Timothy Reynold’s Blog

Summary
An innovative new insurance policy has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The life insurance policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lower risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow AFI’s lead .

A none profit insurance firm has launched an insurance scheme which offers vegetarians and egg eaters a reduced price cheap critical illness insurance .

The offer, believed to be the 1st of its kind, is being pioneered by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering veggies a six per cent reduction in priceon life insurance cover premiums
The business claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser cost for the product, which pays out if the plan holder were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including cancers.

Amanda Jude, the managing director of AFI, claims that the danger of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 40% and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to thirty two per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly identical life premiums as customers who eat meat.
She says that AFI think that this is patently unfair and says the life insurance industry should recognise the fact that being a vegetarian can impose a positive impact on life expectancy and lower its monthly premiums accordingly.

A full-price policy is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance policies are brought to the market by LV=, which prior, was known as Liverpool Victoria.

In common with standard life cover, a range of things contribute to the cost of the premiums including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.

Currently, Animal Friends Insurance is carrying the 7% discount itself from the cash it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist insurance plans. In making the offer the organisation is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite yet another plan that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.

Indeed there are significant savings to be had, a thirty eight year oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of cover might potentially save £393.60 over a 25-year period.

Where online life insurance is concerned, AFI considers that life insurance companies should start to treat meat eaters and people that don’t eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they assess non-smokers and smokers. Perhaps other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.

Some peoplein the insurance industry do not believe there is robust proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurance company could prove that those who had applied stating that they are veggies did not sometimes enjoy the odd lamb chop.

When it comes to smoking, it’s true that there are your Doctor’s records - if you do smoke it’s certainly likely that your GP is likely to be aware. But this won’t apply when it comes to eating meat, an executive from the insurance industry commented.

But many veggetarians say that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie wagon and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a vegetarian, they do not return to meat-eating, that is unlike people who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their habit.