Guide
No-exam life insurance
Which applicants qualify for accelerated underwriting, how the process operates, and what happens when you don't.
Many carriers now use accelerated underwriting: for applicants in specified age and amount ranges, they issue or decline based on your application, pharmacy records, motor-vehicle history and other records rather than a physical exam. Decisions frequently arrive in 24 hours. Each quote here indicates if an exam is mandatory, possible, or unnecessary.
What it changes
Accelerated underwriting is still underwriting. Your answers are checked, and misstatements on a policy during the initial two years permit the carrier to challenge it. If the carrier needs more details based on data checks, you choose whether to do an exam.
Who tends to qualify
Generally people under about 60 applying for amounts below the carrier's limit, with no serious medical history and no tobacco in the past year or longer. Applicants with recent bloodwork from a doctor visit may submit those results instead of a new exam.
If required, an exam usually takes 20 to 30 minutes with a paramedic at your location at no charge. Exam results frequently result in a better rate class for healthy applicants, so it is not necessarily unfavorable.