Home Life insurance The biggest lies told on life insurance applications The biggest lies told on life insurance applications Written by Desiree Ghazi Reviewed by Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir is a content editor and licensed life, health, and disability insurance expert. She has extensive experience bringing brands to life and has built award-nominated campaigns for travel and tech. Her insurance expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Financial Gym, and the end-of-life planning service. Updated on: August 8, 2023 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry. How much you pay for your life insurance policy depends on your unique profile. During the application process, you’ll answer a range of application questions and take a medical exam that provide the insurer with your information about your medical history and lifestyle choices. Your premium will be based on the results. While it may be tempting to lie on your application in hopes of getting a lower rate, it’s not a good idea. Insurers cross-check your answers with health records, public records, and the MIB database. If they find out you intentionally lied on your application, it will get rejected and recorded in the MIB database. And if they do accept your application, they can deny your family the death benefit claim when you die. For this reason, it’s best to be as honest as you can. Here are some of the lies people tell life insurance companies that you should avoid. They don’t smoke tobacco Smokers pay more than nonsmokers. But if you lie on your application, your insurer can find out through the medical exam or if you find out from a smoking-related disease. In that case, your beneficiaries won’t get the payout. “We probably see more of this than anything else,” says Brian Ashe, past chairman of the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education. And some applicants may lie unintentionally. Applicants who use nicotine in other forms, such as a nicotine patch or chewing tobacco, may not realize they are in the “tobacco” category. “In their own minds they are not tobacco users, but in life insurers’ eyes they are,” says Ashe. If the insurer doesn’t deny your family the death benefit, they may alter the death benefit to be equal to the amount the person would have gotten had they paid tobacco rates. They don’t have any medical conditions Neglecting to mention a medical condition like depression is common — depression or anxiety can be impossible to detect by an agent or the paramedical who performs the medical exam. However, any medical diagnosis of depression will be apparent in your medical records. Additionally, insurers check your prescription history, which will show any medicine you take for treatment. They don’t have any DUIs or moving violations Applicants are also prone to misrepresenting the number of moving violations they have racked up when they ask for life insurance quotes. But insurers can easily find out about DUIs and moving violations when the insurance company pulls your motor vehicle record (MVR). If there is a gross discrepancy between what you say and what is on your MVR, the underwriter will look for other possible material misrepresentations. QuickTake What is an MIB report? 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Sometimes applicants will admit to travel but misrepresent their travel times. It’s important to be honest about where you are traveling. If you lie about travel plans and then die in the location you traveled to, insurers might deny the death benefit claim. They earn more than they do Some people will lie about their income in order to receive more coverage than they’re eligible for. Insurers often pull a soft credit report to check how much you earn. If you lied about your income on the application, they will find out. They may also ask applicants to fill out a financial supplement that details assets, liabilities and other information. How to protect your life insurance policy The best way to protect your coverage is to be honest on your life insurance application. Insurance companies check various records to make sure you’re telling the truth on your application. This includes MIB report Motor vehicle report Doctor’s records Prescription records Credit reports Autopsy report (after death) If misrepresentations or omissions are found by an insurer before the policy is issued, the insurance company will adjust your rate accordingly based on the truth. But an intentional lie will also cast doubt on the rest of your application, which could compel the insurer to examine everything more closely and possibly delay or reject your application. Lies discovered after a policy is issued can come back to bite an applicant. Any lie caught within the two-year contestability period of a policy can cause the insurer to scale down the death benefit or even rescind the policy, depending on state law. Ashe points out that a life insurance application becomes part of the legal document that is the policy. So lies within the application become fraud. × Get Free Life Insurance Quotes Today! Zip Code Please enter valid zip Age Age 16 – 20 21 – 24 25 – 34 35 – 44 45 – 54 55 – 64 65+ Coverage Amount Coverage Amount $50,000 – $100,000 $100,000 – $200,000 $200,000 – $300,000 $400,000 – $500,000 $500,000 – $1,000,000 $1,000,000 – $2,000,000 $2,000,000 – $5,000,000 $5,000,000+ Coverage Type Coverage Type Whole Life Term Life Final Expense Not Sure Gender Gender Male Female Non-Binary Tobacco Use Yes No Compare Quotes Related Articles How to get life insurance if you’re uninsurable By Penny Gusner What to avoid before the life insurance medical exam By Desiree Ghazi Life insurance for people with dementia By Satta Sarmah-Hightower Life insurance calculator: How much life insurance do you need? By Huma Naeem The life insurance contestability period: What you need to know By Laine Adley No-medical-exam life insurance: What it is and how it works By Nupur Gambhir On this page They don't smoke tobacco They don't have any medical conditionsThey don't have any DUIs or moving violationsTheir family's medical history is perfectThey don't have any major travel plansThey earn more than they doHow to protect your life insurance policy ZIP Code Please enter valid ZIP See rates