Getting Good Offers On Diabetes Cases

Finally, you want to find out if your client has any other complications associated with the diabetes. These include heart disease, kidney disease, neuropathy and retinopathy among others.

Now that you have the information you need, you have a variety of options that you can and should explore. First and foremost, you should check with your primary carrier and see what type of offer it is willing to extend. Secondly, you should make a call to your favorite brokerage general agent. BGAs usually have a variety of carriers that may specialize in working with diabetic clients.

If you dont have a favorite BGA outlet, you can visit www.nailba.org to find one close to you. NAILBA, the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, has members in every part of the country that can help you find coverage for your clients.

Checking with multiple outlets is the best way to find out which companies are the most aggressive in the underwriting of diabetics. Also, underwriting philosophies change over time so checking every time you have an impaired risk case is also a good idea.

What is a good offer? Generally, if you have a client who is a Type II diabetic (and has been for a number of years) and the persons diabetes is controlled by diet or oral medication, the client can expect to receive a “standard” offer with no extra rating. This assumes that other factors are normal (other than the fact that your client has diabetes).

While there are carriers that will give Type I and insulin-controlled diabetics an offer of “standard” with no extra rating, many times these clients will receive offers anywhere from Table 2 to Table 8. The reason for the difference is primarily the overall mortality experience in these 2 segments.

Please note that these offers are just generalities. There are a variety of factors that go into underwriting a diabetic client. Control and compliance are 2 of the most important factors, and these are looked at on each individual case. Obviously, the client who is taking care of him/herself and is doing exactly what the doctor has prescribed is looked at more favorably than one who is not taking the disease seriously enough.

Learning about the disease and how to handle cases should help you feel comfortable working with diabetic clients. There is no magic in getting coverage at prices they can afford. It is simply a matter of finding out how they are controlling the disease and matching that with an insurance carrier who is willing to look at the case on a favorable basis. Once you do this, you will find out that diabetes is truly “an insurable disease.”

is president and general agent with the Tennessee Brokerage Agency, Knoxville, Tenn. His e-mail address is [email protected].

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, November 11, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.