Travel, work and hobbies in underwriting

Occupation

The large majority of jobs make no difference. Office work, healthcare, education, retail, most trades, most professional roles: none of these change the assessment.

A minority do. Insurers look at roles with meaningful physical risk, and typical examples are commercial fishing, logging, underground mining, work at height such as roofing or tower work, offshore energy work, explosives handling and commercial aviation.

What the underwriter wants is the detail. “Construction” covers a project manager who is on site occasionally and a roofer who spends every day on a steep pitch, and the two assessments are not the same. Describing the actual work, including safety certification and how much of your time is spent doing the risky part, gives the underwriter something to price accurately.

Where an occupation does affect the outcome, a flat extra is the usual response rather than a decline.

Travel

Two questions, and they carry different weight.

Ordinary holidays to ordinary destinations are not a factor. Nobody is rated for a week in Florida or a trip to Europe.

Travel to regions under a Canadian government advisory is a different matter. Insurers commonly reference Global Affairs Canada’s advisory levels, and destinations where Canada advises avoiding non-essential travel or all travel receive attention.

What matters is the pattern. A single two-week trip is assessed differently from someone spending three months a year in the same region for work, and living somewhere for part of every year is different again.

Possible responses are a flat extra for the period, an exclusion covering death occurring in named countries, a postponement until after a planned trip, or nothing at all.

Two situations worth naming. Someone with family in a region under advisory who visits regularly should say so plainly and expect questions; it is common and usually manageable. And an application made shortly before a planned trip to a high-risk destination may be postponed until you return, which is frustrating and not the same as being refused.

Aviation

Commercial pilots for major airlines are generally treated as ordinary occupations, because the safety record and the regulatory framework are strong.

Private flying is assessed on its own. Underwriters look at total hours, hours in the last year, the type of aircraft, whether flying is by instrument or visual rules, and the purpose of the flying. Student pilots, aerobatics, bush flying, ultralights and hang gliding each get their own treatment.

The two common outcomes are a flat extra, or an aviation exclusion under which the policy pays normally for anything except death while flying as a pilot or crew. An exclusion costs nothing, and it means the coverage does not respond to the one thing you may most want it to respond to. Which is preferable depends on how much flying you do and why you bought the policy.

Diving, climbing and motorsport

Scuba diving is assessed on depth, frequency, certification level and type. Recreational diving within ordinary limits often has no effect. Technical diving, cave diving, deep diving and commercial diving are assessed individually.

Climbing and mountaineering. Indoor climbing is generally a non-event. Outdoor rock climbing depends on grade and whether it is roped. High-altitude mountaineering and any form of free soloing are assessed seriously.

Motorsport. Competitive racing on four wheels or two, whether professional or amateur, is normally asked about. Class of racing, speeds and frequency all matter.

Parachuting, skydiving, BASE jumping and paragliding are asked about, and the responses range from a flat extra to an exclusion depending on the activity and how often you do it.

Flat extras and exclusions

A flat extra is a fixed amount per thousand dollars of coverage per year, added to the premium. The whole policy still pays for any cause, including the activity. Flat extras are frequently reviewable, so someone who stops the activity can often apply to have it removed after a period. Ask at issue whether it is reviewable and after how long.

An exclusion removes coverage for death arising from that specific activity. The premium is not increased. Everything else pays normally.

Which is better depends on the situation. If the activity is central to your life, an exclusion could remove cover for the most likely cause of death. If it is occasional and you mainly want the coverage for ordinary risks, an exclusion may be the sensible trade. It is worth asking for both options where the insurer will offer them.

Disclose it

All of this is on the application, and it is verifiable. Public information about a licence, a club membership, a competition record or an employer contradicting an application is a discrepancy, with the consequences set out in leaving something off the application.

Insurers also differ widely in appetite here. One insurer’s automatic exclusion is another’s modest flat extra, particularly for aviation and diving. It is one of the areas where applying in the right place changes the answer most.

If you take up a hazardous activity after the policy is issued, you generally do not need to tell the insurer, because the policy was issued on the facts at the time. Do not rely on that as a strategy, and check your own policy wording, since some contracts say otherwise.