Diagnosis affecting life insurance/mortgage?

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Hi everyone,

I am coming to the point in my life where I am about to purchase a house. I've read that some mortgage companies look favourably on applicants with life insurance - pretty obvious why they do this, it's a guarantee for the value of the house if the market drops out.

Has anyone had their life insurance affected by their diagnosis?
Do insurance and mortgage companies tend to (ignorantly) bundle mental health issues together and wrongly assume that someone with autism is at a high risk of premature death (through whichever means they calculate, natural or not)?

Thanks for sharing any experience you have

Never heard of that before.

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/7-f ... rest-rate/

Logically, it shouldn't. There is nothing from stopping you from cancelling your life insurance policy once you get your mortgage. And most mortgages have locked in rates--which prevents them from changing your rate based on things you can actually control.

They may want you to buy more life insurance to pay off the mortgage.

Life insurance policies frequently do not feature medical exams, especially if the applicant is young.

The life insurance company does not need to know whether you're autistic or not.

Autism, in and of itself, does not reduce lifespan, and the insurance actuaries probably know that on some level.

Smoking, on the other hand, is known to reduce lifespan, and thus increases your premium.

Thanks for those replies.
I was hoping it was something like this - I just didn't want a diagnosis to wave a big warning flag on their automated system for them to characterise me as high risk (for example, I can imagine an automatic system where any psychological condition means that the person is basically suicidal and shouldn't be insured. This would be a very bad system indeed)

Both myself and my wife are healthy. We go to the gym 3 times a week and enjoy cycling and running so I wouldn't have thought the insurance companies could have much to complain about!

Unfortunately, the federal Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 doesn't include protections within banking and lending practices, so the ADA wouldn't protect against discrimination in those areas. But, state laws might do the trick. As for life-insurance expectations as a requirement for a mortgage, any insurance policy which qualifies for mortgage protection should suffice. The catch is to answer the mortgage application as accurately as possible. As kraftiekortie has stated, most lenders won't care about an autism diagnosis, but a few might.

As has been described in this topic, the initial policy need only qualify the buyer for the mortgage; after the deal is done, a friendlier qualifying policy could be substituted if and when you choose to do so. In this case, it would be a good idea to find an insurance broker who you trust and could find the right policy for you. But, you must maintain qualifying insurance while the mortgage is active. Letting a policy lapse, even for brief periods, could get the attention of the mortgage lender. Keep at least one policy until you buy another. Let them overlap for a week or so.

Having said all that, I don't believe that most policies discriminate against autists. There must be many policies which simply don't care about such diagnoses of their purchasers. Good luck in finding a good policy.

http://healthsandfitnessblogs.blogspot. ... rance.html
treatment of depression might be enough for insurance to refuse you also, idk if I can find that in english, here's one;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/h ... st/6890426

But it's not the autism that's causing the suicide----it's the depression. We really haven't had many longitudinal studies of people with HFA, since HFA is about a 30-year-old concept.

As for "low-functioning" people, many of them have co-morbid genetic sorts of conditions which reduce life expectancy.

Maybe if there's some kind of documentation of treatment for depression, there might be higher premiums (or even refusals).

But autism isn't on the "hot list" yet as far as insurance is concerned. Especially if one hasn't entered the psychiatric system because of the autism.

OP: I just had a thought.

Is it possible that you're confusing life insurance with mortgage insurance?

All people are required to have insurance on their homes.

Most (especially those who pay 20% or less of the value of the property as a downpayment) are also required to have mortgage insurance. My wife put down a hefty downpayment--so we are not required to have a mortgage insurance policy. Only insurance on the home.

Nobody EVER mentioned anything about being required to have life insurance.

I've just been looking and some mortgages require life insurance, others want mortgage insurance. I understand the difference between the two, but I assume they're all done through a small number of underwriters anyway, so conditions from one will apply to many different policies.

Just wanted to pick up people's experience and see where I stood. We will be putting down enough of a deposit that either my wife's or my salary can cover it (with the joint income we are well within budget), so hopefully we can find a decent mortgage provider who is able to judge applications properly

What percentage of the home's value are you putting down as a down payment? If it's over 20%, you are in much better stead than if it's under 20%.

I just got a new co-op six years ago. Nothing was ever mentioned about life insurance. I've never seen it even mentioned in "how to" guides to getting a mortgage. Must be an absolutely new thing.

I wasn't saying you didn't know the difference. I was saying that maybe you thought the broker said life insurance when he meant mortgage insurance.

I find it incredible, and intrusive, to require someone to buy life insurance in order to buy a home.

Have you thought about getting an FHA mortgage? An FHA mortgage does absolutely require mortgage insurance.

Also: make sure you check your credit report. There might be things there that shouldn't be there which might affect your credit score.

For some reason, I get the impression that you enjoy many aspects of aviation.