer exclusion that would result if life insurance actuaries adopt a method that by all intents and purposes is unfair. But the bad news is life insurance companies primarily are a business entity that’s primarily concerned with their “bottom line”. If life insurance actuaries see that an unjust method of customer exclusion or insurance policies can fatten up their bottom line, then surely, they will accept it with open arms despite of the ensuing social turmoil.