Lifestyle and substance use
Nicotine, cannabis, alcohol and other substances are judged on very different criteria in Canada.
4 articles in this section
These are the parts of an application people are most tempted to round off, and the parts where rounding off causes the most trouble later. Each substance is assessed on its own criteria, and the criteria are not intuitive: cannabis in Canada is treated very differently from tobacco, and a past alcohol problem is read differently from current heavy drinking.
Questions about lifestyle and substance use
Smokers, vaping and nicotine testing
What counts as nicotine use on a Canadian life insurance application, how cotinine testing works, and how long insurers want you to have stopped.4 minCannabis use and life insurance
How Canadian insurers treat cannabis since legalisation, why non-smoker rates are often available, and where frequency and method of use change the answer.4 minAlcohol history and life insurance
What insurers ask about alcohol, which blood markers they read, and how a past problem is assessed differently from current heavy drinking.4 minSubstance use, recovery and life insurance
How Canadian insurers assess a history of substance use, why length of recovery is the main variable, and how opioid agonist treatment is viewed.4 min
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