How Long Does It Take To Get A Life Insurance Policy?

Since the original posting date of this article, there have been many changes in the life insurance industry. These changes reflect on the application process, exam process and even the overall time in which it can take to be approved for coverage.

For example, many life insurance companies have now begun offering the option to apply for coverage without a medical exam. Most life insurance companies also offer an electronic application process and a few can offer same day approval.

With that said, this article still contains helpful information for anyone who is applying for a life insurance policy that requires an exam and who would choose to fill out a paper application.

A question we often get from our customers prior to the application process is, “how long does it take to get a life insurance policy”? A week… a couple of weeks… a month or months? What if I told you I have seen all of the above.

The issuing of a life insurance policy will honestly depend on the individual applying. A lot of factors will come into play and some will be out of the life insurance agent’s control as well as your control.

We have put together a helpful guide to prepare you on obtaining your life insurance policy in the quickest way.

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Life Insurance Application Process

Now that you are ready to apply for the life insurance policy your agent will ask if you would like to receive your life insurance application by fax, email or mail. If possible ask to receive it by email or fax. This will cut down several days, rather than receiving the application by mail.

Now that you have received your application, try to find time to complete it within the next 24-48 hours. What I like to do for my clients is to fill out as much of the application with the information that they have provided me and highlight only what they need to complete. By doing this our applicants do not need to spend unnecessary time filling out the application as a majority of it will already be completed when received.

Now that you have completed your application try to email or fax it back to your agent. Again this will save a significant amount of time, rather than mailing it back.

Read more: Life Insurance Application Process

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Scheduling your Medical Exam

Your agent will now have requested your paramedical exam and the examiner should be calling you to schedule an exam date. Once your examiner has made contact with you try to schedule within the next couple days. The sooner the better.

Right now your application is with underwriter awaiting your exam and lab results to begin the underwriting process. For a faster approach, give your agent a date that you would like to take your medical exam. Your agent will schedule then exam for you. (For more information, read our “How to Prepare for a Life Insurance Medical Exam“).

Now that your exam, application, and labs are completed and with the underwriter you’re all done and approved right???  Well yes this can happen and I have seen it happen several, times but let’s say this is not the case and the underwriter needs to review your medical records from your primary care physician to verify additional medical information. This is where a life insurance application can run into a time delay.

Most medical facilities will be upfront with their processing time which generally takes 1-3 weeks to copy records and send back to the underwriter. However, I have seen some medical facilities take up to 2 months to send a copy of a client’s medical record back to the underwriter.

When we notice that medical records are taking longer to be received than expected, we will generally ask the client for assistance by calling their medical facility to try and help speed up the process. We have found that this helps to greatly speed up the processing of medical records.

Your Life Insurance Policy has been Approved!!!

Once your medical records have been received and reviewed by the underwriter and all requirements that were needed for the underwriter to make a final decision have been received, final medical underwriting approval will be made.

If your policy has been approved as applied and there are no changes to be made, it will be sent to issue and mailed to the agent. This will all happen within 24-48 hours of acceptance of the final offer.

Once your agent has received your policy you will be asked if you would like it sent to you electronically or by mail. Along with the policy will be an invoice for the initial premium payment and any additional paper requirements that may need to be signed in order to place your policy inforce. Be sure to get these back to your agent as quickly as possible as there will be a deadline date for these requirements to be received.

Have you ever wondered how long does it take to get a life insurance policy? Hopefully here at Top Quote Life Insurance, we will be able to provide you with a couple quick and easy tips about how to speed up the process to get your life insurance policy underwritten, issued and inforce. We will do our best to answer your question about how long does it take to get a life insurance policy and keep you informed throughout the process. (For more information, read our “10 Tips For Finding Cheap Life Insurance“).

Looking to compare life insurance policies? We can help. Enter your ZIP code to get free quotes from multiple insurers.

Read more: Buying Life Insurance: What You Need to Get a Life Insurance Policy

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