The Best Life Insurance For Skydivers: Finding The Most Affordable Protection
In this guide, we’ll cover all the essential information you need to know about life insurance for skydivers! We’ll explain how being a skydiver may influence your life insurance coverage and whether you should hide your hobby from insurers. We’ll also share some hot tips on how to save up on life insurance if you’re a skydiver.
How Skydiving Influences Your Life Insurance Coverage
Over the past ten years, the United States Parachute Association recorded an average of 20 skydiving-related deaths per year. Despite this low fatality rate and the sport’s strict safety standards, skydiving is traditionally seen as one of the most dangerous hobbies. This perception extends to the insurance industry, which sees the sport as an extra risk factor when you apply for a policy.
When determining your risk, insurance companies take into account your health, age, occupation, as well as your hobbies. Based on the information provided to them, they’ll then classify you into one of several health classes.
Because skydiving is seen as a high-risk hobby, you’ll be treated differently compared to most other people. Generally, insurers are more likely to put you into a lower insurance health class if you skydive. This means you’ll be charged higher premiums on your life insurance quotes compared to non-skydivers of similar health conditions and ages.
In addition to the higher premiums, you’ll usually be charged a flat extra fee for your coverage. This flat extra fee usually amounts to $2-5 per $1000 of life insurance coverage, and they’ll increase the more often you jump. So if you have a $500,000 policy, you can pay up to $2,500 more per year on your insurance.
If the life insurance company deems you too high-risk to insure because if you skydive too often, you may be denied life insurance coverage altogether. If you get denied, then you can opt to find another life insurance company or apply for exclusion on your policy.
Underwriting Considerations For Skydivers
When determining your risk profile, life insurance companies take into account several factors regarding your hobby. Depending on these factors, your premiums and flat extra fees will be further influenced.
Frequency Of Jumps
One of the most important factors when determining a skydiver’s risk is the frequency of jumps. If you’ve only jumped once or twice in your life and don’t plan on taking it up as a hobby, you’ll be granted a standard insurance rate. However, if you jump more than several times per year, your flat extra fee will be higher.
Membership In A Skydiving Club
Being a member of a skydiving club may also influence your premiums. Club members usually jump more often per year so your flat extra fee will increase. If you teach skydiving or do so professionally, your fee will increase even further due to jumping more often than a regular hobbyist.
Type Of Skydiving
Because different types of skydiving have different risks, what kind of skydiving you do most often can influence your insurance rate. If you only do tandem jumps, generally considered the safest type, you can enjoy lower life insurance rates compared to solo skydivers.
History Of Skydiving Injuries
In 2019, USPA reported 2,522 skydiving injuries that needed a medical care facility. Compared to the number of jumps made per year, this is a very small number. However, injuries are still a possibility. Therefore, life insurance companies also account for this risk and may hike up your rates if you have a history of being injured while skydiving.
Skydiving Location
Where you choose to skydive may influence your rates as well. Because factors such as the weather, general environment, and proximity to a medical facility may influence the skydiver’s safety, some insurers also take this into account.
Life Insurance Options For Skydivers
Being a skydiver doesn’t mean that you should forgo insurance entirely. In this section, we’ll cover several options that you can look into to stay protected as a skydiver.
Traditional Life Insurance
While traditional term or permanent life insurance will charge you more if you skydive, this is still the best option because you’ll be protected from other causes of death. If the flat extra fees are too high as a result of your hobby, you can look into getting an exclusion on your term or a permanent life insurance policy.
Specialized Skydiving Life Insurance
Some smaller life insurance companies offer specialized skydiving life insurance. These life insurance policies are made specifically to cover death as a result of a skydiving accident. Although skydiving life insurance provides limited coverage, it also pays out if a skydiving accident leaves you disabled. However, you should keep in mind that this type of insurance generally has smaller benefits compared to other traditional insurance.
If you enjoy jumping as part of your tourism escapades, you can invest in travel insurance. Some travel policies have a skydiving clause tailored to protect policyholders if they suffer financial loss or injuries during their trips.
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
Accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance exclusively protect you from accidents. Generally separate from traditional life insurance, this type of insurance pays out only if you die or suffer from a permanent injury as a result of an accident. Because the scope of coverage is smaller, you may find better deals on insurance rates with these policies. However, you should do some research beforehand because some AD&D policies exclude skydivers from their coverage.
Insurance Riders
If you don’t mind paying extra to protect your loved ones, you can opt for an accidental death rider. You can purchase these riders to add to your insurance policy so your family will receive a larger death benefit if your death is ruled as an accident.
Should You Tell Insurance Companies That You Skydive?
If you skydive regularly, you must disclose it in your life insurance application. Being honest in your insurance application will ensure that your family’s claims process goes smoothly. While withholding information in your application questions may result in lower premiums, you risk jeopardizing your life insurance policy in doing so.
Being honest when answering insurance questions is important because the insurer may investigate your claim. If you die during a skydive and the insurer finds that you lied about your hobby, they can rule your claim as insurance fraud. This means that the insurer may reduce your coverage because of the recalculated premiums, or even outright deny your beneficiaries any claim to your death benefit.
Saving On Insurance As A Skydiver
Being insured as a skydiver can be expensive. Here, we share some tips that may help you save up on insurance.
Purchase Insurance Before You Skydive
If you’ve never skydived and would like to take it up as a hobby, it’s better to be insured first. Because you haven’t skydived yet, life insurance companies can’t take the risk into consideration in your underwriting. Assuming you have good health and are low-risk, you’ll be granted a favorable rate.
To futureproof your policy once you start the hobby, be sure that your policy has a guaranteed renewable provision. This provision allows you to lock your premiums and prevent the life insurance company from increasing them in the future.
Ask For An Exclusion
Some insurance policies may offer – or even require an exclusion for skydivers. This means if you die while skydiving, the company isn’t obligated to pay out your death benefit. While this may seem like a bad thing, it allows you to enjoy lower rates because your risk of dying while skydiving isn’t taken into consideration.
If you find that your premiums are too high, it could be a good idea to apply for a skydiver's exclusion and seek insurance protection for your hobby elsewhere.
Combine Insurance Policies
While it may seem counterintuitive, combining several different policies is something to consider if you want to save on insurance. For example, you can apply for a traditional term or whole life policy with a skydiving exclusion and purchase specialized skydiving insurance. Because you don’t incur the flat extra fee charged by the term life or whole life policy, you’ll actually save more on insurance costs this way.
Work With An Insurance Agent
An independent life insurance agent can help you navigate the insurance market. With their experience, a good agent can help you find the best combination of life insurance policies from the right companies. Because they’re not tied down by any one company, your agent can search the whole market and build a customized insurance plan that can protect you the best.
Closing Thoughts
Seeking insurance as a skydiver can be challenging. Because it’s still seen as one of the most dangerous hobbies, many life insurance companies will charge you more for protection if you skydive. However, you can opt to purchase specialized life insurance for skydivers. You can also combine term life or whole life insurance with more specialized policies to customize your insurance protection.
If you’re trying to plan out your life insurance coverage as a skydiver, Wesley Insurance, LLC is here to help! Our professional team can assist you in choosing the best life insurance policies that can protect you affordably. Contact us today for more information!