Such was the case when I was approached by a neighbor the other day. Seems Neighbor had been rock climbing with his familial relations and slipped injuring himself. Ouch!
What was important to Neighbor was that somehow the insurance company that carried his policy for life insurance found out and informed him that rock climbing was one of the things that allows an insurance company to cancel a life insurance policy (high risk, and all). Consequently, insurance company informed Neighbor that his policy was hereby cancelled and Neighbor was wanting to know if they can do that.
Turns out, they can.
Before we get into this, let's define a high risk activity. As it relates to cancellation of a life insurance policy, a High-risk activities are ones that have a significant potential for adverse safety outcomes and which have a greater likelihood of resulting in significant harm, injury, loss, or harm as compared to standard activities. Such activities take the form of a hobby or might be a particular line of employment.
Examples of high-risk activities might include:
- Scuba diving
- BASE jumping
- Hang gliding
- Race car driving
- Flying a plane
- Horseback riding
- Bungee jumping
- Parasailing
- Off-roading
Some employment falls into this category such as:
- Logging
- Aircraft pilots
- Offshore oil rig worker
- Offshore fisherman, Structural steelworkers
- Underground mining
As all this relates to Neighbor, turns out that rock climbing is also considered a high-risk activity by life insurance companies. This is due to the inherent dangers involved, such as falls and injuries, which increase the likelihood of accidents and even fatalities. As a result, rock climbing can impact both the cost and availability of life insurance policies.
Now, given the fact that this is a legal-related blog and may be wondering if this discussion borders on providing legal advice, it might be and probably would be were it not for the fact that most all of this information can be found via a simple Google search - which I suggested Neighbor to do after giving Neighbor some suggestions on what to look for (i.e. high-risk activities and rock climbing).
What is most interesting to me is that every state in the union has statutes related to insurance stuff. In fact, after digging around on the Internet, I found a listing of what statutes relate to insurance stuff in each of the 50 states which can be found by visiting Fidelity Life Insurance's webpage.
Great resource Fidelity is and so easy to find/use.
Anyway, Neighbor was satisfied and went on their merry to find answers to their most pressing needs.
Moral to this story, if ever you need help finding what you need, hesitate not a bit and seek out your local law librarian who will be more than happy to help you find what you're needing to be found.
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