A pre-existing condition is any kind of medical condition, health issue or injury you’ve experienced prior to your policy. Anything you’ve suffered in the past, anything you’ve had symptoms of, been tested for, received medication, treatment or surgery for, or are expecting to receive in the future. This could be illnesses or ailments such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, stroke, etc. Or more one-off and infrequent issues such as back pain, a sport injury, or even a problem you’ve simply gone to talk to your GP about. These do not need to have been officially diagnosed to be considered pre-existing conditions by certain insurers.

However, each insurance provider has their own definition of what they consider a pre-existing condition to be, though most take a similar variety into account, as well as the severity of the condition. Insurers will ask you follow up questions about your pre-existing conditions to get a better understanding of how it affects you and any treatment that you might have had. If your conditions aren’t a major risk to your health, most insurers will often offer you standard cover still.

Any pre-existing conditions you might have had prior to taking out a life insurance policy must be declared at the time of application. They are vital pieces of information that determine your eligibility for a policy, as well as what your prices will be, and if you fail to provide or fully disclose anything regarding your health and lifestyle, it can void your policy entirely. Claims made thus might be rejected, refused or your cover could be rendered null.

Pre-existing conditions affect life insurance costs because they have the potential to define you as a high-risk customer to your chosen insurer. If you have a severe pre-existing medical condition, or even multiple, this means that your health is more likely to be negatively impacted, thus potentially reducing your life span or even directly causing your death. The more likely you are to die during your policy, the more likely a claim will be paid out by the insurer – and thus you are more likely to be considered high-risk.