Veggies Take Life Insurance carrot

Summary
An innovative new insurance policy has been launched by Animal Friends Insurance. The life insurance policy offers cheaper premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lower risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain diseases. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow the example set by AFI .

A not-for-profit insurance business has marketed an insurance plan which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced cost life insurance premium .

The offer, considered to be the first of its kind, is being introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering vegetarians a 6% cheaper premiumon cheap life cover premiums
The company claimed that veggies ought to pay a lesser cost for the insurance, which pays out if the client were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including cancers.

Susan Gaddet, the managing director of AFI, said that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 40% and the possibility of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to thirty per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly identical premiums as clients who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe this is unfair and says the insurers should acknowledge the concept that being a vegetarian can make have a big influence on life expectancy and lower its monthly charges accordingly.

A standard policy is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both plans are brought to the market by LV=, which prior, was known as Liverpool Victoria.

In common with normal life plans, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the premiums including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.

Just at the moment, AFI is carrying the 6 per cent price reduction itself from the fee it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s objective was to offer lower costs on specialist plans. In the organisation is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the veggie diet into account.

Indeed there are significant savings to be had, a thirty eight year oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.

Where life insurance deals is concerned, AFI believes that insurance companies should start to treat those that eat meat and people that don’t eat meat in ways that are similar to the way they view non-smokers and smokers. We hope that that other companies in the insurance industry will do the same.

Some peoplein the insurance industry do not believe there is robust proof that veggies live longer, and how any life insurer would know that applicants who had certified that they are vegetarian did not eat the odd spare rib.

When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your Doctor’s records – if you do smoke it’s probable that your Doctor would know. However, this is not the case when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.

But some veggies contend that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie way of eating and suggested that once a veggie has become a vegetarian, they do not return to meat-eating, that is unlike applicants who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their habit.