Recently, there has been a lot of chatter on social media about COVID-19 vaccines and life insurance. The conjecture is: if you get a vaccine and pass away as a result, your life insurance policy will be void and your beneficiaries will get nothing.
This seems to come from the idea that if you die from an “experimental” treatment or vaccine, your insurance company will not cover you, which has some truth to it. Policies have a number of clauses/contingencies and, to my understanding, some do have clauses about “experimental” medicine. These clauses are meant to keep people from harming themselves with treatments and vaccines that have not been vetted and may do more harm than good.
However, none of the COVID-19 vaccines fall into this “experimental” category, as they have all been vetted and approved by the FDA and various other governing bodies. So, despite there being a nugget of truth in the social media chatter, this rumor is false.
I recently had a conversation with the Vice President of BUI, C. Brant Steck, CFP, about how COVID-19 has affected the insurance industry and policies, specifically. He said the following:
“COVID-19 has had minimal impact for the vast majority of individuals seeking new life insurance coverage. Generally speaking, the most significant restrictions are for individuals who are 75 and older and/or those individuals who have comorbidities. For young, healthy clients, under age 60, seeking $3M or less of term insurance, many carriers have introduced no-touch underwriting opportunities, which has made procuring life insurance easier and more comfortable than through traditional underwriting. Those who have existing coverage should not be affected by whether or not they have received the vaccine”
Additionally, Brant provided me with the below video featuring Dan Sullivan, JD, the Director of Business Development for First Element Insurance Planners, who goes into more detail.
Long story short, be very skeptical of anything you read on social media, if you are worried about your policy, call your insurance provider, agent, or your financial advisor and ask them directly.
If you still have questions, please don’t hesitate to schedule a time to chat with us. We are always happy to help.
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