Pilot Life Insurance
Pilot life insurance policies provide coverage based on your age, health, hobbies and occupation. If you’re a career pilot or fly for fun, life insurance companies could consider you a high-risk candidate, which could affect your policy and rates. On the other hand, depending on why and how often you fly, you might not see a rate difference at all.
Can Pilots Get Life Insurance?
Working as a pilot won’t automatically disqualify you from getting life insurance coverage, though the reason for flying an aircraft — for work or fun — will determine how an insurance company underwrites your policy. How often you fly, the training you've received and where you operate an aircraft will factor into how you’re classified for insurance purposes. Each company has its own guidelines for occupational ratings and how it covers high-risk candidates. Life insurance for pilots and other aviation professionals is based on the occupational rating the applicant is assigned. Some life insurance companies require pilots to include an aviation exclusion rider.
How Being a Pilot Can Affect Your Life Insurance Rates
The insurance company will ask you a series of questions about your health and medical history, lifestyle choices, what kinds of hobbies you engage in and what you do for work. Holding a current aviation license will typically trigger the insurance company to add to the underwriting process so the insurer can determine what your specific plan should look like.
Underwriting Questions For Pilots Who Need Life Insurance
After your insurer gathers all the information they need, the company will use this to determine the risk of insuring you. The more likely you are to die at a particular age, the higher the risk for an insurance company to cover you. This establishes how much you pay for life insurance premiums. Some of the questions an insurer might ask a pilot include:
- How frequently do you fly?
- Do you fly for work or as a hobby?
- What instruments do you have a license for?
- What type of aircraft do you operate?
- What level of pilot training have you completed?
What Is an Aviation Exclusion Rider?
Some insurance companies may charge an additional premium on top of your policy’s base rate, depending on how the insurer classifies aviation. A flat extra fee can range from $2 to $5 per $1,000 of coverage and can cost as much as $5,000 or more a year on a $1 million policy. Your life insurance company may add an aviation exclusion rider to your policy, which would prevent your beneficiaries from receiving a death benefit if you die in a flying accident. Commercial U.S. airline pilots have a significantly better chance of receiving good life insurance rates compared to student pilots or people who engage in aviation activities for fun. That's because insurers view professional pilots employed by commercial airlines to be a lot safer than private plane flyers.
