generally speaking...will life insurance policies cover private pilots?

M

muleywannabe

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
331
Location
Independence, Kansas
Display Name
Display name:
Cherokee235
I have life insurance policies set up way before I ever thought of flying. In general terms, I am sure there are typical exclusions in insurance but If I had life insurance set up years ago, will it still cover my family in the case of death? or should I check into insurance before I start flying with an instructor etc? what have you folks seen in your time flying? thank you
 
Coincidentally, I just checked my policies today. My life insurance does not have a flying exclusion, however my AD&D policy has the following exclusion: Air or space travel. This does not apply if a person is a passenger, with no duties at all, on an aircraft being used only to carry passengers (with or without cargo).

Exclusions are called out and are easy to find in most policies.
 
Generally...no AOPA sells a supplemental policy I believe and there's piclife.com
 
I review my coverage with my insurance agent from time to time. We were making smalltalk and I happened to mention that I was going to start flying lessons soon. She pointed out to me that if I wanted a life insurance policy, it would be in my best interest to get that set up before the start of lessons and to make sure there was no exclusion clause in the policy. She said it could be a lot more difficult to find an underwriter once I started flying. I didn't follow up because I neither want nor need a life insurance policy.

I'd recommend you discuss your situation with your agent before you start flying, just in case.
 
Generally speaking it's not a problem to get life insurance as a pilot. Just make sure you look at the policy and see what exclusions are there.

USAA and pic life worked well for me. IEEE has a really good plan too....
 
muleywannabe said:
I have life insurance policies set up way before I ever thought of flying. In general terms, I am sure there are typical exclusions in insurance but If I had life insurance set up years ago, will it still cover my family in the case of death? or should I check into insurance before I start flying with an instructor etc? what have you folks seen in your time flying? thank you
Click to expand...

Read your policy, some exclude, some don't.
 
I don't have an exclusion ,for being a pilot . But I do pay an added cost.
 
Lincoln Benefit Life writes policies with no aviation exclusions. They are sold through PIC.

I've had one for 20 years, and they are less expensive than the conventional policies that have an aviation exclusion. Go figure.
 
Jim_R said:
I review my coverage with my insurance agent from time to time. We were making smalltalk and I happened to mention that I was going to start flying lessons soon. She pointed out to me that if I wanted a life insurance policy, it would be in my best interest to get that set up before the start of lessons and to make sure there was no exclusion clause in the policy. She said it could be a lot more difficult to find an underwriter once I started flying. I didn't follow up because I neither want nor need a life insurance policy.

I'd recommend you discuss your situation with your agent before you start flying, just in case.
Click to expand...

I was licensed, but not flying when I got my most recent policies, and they contain no exclusions. From what I have been told, the companies put the exclusions in, if you answer "yes" to the flying questions on the app, but not all policies have it as a general exclusion. I'm sure some policies are different, but that's my experience.

The applications I've filled out also ask if you have any plans to..., so consider how you might answer those questions....
 
philiplane said:
I've had one for 20 years, and they are less expensive than the conventional policies that have an aviation exclusion. Go figure.
Click to expand...

That's because pilots holding a medical certificate are generally healthier than the general population . . .
 
I have life insurance, no exclusion, written with full disclosure. I also purchased through PICLife, very competitive rate.
 
I got a policy through PICLife (Addison TX) rates were competitive with SelectQuote and they already weeded out the ones that have pilot exclusions.
 
My life insurance policy I got before I started flying does not have an exclusion. But if I was to get another policy, I could still get coverage, but it would cost more just because they believe you are more at risk being a pilot. This is through State Farm.
 
I have been a long-time member of USAA for banking, auto/home insurance, and such. I am currently shopping for a new life insurance policy - does anybody know if USAA typically has an aviation exclusion? (Or should I just call them.)
 
More importantly - why do people have life insurance at all? I've never understood this. If you die your family will be left with your belongings/holdings anyway (that can then be sold). I'm not trolling, I just don't understand the concept. Please inform me.
 
Last edited:
RussR said:
I have been a long-time member of USAA for banking, auto/home insurance, and such. I am currently shopping for a new life insurance policy - does anybody know if USAA typically has an aviation exclusion? (Or should I just call them.)
Click to expand...

My USAA policies have no aviation exclusion. Though calling them to make sure it hasn't changed [and reading it after it's issued] is wise...
 
My experience is that when you apply for the policy, they'll ask you if you fly as a pilot, and if so, details on that (airline pilot vs nonprofessional, certificate level, flight hours, type of flying, etc). If your answer is "yes", they'll put in an aviation exclusion unless you meet certain experience/qualification standards and/or pay extra. If the answer is "no", they don't, and if you later start flying, your policy may not exclude that flying (but read the fine print to be sure). That's just my experience, YMMV, etc, etc.
 
stratobee said:
More importantly - why do people have life insurance at all? I've never understood this. If you die your family will be left with your belongings/holdings anyway (that can then be sold). I'm not trolling, I just don't understand the concept. Please inform me.
Click to expand...

If you're the only one working in the family it will take time for your spouse to get a job. If you've got kids you'll be able to provide something for them to go to college. Maybe to help pay a mortgage, or if its paid for, property tax that was no problem with two incomes but would be too much for just one. Lots of reasons.


To the OP - If you have less than 100 hours PIC time, its expensive. I got some quotes for term life, with over 100 hours it wasn't a big deal. With less than 100, it was buy a traditional policy that had an aviation exclusion, and then a policy from Lloyds of London that cost about 4 times as much just to cover the aviation portion.
 
My term life policy (Jackson Life) had an exclusion only for the first two years of the policy. After that I was covered. As it turned out, it was more than two years before I started training anyway.

Another data point.
John
 
stratobee said:
More importantly - why do people have life insurance at all? I've never understood this. If you die your family will be left with your belongings/holdings anyway (that can then be sold). I'm not trolling, I just don't understand the concept. Please inform me.
Click to expand...

There's a number of reasons someone might use it as part of a strategy.

- Pay for kids college education.
- Pay off or significantly reduce a large shared debt item (mortgage) giving the survivor the choice to stay and not have to sell.
- Cover business partners in a business transaction. (Cross life insurance between business partners is common.)
- Provide cash for funeral/other expenses or cash when an estate mainly consists of assets that will take time to liquidate.

Or even all the way to...

- Completely replacing ones income for a spouse all the way to retirement age.

There's as many reasons possible as you can think of. It's not always the best fiscal option.
 
stratobee said:
More importantly - why do people have life insurance at all? I've never understood this. If you die your family will be left with your belongings/holdings anyway (that can then be sold). I'm not trolling, I just don't understand the concept. Please inform me.
Click to expand...

Term life insurance is cheap. You can get $500,000 for like $30/mo I think. To me that's a lot better than asking my survivors to sell the house, car, and furniture while they try to replace my income.

For many lower- or middle-income families, especially with young children, they may not have a ton of assets and perhaps not much home equity either. Having an assurance of $500k or $1M if the bread-winner dies is extremely important just to maintain their current lifestyle. Having something left over to pay for the kids to go to college is even better.

Now, whole life, on the other hand, is a different story altogether. But term life is cheap and covers you during the period when others are most relying on you -- once you're 60 and the kids are out of the house and the house is paid off, then no, it may not be as necessary.
 
what about whole life policies. Mine are 30 to 40 years old and are worth more in cash value than in face value. I assume these would be paid as cash at this point since they are more an investment than life insurance regardless of exclusions?

Anyone know for sure?
 
philiplane said:
Lincoln Benefit Life writes policies with no aviation exclusions. They are sold through PIC.

I've had one for 20 years, and they are less expensive than the conventional policies that have an aviation exclusion. Go figure.
Click to expand...

I have the same....
Funny how my wife felt that flying my own plane was sooo much safer once I had a $500k policy...
Again, go figure :dunno:
 
denverpilot said:
There's a number of reasons someone might use it as part of a strategy.

- Pay for kids college education.
- Pay off or significantly reduce a large shared debt item (mortgage) giving the survivor the choice to stay and not have to sell.
- Cover business partners in a business transaction. (Cross life insurance between business partners is common.)
- Provide cash for funeral/other expenses or cash when an estate mainly consists of assets that will take time to liquidate.

Or even all the way to...

- Completely replacing ones income for a spouse all the way to retirement age.

There's as many reasons possible as you can think of. It's not always the best fiscal option.
Click to expand...

I found that owing a plane, while a dream come true for 17 years was not the best fiscal option either. Still have the policy though. :rolleyes:
 
Keith Lane said:
I found that owing a plane, while a dream come true for 17 years was not the best fiscal option either. Still have the policy though. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


I just didn't want to sound like an insurance peddler. We have life policies also. For various reasons.

One other interesting thing about life insurance. Typically it's not considered taxable income to the beneficiaries. A young healthy person can buy term policies CHEAP and if they do happen to perish, their beneficiaries can receive very large sums of money, tax free.

Of course, this can also backfire... If you're worth significantly more dead than alive... Heh... Watch your back. :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
stratobee said:
More importantly - why do people have life insurance at all? I've never understood this. If you die your family will be left with your belongings/holdings anyway (that can then be sold). I'm not trolling, I just don't understand the concept. Please inform me.
Click to expand...

Because most people don't have holdings, they have debt. They buy life insurance to cover those and predicted (educational expenses for kids...) future expenses & debts for their family.
 
Cruiser said:
what about whole life policies. Mine are 30 to 40 years old and are worth more in cash value than in face value. I assume these would be paid as cash at this point since they are more an investment than life insurance regardless of exclusions?

Anyone know for sure?
Click to expand...

Depends on the policy. Mine is a return of premium whole life. After 30 years, I get all my paid premiums back in refund, but still keep the policy.
 
In my experience, "it depends," so ask the agent to check beforehand.

I was shopping for term insurance in late 2013 and my long-time agent overlooked the fact that Northwestern Mutual, from whom I had bought policies in the past, had in early summer 2013 dramatically increased their minimum hours requirement from 500 hours up to 1000 hours.

So with Northwestern Mutual if you're a private pilot with less than 1000 hours, either you accept the exclusion so you aren't covered if you die while flying a GA plane, or you pay ~2x the quoted premium until you do have 1000 hours.

Needless to say I was really upset when I learned this (especially since my agent has known for years that I'm a pilot) so I saw no reason to reward Northwestern Mutual for that approach and happily took my business elsewhere.

I did find a great rate on term coverage with Prudential. It was comparable to what I was quoted from PIC, and while I hadn't heard anything bad about the company PIC found, I hadn't ever heard of them before, so Prudential was more appealing to me.

Note: Depending on your age and the amount of coverage you're getting, be prepared for at minimum an extensive health history interview, and probably a comprehensive set of blood work. And if you're much above 40 and/or are looking for over a million in coverage, an EKG may also be on the list of things the company wants (they pay for the exams.) But each insurance company has different thresholds, so ask around.
 
I went to Farmers for a term life policy a few years ago. There's no aviation exclusion, but that resulted in being downgraded one category so I pay an extra $12 per year for the policy. They asked a lot of questions about my ratings and hours (including solo hours). They also sent a nurse to my house to take blood and vitals.
 
tlglenn said:
I went to Farmers for a term life policy a few years ago. There's no aviation exclusion, but that resulted in being downgraded one category so I pay an extra $12 per year for the policy. They asked a lot of questions about my ratings and hours (including solo hours). They also sent a nurse to my house to take blood and vitals.
Click to expand...


Farmer's underwriters are fairly sane. They have an aviation questionnaire form and the agents can find out from the main offices what items will trigger higher rates, within minutes, pending full underwriting.

Very different than many insurers who just stare blankly and mumble "derrrrrrr?" when you mention aviation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top