How does being transgender pertain to buying a life insurance policy?
When it comes to getting a policy with some life insurance companies, transgender individuals may be classified as male by some carriers and as female by others.
Some life insurance companies, however, are more amenable to working with your definition of yourself as transgender.
Being transgender doesn’t mean you can’t get a life insurance policy. Just like people, life insurance companies have many differences, and life insurance policies are not one size fits all.
Find out how transgender life insurance applicants can differ from one life insurance carrier to another.
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Generally, when someone applies for life insurance, if their assigned sex at birth was female, they should apply as female, and if their assigned sex at birth was male, they should apply as male.
This would include individuals whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth, but who have not undergone any medical or physical transition.
When a person is using (or has used) hormone therapy treatment and/or has had any gender-affirming surgeries, it will not only affect the rates for which they apply, it may also affect the requirements needed during the underwriting process.
Life Insurance Companies Responses Vary to Transgender Applicants
Recently, we worked with an applicant who had surgically transitioned from male to female. We completed an underwriting study, which is when we go to the different life insurance companies and ask what they think they could offer our applicant, and the responses varied.
Some carrier responses included the following:
Please note the statements are the unedited responses of underwriters at some of our life insurance companies and do not reflect the views of Quotacy as a company.
- We may issue Standard male rates assuming no history of depression, anxiety or other issues.
- We may issue Preferred male rates pending on medical history.
- We may issue Preferred female rates pending medical records and that applicant is following post-surgery requirements such as counseling and hormone therapy.
- We cannot issue until 3 years post-surgery and would rate as female then.
- We would generally issue male rates, but will consider female if applicant feels it’s more appropriate.
- Whatever gender the applicant applies as is the one we will use.
- We always underwrite as the gender they were born with.
As you can see, no two life insurance companies are alike.
Each life insurance company follows their own set of underwriting guidelines and works on a case-by-case basis. It is our goal at Quotacy to help you find the life insurance policy that fits you best.
Life insurance companies each follow their own set of guidelines when underwriting transgender individuals. Quotacy helps all clients find the best life insurance policy for their unique needs.
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About the writer
Natasha Cornelius
Writer, Editor, and Co-host of Quotacy's Q&A Fridays
Natasha is the content manager and editor for Quotacy. She has been in the life insurance industry since 2010 and has been making life insurance easier to understand with her writing since 2014. When not at work, she's probably studying and working toward her Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation while throwing a tennis ball for her pitbull mix, Emmett, or curled up on her couch watching Netflix. If it’s football season, the Packers game will be on. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
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My wife and I are the same age. We have had a term life insurance policy for a couple of decades now. Our policies’ face value is the same. We are both non-smokers, in excellent health. Her monthly premium as a female is 40% less than mine.
According to some of the company responses given above, a biological male (aka, a “man”) can walk into some insurance companies, attest that he is a female (“woman”), and on that criteria alone, some companies will charge HIM the lower premium rate.
If I discover that my life insurance company has this practice, why would I not have grounds for a discrimination lawsuit? And, why would I not be entitled to a refund, with interest, for ALL the increased premium payments I have made over the last two decades?
Trust me: I’m going to check into this. Meanwhile, we all would be well advised to recognize that Insurance companies, like medical professionals, can’t afford to be in the business of treating customers/patients according to their subjective “identity” games.
If you “identify” as a non-smoker and receive a lower premium rate, once your insurer discovers that you are, in fact, a smoker, your policy will likely be cancelled. As it should be.
Hello,
Thank you for your comment. Life insurance is an underwritten contract which means the insurance companies ultimately do discriminate risk and then price according to mortality rates. Short way of saying that men pay more than women, smokers pay more than non-smokers, and people with health challenges tend to pay more than people who are given a clean bill of health by their doctor.
It is important to clarify that the example we referred to in the blog is based on an individual who had surgery to transition from male to female, not someone identifying as a different gender whom has not gone through the gender-affirming surgery. That would be underwritten entirely differently and most insurance companies would underwrite their gender based on their birth certificate.
Gender transitioning is a very complicated process, financially, legally, physically and emotionally, so there are many factors in play when underwriting an individual for life insurance. Many individuals participate in counseling, hormone therapy, and are on a number of prescribed medications, and all of these factors are likely to affect how they are underwritten and therefore affect what premiums they would be required to pay. So while someone who transitioned from male to female may be able to be underwritten as female with some companies, and ergo receive female prices, their premiums likely will be raised based on the other factors. So, insurance companies do balance out the risk they take by insuring transgender applicants.
This amazes me, do these people realise it’s the 21st Century! As a fit & healthy Trans Woman who has yet to undergo GRS (I do gym/PT sessions 4x/week and also do MMA) I am finding it almost impossible to find an accepting Underwriting Co. Wake up folks!!
Hi Paula,
When was the last time you tried applying for life insurance? If it has been awhile I encourage you to try it again. Life insurance carriers will look at your medical history, current medications, family history and a variety of other factors and then underwrite you based on risk alone. You being fit and healthy definitely helps!
We work with multiple life insurance carriers and will do everything we can to help you get coverage if you would like to try again with us this time around. You can start by running a term quote or contact us directly if you have more questions.