Applying for Life Insurance

Your smokers life insurance quotes will depend on the premium classification your insurer assigns you. We've explained each life insurance rate class as it relates to smokers below.

• Standard rates. These are the highest smokers life insurance rates of all premium classifications. Standard rates are reserved for people who are unhealthy for some reason according to the insurer. To qualify for standard life insurance rates, you usually must have abstained from nicotine use for the last year.
• Preferred rates. Preferred life insurance rates are the mid-level category reserved for people who are healthy and have not used nicotine in the last three years.
• Preferred plus rates. If you qualify for preferred plus rates, you will receive the lowest possible smokers life insurance quotes. However, with most insurers, you can only get preferred plus premiums if you are very healthy and have not used nicotine in the last five years.

Testing Smokers

To get the most accurate smokers life insurance quotes, you will need to submit to a medical exam provided by a healthcare worker from the insurance company. Part of this medical exam involves a urine test, which is how life insurers usually identify smokers. If you smoke in the 72 hours prior to your life insurance medical exam, traces of nicotine metabolites will appear in your urine. This is why it's important to tell your insurer the truth about your tobacco use on your life insurance questionnaire.

Passing as a Nonsmoker

When applicants see the extraordinarily high smokers life insurance quotes they may have to pay if they are classified as tobacco users, they are often motivated to lie about their smoking. Theoretically, because nicotine metabolizes within 72 hours, only trace amounts of the primary nicotine metabolite, cotinine, will be present in the urine after that time. In other words, even a heavy smoker could lie on his/her life insurance application about tobacco use, abstain for three days prior to the medical exam, and still qualify for nonsmoker life insurance rates.

Honest Is the Best Policy

So if you can manage to avoid smoker life insurance quotes by abstaining from smoking before your exam and lying on your application, should you? The answer is a definite no, as your insurance application represents a contract between you and your life insurer. Moreover, if you are not honest about your nicotine use at the time you apply for your policy and you die of an illness found to be smoking-related, your insurer has the right to deny the claim. In the best-case scenario, your insurer would pay out a death benefit equal to the amount of coverage your premiums would buy at smoker rates, which would considerably reduce your benefit.