Life Insurance

[Pilotdaddy]

Looking for recommendations as to where to buy life insurance from? I know that RBC asks further questions the moment you mention that you fly planes... Is that pretty much standard operation no matter which vendor the policy is bought from?

[digits_]

Yes, but as long as it is airline flying most don't seem to care. "Bush flying", whatever their definition is, and private personal airplanes make underwriters nervous.

[challenger_nami]

As @digits indicated, Insurers and underwriters are usually ok with the insured pilot working in a SCHEDULED Airline Operation, because as we all know they are the safest of flying operations.

I Put SCHEDULED in all caps as some policies I have seen, have the exact wording in them.

Anything NON-Scheduled, can potentially void the insurance policy. That may include: Flying Privately for leisure, Flying Charters, Medevacs, Bush Flying etc.

Insurance policies can be very vague and confusing. if you are a pilot, make sure your insurer knows the type of flying you are involved in. Also have the insurer’s express approval of your situation to make sure your insurance policy stays in effect.

[StandingBy]

My wife and I use Professional Pilot Insurance Plan. A friend recommended it and I did my own research. Seems legit. Much more pilot friendly. A friend of a friend actually had to use it and had no problems, supposedly. I believe you need an ATPL and a medical at the time of application.

[Pilotdaddy]

Thanks all. Issue is that I will be working as a flight instructor so SEL/GA type of aircraft only - most definitely will not qualify as "scheduled" operations. I went ahead with the RBC application. I'm supposed to have a phone interview in the next few days. Let's see if it goes through.

[challenger_nami]

My previous post was about Whole Life Insurance Policies.

The bar for Getting qualified for a “Term Life Insurance policy” is much lower as compared to “Whole Life Policy”. If a Term Life policy is all you need.




.

[contactapproved]

I second PPIP. They were easy to get a policy through and their customer service has been top notch since day one. You can only get 500k max though if you want to be insured while acting as a crew member so if you are after more you may have to look elsewhere.

[Bede]

The important thing is that you look through the exclusions of the policy. Some have no exclusions, some have flying, skydiving, SCUBA diving, rock climbing, etc.
However even if you get such a restrictive policy, you will still be covered except if you die while doing an excluded activity.

[Inverted2]

I don’t know much about the policy but ALPA is always advertising for life insurance in the magazine we get every month.

[schnitzel2k3]

I have a policy with Sunlife, decent policy. I think its a term life
which essentially gets my family to a point where my kids will be independent, then stops.

Big restrictions on single engine flying, as well as single pilot. Premiums decrease for multi engine turbine and are non existent for twin engine jet in a commercial operation.

Provides me a little relief that if anything happened, my family would be looked after.

S.

[The Mole]

RBC did a custom policy for me, i'm only covered when not flying. Apparently bumping into live power lines for work is considered high risk. Had a plan with PPIP for medical coverage but it was cancelled out the blue two years ago.

[Yycjetdriver]

Provides me a little relief that if anything happened, my family would be looked after.

S.

#atleastflatpaycomeswithbenefits

[schnitzel2k3]

Provides me a little relief that if anything happened, my family would be looked after.

S.

#atleastflatpaycomeswithbenefits

Why so salty lol?

The level of life insurance significantly exceeds that of a typical employer benefit package - that includes AC - so no, I'd still be looking for more. At least now I can comfortably afford to pay for it.

Cheers.

[Flight94]

When I got my first flying job, which was defined as "bush" through the insurers, I was quoted between 2 and 300 per month. This was through a couple of different banks.

I went through PPIP and my premium is $34/mo for comparable coverage. I did not have an ATPL.

[RedAndWhiteBaron]

Thanks all. Issue is that I will be working as a flight instructor so SEL/GA type of aircraft only - most definitely will not qualify as "scheduled" operations. I went ahead with the RBC application. I'm supposed to have a phone interview in the next few days. Let's see if it goes through.

Can you get a discount for avoiding students such as yours truly?

Seriously my financial advisor, who is not an insurance guy, did recommend one thing: "get your insurance before you get your license, everything will change after that".

From what I can tell, it gets much more difficult, but only slightly more pricey, to find life insurance as a junior pilot. It's a more hazardous occupation than most, but we also tend to be much healthier than most - or at the very least, we have the most comprehensive and invasive medical exams known to man. You just gotta make a lot of phone calls.

[Pilotdaddy]

Seriously my financial advisor, who is not an insurance guy, did recommend one thing: "get your insurance before you get your license, everything will change after that".

Interesting... I would've assumed that even if insurance were in place prior to your licenses, you'd still have to disclose your new line of work after getting said licenses, nulling the policy anyway as your line of work has now changed. Good to know that that's not the case from what you're saying.

[The Mole]

[/quote]

Interesting... I would've assumed that even if insurance were in place prior to your licenses, you'd still have to disclose your new line of work after getting said licenses, nulling the policy anyway as your line of work has now changed. Good to know that that's not the case from what you're saying.
[/quote]

Life/medical disability insurance is complicated with many different styles of policies. Some policies are non cancelable until a certain age. The younger you get a policy the cheaper and easier it is. Getting pilot disability insurance is almost impossible ant the terms can be terrible. I could only get insured for outside of work. Get killed or hurt at work I go into the government system.

[photofly]

Last time I looked at insurance, what made a difference was what you were doing at the time the event that triggered it occurred: general aviation was excluded, whether or not you notified anyone of anything, before, during or after the fact.

At the time you pay the premium they're happy to take your money no question asked, but the details are always checked at the time you make a claim. The more expensive the claim the more the underwriters will look for reasons they don't have to pay, so you have to read the small print.

[milotron]

I am in the process of renewing with Manulife and they asked all of those questions ( 2 days ago ). I remember the process 10 years ago and they didn't like me just having a PPL and IFR and this prompted me to get my CPL which helped the rates.
The do ask about what 'flying' you do ( bush, sched, corp owner, etc ) as well as where ( over water, mtns, etc )

They didn't exclude me previously just charged a little more ( $20 or $30 per month ) and this was a $2M corporate life policy. This renewal will likely change but only due to my age, not activities.

[Pilotdaddy]

Update - PPIP quoted almost 50% cheaper than RBC. However, RBC's premiums are fixed for the term 20 years that I'm looking for, while PPIP's has five year brackets which means increases every five years. After taking the present value of all payments, RBC actually comes out cheaper, even though it's almost double to begin with.

I'll be reviewing the coverage for RBC, and if it's in line with PPIP, I will be taking their package. Thanks everyone for the info provided in this thread.