What insurers ask about your family
Most applications ask about your close relatives, meaning your parents and any brothers or sisters. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins usually do not count. The questions list specific illnesses and often ask whether the relative was diagnosed before a certain age.
The age matters because illness that appears young in a family can point to an inherited risk. A parent who developed heart disease in their eighties tells the insurer much less than one diagnosed in their forties.
- Heart disease, heart attack or stroke
- Cancers such as breast, ovarian, bowel or prostate
- Diabetes
- Inherited conditions such as polycystic kidney disease or Huntington's disease
- Motor neurone disease and some forms of dementia
How a family history might affect your terms
For many people, a family history makes no difference to life cover, particularly if only one relative was affected or they were diagnosed later in life. If two or more close relatives had the same illness at a young age, the insurer may add a premium loading.
Critical illness cover is where family history matters most, because it pays out on diagnosis of conditions such as cancer and heart attack. An insurer may add a loading or exclude a particular illness. Your own health counts too, so normal blood pressure and cholesterol, not smoking and a healthy weight can help balance a family history of heart disease.
Genetic tests and the UK code
The UK government and the insurance industry have an agreement called the Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance. Under it, insurers cannot ask you to take a predictive genetic test, and you do not have to tell them the results of one you have taken. The one exception is a test for Huntington's disease when you apply for a very large amount of life cover.
The code covers predictive tests, which look at your future risk. If you have symptoms or a diagnosis, or a test was used to confirm a condition you already have, you must declare it like any other medical history. You can choose to share a good predictive result if you think it helps.
Answer what you know
You can only tell the insurer what you know. If you are adopted or have lost touch with a parent, say so. Insurers understand that not everyone has a full family history.
If you do know about an illness in the family, include it with the age at diagnosis where you can. Leaving out something you knew about could give the insurer a reason to question a claim later.
Screening and your own results
If a condition runs in your family, your GP may offer extra checks, such as earlier screening for bowel or breast cancer or regular cholesterol tests. Tell the insurer about any screening if they ask, and include the results. Clear results can count in your favour.
Familial hypercholesterolaemia, an inherited form of high cholesterol, shows where family history ends and your own history begins. If you have been diagnosed with it yourself, that is part of your medical history, and you need to declare it like any other condition.
Family history questions vary between insurers. Some ask about different illnesses or use a different age limit, so the same family background can lead to different terms depending on where you apply.
How Hi Tomorrow helps
Insurers weigh family history differently. Some focus closely on it, while others give more weight to your own health and test results. We know which insurers on our panel take a more balanced view and can steer your application towards them.
We will explain what you need to declare and what the genetic testing code means for you. If you are worried about how a family history will affect critical illness cover, we can compare the options before you apply.