Getting Life Insurance If Your Are HIV Positive

Written By: Graham McKenzie on July 23, 2010 No Comment

Having a life insurance policy in place can bring peace of mind to individuals who want to ensure the financial security of their loved ones even after their death. If you have been diagnosed as HIV positive and you do not already have a life insurance policy in place it can be extremely difficult to obtain one. While many insurance companies will turn you down immediately, others will offer high premium policies that will cover only the cost of your funeral.

You may have life insurance policies already in place and you should locate them and start reviewing them to see if they include any riders. Your employer may have a life insurance policy included in your employment package or you could have one that is linked to your home mortgage. Any existing policies should be kept active and be very careful not to allow them to terminate or lapse, upon doing so you may find that you cannot get them back with your HIV status.

The social security department should be contacted to find out what your death benefits are and who the beneficiaries are for those benefits. You can find out how the payments will be made and make any changes if necessary at this time.

You can speak to an attorney to have any questions you may have answered about social security benefits, other existing policies and beneficiaries.

Speak with human resources at your current employer and find out if there life insurance programs that you might qualify for as part of your employment package. Many employers will take out automatic life insurance policies for their employees that will pay out a lump sum pr make payments that are a percentage of the employees current wages. The type of group policies require no underwriting or qualifications. If your employer offers this type of benefit you will be able to obtain it and might even be able to include a rider policy with it as well.

If you are employed where no policies are available for death benefits then you may choose to look for an employer who does offer the benefits and switch jobs. Even if you take a cut in pay it is worth the peace of mind that your loved ones will be taken care of. Be sure this does not affect your health insurance coverage as many policies will refuse pre existing conditions.

An HIV AIDS case worker will be able to help you find programs that you would be qualified for if you express your desire to obtain life insurance. Many insurance companies are beginning to include policies to HIV positive people since the effectiveness of the AIDS medications are far better and create a much longer life for the individuals.

Guaranteed insurance companies are available to anyone even if they are terminally ill. The policies will usually only cover the cost of your funeral or burial and will have much higher premiums.

Graham McKenzie is the content syndication coordinator a leading South African Life Insurance and Life Cover website.