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Life Insurance Exclusion

WSBuilder

Well Known Member
I was updating annual company benefits re. insurance coverage and noticed my life insurance clause about private pilot flying. It says I'm covered in "certified civilian aircraft", meaning I'm NOT covered in Experimental. If I once knew that, I'd forgotten.

How many also have that exclusion?

What's your reaction to that?
 
I was updating annual company benefits re. insurance coverage and noticed my life insurance clause about private pilot flying. It says I'm covered in "certified civilian aircraft", meaning I'm NOT covered in Experimental. If I once knew that, I'd forgotten.

How many also have that exclusion?

What's your reaction to that?

Yup, mine's writen up the same way.
 
Some of them also exclude you if your acting as PIC and not as a passenger, even on certified aircraft.

Check your own personal policy as well. Many have an exclusion and folks are totally unaware of it.
 
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I think most generic insurance plans provided by employers are probably going to exclude it. I've had to go to a non-employer-provided policy through Midland Life that has no exclusions on general aviation. I'm close to having to renew, so I'll be curious if I still have the same options. A long time ago I had AOPA's life insurance plan through Minnesota Life for this same reason but got kind of irritated with then dropped it when they raised rates mid term.
 
2 policies, split the difference...

I have an oooooooooold policy for only 250K, ( the price of a house in ancient times) with no exclusions, so I am keeping it, no matter the rates. ( Canada Life.... for you interested canucks)

I then topped up with a new policy to cover a current half-million dollar shack and life in general.....of course, it has a bunch of tricky exclusions.

what I thought was comical is that they try to be really specific,

" not covered while operating as pilot of a certified aircraft, balloon or zeppelin...." and on & on, etc.

but then totally miss 'racing snowmobiles down avalanche runs, base-jumping, or fire breathing!' ( the 3 most common claims in my neighbourhood! :p

apparently the number one killer of my demographic is standing up to answer the call of nature while in a small fishing boat!:D
 
My life insurance policy does not exclude any forms of aviation at all - light aircraft, private aircraft, experimental aircraft, skydiving, hang gliding - it's all OK... no exclusions in this regard, at all. But then again, I bought my policy with my flying career on heavies and my hobby of flying light airplanes in mind. My personal exclusion was no money spent on policies that exclude my activities! Many policies are out there that will exclude but there are those that will want your money and will set aside these exclusions but be sure the fine print matches what you think it should before buying and before renewing.
 
I was updating annual company benefits re. insurance coverage and noticed my life insurance clause about private pilot flying. It says I'm covered in "certified civilian aircraft", meaning I'm NOT covered in Experimental. If I once knew that, I'd forgotten.

How many also have that exclusion?

What's your reaction to that?

You RV is a "certified civilian aircraft", it is certified in the "Experimental" category. If it wasn't certified, you wouldn't be able to legally fly it. They would have a difficult time not paying off on that policy.

Right after I finished my RV my insurance agent called to try and sell me life insurance. When I explained that I wanted to remove the rider for the plane in the basement and that I'm now flying he gasped just a little. Then I told him that my truck was used to haul my car to the race track, and if I wasn't flying the plane I built in the basement or racing the car in the garage, I would probably be out climbing some mountain. And if wasn't doing that I was out rollerblading my nightly 26 mile loop to stay in shape (This was some time back).

Funny thing, he very quickly ended the phone call.
 
Canadian Life insurance

For those in Canada, its a little different.
Talking about personal policies, not group benefits.

They cannot exclude you for flying homebuilt after the fact. If you have older policies you are golden. I sell insurance to new pilots all the time, no issue....but the trick is to get it in place while you are a PPL flying certified planes, before your homebuilt is flying. They ask hours, years, type of planes you fly.

Several insurers in Canada treat private pilots as general risk, no issue or added cost and you fill out an aviation questionnaire. If you fly "Experimental or Homebuilt" you are rated or flat out denied.

Once the policy is in force they are locked in and you were 100% honest at application time. If you take up flying experimental planes after or even start smoking or sky diving etc....the policy is in force...they have to pay...that's just the way it is on our side. So...Canadian builders....get your insurance early. It is a dangerous hobby and you have to not only protect your family, but know 100% clearly what the fine print says.
 
It says I'm covered in "certified civilian aircraft", meaning I'm NOT covered in Experimental. If I once knew that, I'd forgotten.

You RV is a "certified civilian aircraft", it is certified in the "Experimental" category. .

I agree with Bill.

To me your policy reads that you would not be covered when flying an ultra light. In the U.S. anyway, that would be the only civilian aircraft not consider to be certified.

My life policy is through EAA... I know it has no flight exclusions.
 
Several I looked at in Australia exclude any form of aviation other than travelling as SLF on a commercial carrier.

On reading the fine print for one mob I noticed the clause "policy holder does not participate in any activities on the 'List of excluded activities'" but when I asked to see the list to make sure I didn't do anything on it, I was told it was "commercial in confidence". Asshats.

Make sure you read and re-read the fine print. If you do cark it while flying, your family don't need your insurance claim declined on top of you actually dying...
 
I agree with Bill.

To me your policy reads that you would not be covered when flying an ultra light. In the U.S. anyway, that would be the only civilian aircraft not consider to be certified.

My life policy is through EAA... I know it has no flight exclusions.

I really hate to pick nits, but there is a very subtle distinction that needs to be pointed out. Our aircraft are "Certificated" (meaning that they have been given an AEB airworthiness certificate), they are not "Certified" (which means that they are built to a type certificate that allows them to have an airworthiness certificate).

"Certified" means that they meet a certification standard - ours do not.
 
3rd. My underwriter is Minnesota Life. I think it's more or less the same as any generic term policy, price-wise, but with ZERO exclusions for aviation. I Dealt with Elizabeth Yeager there, she was very patient with me (I kept forgetting to send her info she needed).

I use em too as my broker. My underwriter is American General. No aviation exclusions.
 
My Insurance

I work for a large company and I have plenty of life insurance, but my policy will not cover acting as PIC in any airplane. We lost a pilot at my airport a couple of years ago, and he also worked for a large company and from what I understand he had same exclusion as PIC and his family did not receive the benefits. At that point I checked mine out and ended up getting a seperatate policy through AOPA.
 
Prudential

I got a new life insurance policy a couple of years ago from Prudential, specifically no exclusions for flying my experimental.
 
Before 9-11, the company I worked for reached a point where we had a dozen pilots on staff in a company of about 500. We all walked into the HR office one day and asked what it would take to get the policy amended to not exclude pilots. Our HR person called the insurance provider, who removed the exclusion at no charge. Those were different times.

After 9-11, HR had to meet with each of us individually and inform us officially that our policies were no longer valid when we were flying. No insurance company would even offer such a policy, for many years (or maybe it was just so expensive that they wouldn't quote it).

The insurance that came with my mortgage renewal last time *does* cover me, which is one of the reasons I chose this bank for my mortgage... But it doesn't hurt that the branch manager is the wife of an RV owner and builder...:)
 
Is the increase or exclusion based on actuarial risk?

...or insurance company speculation about the risk?

I ask because insurance companies are all over the map on this one. One might think that pilots take better care of themselves because they want to keep flying. Or maybe its just the rose colored glasses I'm looking through.


also, doesn't AOPA have an AD&D policy that would cover that could be used to supplement a life insurance policy with that exclusion?

Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground WA
 
Don't assume anything

Those of you who believe "certified aircraft" would cover an experimental, I sure would get a written clarification from your company if I were you. I feel if an insurance company can find a reason not to pay, they will do so.

I got a term life policy through AOPA about ten years ago, underwritten by Minnesota Life, that specifically covers being PIC in an experimental aircraft. It's not cheap at my age (58), and the benefits start to shrink as I pass 70, but I know it will pay in case the worst happens.
 
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