Ch13 & Obtaining Life Insurance

[ncbroke]

Guess the title says it all...is it possible to obtain simple term life insurance while in a Chapter 13? If so, any company recommedations?

[lrprn]

Guess the title says it all...is it possible to obtain simple term life insurance while in a Chapter 13? If so, any company recommedations?

Before doing anything, check with your lawyer to make sure this will be ok.

Term life insurance is not new debt, so there's no issue there. I assume you have sufficient money left over after paying all your bills and living expenses every month to consistently pay for term life insurance too?

Technically it's extra disposable income after filing, but very few trustees will be willing to go to court to pull it into your payments - it's just too much hassle for a small amount of extra money. (Frankly I don't know how the trustee would find out about adding on term life insurance anyway.)

I don't know how term life insurance companies will react to your active bankruptcy. Some states forbid insurance companies to use your credit score to determine suitabiity for insurance or set the payments. Other states have no such restrictions.

Smart Money posted an article about life insurance in Feb 2005 at http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-f...is-best-16975/ . It looks like it had some decent ideas about how to find a good policy.

[thereshope]

I have a term life insurance policy I purchased a couple of years ago but I wasn't in BK. They didn't check my credit, but they did make me undergo a physical and lab work, which they paid for.

[ncbroke]

We do have enough to pay for a small term policy, but every application I've seen asks is you've filed bankruptcy within the past five years. Not concerned about the physical and lab work.
Thanks for the link - going to check it out now.

[Flamingo]

We do have enough to pay for a small term policy, but every application I've seen asks is you've filed bankruptcy within the past five years. Not concerned about the physical and lab work.
Thanks for the link - going to check it out now.

As lrprn mentioned in her posting, if your state allows insurance credit profiling, your credit/BK situation can be used in determining whether or not insurance rates will increase or if you can be denied insurance by any insurance company doing business in that state. If your state does not allow insurance credit profiling and the insurance company advises you that you were turned down for life insurance due to what they received from your credit check, contact your State Department of Insurance and complain.

To find out if your state does or does not allow the practice, call your State Department of Insurance or check your state's website for that Department. Many states have abandoned the practice but many still allow it.