Summary
An interesting new insurance plan has been launched by Animal Friends Insurance. The new policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow AFI’s lead .
A not for profit insurance firm has marketed an insurance scheme which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced cost mortgage insurance .
The deal, considered to be the first of its type, is being pioneered by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering non-meat eaters a six per cent reduction in priceon life assurance premiums
The business claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lower amount for the product, which pays out if the plan holder were to die, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a list of chronic illnesses, including cancers.
Rebecca Puttey, the managing director of AFI, claims that the danger of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 40 per cent and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to thirty two per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly the same premiums as customers who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe this is patently unfair and says the life industry should acknowledge the fact that being a veggie can make have a positive influence on life expectancy and reduce its premiums accordingly.
A normal arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance policies are marketed by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life policies, a range of aspect contribute to the cost of the plans including whether the applicant smokes, their age, weight and sex.
At the moment, AFI is making the 6% reduction in price itself from the fee it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s objective was to offer lower costs on specialist insurance cover. In the company is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it viable for LV= to underwrite yet another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are welcome savings to be made, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of cover might potentially save £393.60 over a 25-year term.
Where life insurance deals is concerned, AFI believes that insurers should start to treat people that eat meat and those that do not eat meat in approaches matching the way they assess smokers and non-smokers. Perhaps other companies in the insurance industry will do the same.
It is thought that some senior managersin the insurance industry are doubtful whether there is proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurer would know that people who had applied stating that they were vegetarian did not eat the odd spare rib.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you do smoke it’s possible that your GP will be aware. But this does not apply when it comes to eating meat, an insurance executive observed.
But many veggetarians say that they are not worried about people falling off the vegetarian way of eating and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a vegetarian, they don’t return to meat-eating, that is unlike people who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their habit.