“Dear Wilfred, my wife, mother-in-law and my own mother suffered from cancer. If I apply for a whole life insurance with critical illness for my children, will the premium be more expensive? My children are in perfect health. – W”

Dear W,

Based on the data you have provided me, I submitted anonymous preliminary underwriting to two insurers. Insurer J will increase the critical illness rider premium by a whopping 50% due to the mentioned family history of cancer. However, I am glad to let you know that another insurer Q will accept your children’s case as standard premium. Thus, from this simple exercise we can see that there is no uniformity in underwriting standard among insurers. 

Wilfred