No-Medical Life Insurance
in Canada

1 The Two Types, and How They Differ

“No medical” is a category, not a product. Two quite different things sit underneath it, and confusing them leads to expensive mistakes.

2 How Much You Can Actually Get, and From Whom

The number most people carry in their head for no-medical insurance is far too low, usually because they have read about guaranteed acceptance and assumed it describes the whole category. It does not. A handful of Canadian carriers are built around simplified issue, and what they will write without an exam is substantial.

Read down that table and the shape of the market is obvious. Simplified issue is the category; guaranteed acceptance is its bottom tier. Which row you land on is decided by how many health questions you can clear, not by whether you have a condition at all, and the top rows pay the full benefit immediately with no waiting period.

The other thing the table shows is speed. Full underwriting commonly runs two to six weeks because of exams, fluids and requests to your doctor. Simplified issue can be same-day. When cover is needed for a mortgage closing or a business loan, that difference decides the case on its own.

3 The Two-Year Waiting Period

This is the single most important clause in a guaranteed issue policy, and the one most often misunderstood.

During the waiting period, typically the first two years, death from natural causes usually does not pay the full death benefit. Instead the insurer generally returns the premiums paid, often with modest interest. Accidental death is normally covered in full from day one.

• Simplified issue policies frequently have no waiting period, which is a major reason to try that route first
• Accidental death is usually payable in full immediately
• After the waiting period ends, the full benefit applies normally

4 What It Costs Compared With a Standard Policy

There is no free lunch in underwriting. When the insurer knows less about your health, it prices for the uncertainty. Expect to pay meaningfully more per dollar of coverage than a healthy applicant would on a fully underwritten policy, and expect lower maximum coverage amounts.

For context on standard rates, our life insurance page publishes illustrative monthly premiums for a fully underwritten $500,000 term policy. A no-medical policy will not match those figures, that gap is what you are paying for speed and access.

5 Who Should Consider It

Newcomers sometimes reach for no-medical policies because of limited Canadian medical records. That is often unnecessary, see life insurance for newcomers to Canada.

6 How to Answer the Questionnaire

Simplified issue lives or dies on the questionnaire. The questions are short, specific, and the answers form part of the contract.

1. Answer from records, not memory. Use your pharmacy printout and any specialist letters.
2. Read the time window in each question. “In the last 12 months” means exactly that.
3. Do not guess at a diagnosis name. Use the wording your doctor used.
4. Disclose pending tests and referrals whose results you do not yet have.
5. If a question is ambiguous, ask and record the answer before submitting.

7 Alternatives Worth Pricing First

• Fully underwritten term insurance, cheapest per dollar if you qualify
• A rated (substandard) policy, a surcharge on standard cover and often far better value than guaranteed acceptance. Which of the two routes your health history actually opens is worked through in our life insurance with a health condition guide
• Group life through work, usually requires no medical evidence up to a limit, though it ends with the job
• Accident-based cover, see accident insurance if the concern is specifically accidental death
• Critical illness cover, if the real worry is a diagnosis rather than death, see our critical illness guide

8 Frequently Asked Questions