Positive Finance | HIV Life Assurance, HIV Life Insurance and HIV Mortgage Blog

HIV Life Assurance and HIV Life Insurance … Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover

By chris | Published: February 9, 2015

Our friends at Unusual Risks have recently launched a campaign to secure Income Protection and Critical Illness for people living with HIV. In their HIV Life Assurance Survey in 2014 they established that 70% of UK Insurers offered Life Assurance and 0% of UK insurance companies offer any Income Protection or Critical Illness Cover to HIV Positive people.

In response to this they have recently completed a more detailed survey, which has focused specifically on the IPP and CIC needs of the HIV Community. Throughout 2015 they will be publishing statistics from this survey to raise awareness and to encourage the UK Insurance industry to look at these issues seriously.

They have found that many more HIV Positive people are now asking us for IPP and CIC, alongside the Life Assurance that they are arranging for them.

Here’s an example where Richard (Aged 34) and Brian (Aged 32) recently approached them for Insurance to protect their mortgage.

Richard Said …

“I’ve recently taken a new mortgage for £200,000 and would like to take out Life Assurance for both myself and my partner Brian. I’m HIV Positive and my partner is HIV Negative, so I’m not sure how easy it would be to get Life Insurance for both of us?

Richard Continued …

“We would also like to know about any possibilities for protecting our mortgage in the event of serious illness. Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover seem to be mentioned a lot when talking about Mortgages, so we’d like to know more about these products?”.

Here’s the latest situation with regards to personal insurances for the HIV Community.

Unusual Risks believe that it is a human right for HIV positive people to be able to protect their homes, mortgages, families, businesses and incomes with both Life Assurance and Personal Insurances like IPP and CIC. Over the coming months they will be releasing more key statistics that will support their campaign to secure IPP and CIC for the HIV Community.

And Richard & Brian? …

They arranged HIV Life Assurance for Richard who is HIV positive, which allowed him to complete the mortgage and buy their new home. They also arranged Life Assurance with Critical Illness Cover, along with Income Protection for his partner Brian who is HIV Negative.

You can follow the campaign by reading Chris Morgan’s resident column in Baseline Magazine or by visiting them at their new Facebook Campaign Page Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services. They would be very interested to hear your views and comments about Mortgages or Insurance for positive people.

If you require more information on HIV Life Assurance, HIV Life Insurance, HIV Mortgages or Hepatitis C Life Assurance, Hepatitis C Life Insurance, Hepatitis C Mortgages you can contact our sponsors Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services on 0845 474 3075, or email at Enquiries@unusualrisks.co.uk or on the web at http://www.unusualrisks.co.uk/

How HIV Life Assurance has changed the finances of the HIV Community in the UK? …

By chris | Published: December 22, 2014

Our friends at Unusual Risks would like to share with you some of the ways that HIV Life Assurance has enabled HIV Positive people in the UK to improve their financial situations.

From a position where many types of financial goals were difficult and in some cases impossible to achieve, there are now many new opportunities available to people with HIV in the UK.

Imagine what further improvements could made if similar to Life Assurance the UK Insurance Industry decided to take the bold step of providing Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover for people with HIV.

These are some of the good things that have happened since life assurance was introduced in 2009.

Mortgages – 70% of HIV Life Assurance is taken to protect a mortgage, so that family and loved ones can stay in a property should the worst happen.

Family and Partners – 30% of HIV Life Assurance is taken to protect families and partners providing financial security to surviving partners and dependent children.

Businesses – HIV Positive people are now able to protect their commercial interests, such as business mortgages and loans that normally require Life Assurance as a condition of lending.

Child Trust Funds – By far the most important of all these is that parents are now able to write HIV Life Assurance policies and place them into a trust fund for their children.

The HIV Community are increasingly becoming aware of other Insurances that exist in the UK.

Every week HIV Positive people phone my office asking for Income Protection and/or Critical Illness Cover that is currently unavailable to them. These people are normally looking to protect their mortgage payments, or their regular monthly income in the event of long term illness.

Unusual Risks are now actively campaigning to secure IPP and CIC products for people with HIV and have recently completed research that supports our campaign. Throughout 2015 they will be publishing these statistics and raising these issues within the UK insurance industry.

How You Can Help …

Unusual Risks are asking for your help to increase awareness of their campaign and to raise public opinion around this issue. They are asking you to share our postings with your friends and make comments on the findings of their research as they release them into the community.

Please join them by liking their Facebook campaign page …

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unusual-Risks-Mortgage-Insurance-Services/559801650787699?fref=ts

Unusual Risks Offer Insurance Advice to People Living With HTLV-1 …

By chris | Published: December 1, 2014

Our friends at Unusual Risks are best known for their ground breaking work arranging Life Assurance and Mortgages for people living with HIV …

Chris Morgan their Lead Financial adviser led a 10 year campaign to persuade the Insurance industry to insure HIV positive people and was part of the Working Group that helped to create HIV Life Assurance.

Over the year’s Chris has helped many under represented groups of people find Insurance and Mortgage products, with many successes over the years for clients from the LGBT, HIV, Hepatitis, Expatriate, Cryonics and recently the HTLV-1 communities.

Here’s a recent example of where he arranged Critical Illness Cover for someone living with HTLV-1 who was told they were uninsurable!

I would like to share with you a recent case example that illustrates how the insurance industry can exclude people applying for Insurance and in particular Critical Illness Cover, even though they are in fact completely insurable.

The client in question approached me after being declined by every single Life Insurance provider in the UK, for both Life Assurance and Critical Illness Cover. They had been diagnosed with the virus HTLV-1 four years ago, which was used as a reason for the Insurers to decline their application.

My client explained the reasons that the Insurer’s blanket exclusion did not make sense and presented me with clear medical data to support their position. On presenting this evidence to one of my leading insurers it quickly became clear that the client was indeed insurable.

However, they were only offered Life Assurance, without any Critical Illness Cover. Once again my client presented me with supportive evidence to suggest that this stance did not make sense, which again helped us to overturn the decision.

My client was then offered Life Assurance and Critical Illness Cover, with a full exclusion for Cancer related claims. Once again my client was unhappy with this decision and provided yet more medical evidence that proved the insurer’s decision did not make sense.

Finally, the insurance company offered my client Life Assurance with full Critical Illness Cover, which was quite unbelievable considering only a few weeks before they had been told they were completely uninsurable.

Unusual Risks are specialist insurance advisers for people living with unusual medical conditions.

If you require more information on Life Insurance and Mortgages for people living with HTLV-1, HIV, Hepatitis or any other unusual medical condition you can contact our sponsors Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services on 0845 474 3075, or email at Enquiries@unusualrisks.co.uk or on the web at http://www.unusualrisks.co.uk/

Please join their Facebook campaign to secure Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover for HIV positive

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unusual-Risks-Mortgage-Insurance-Services/559801650787699

Unusual Risks launch campaign to secure Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover for people with HIV …

By chris | Published: October 30, 2014

Our friends at Unusual Risks have launched their campaign to secure Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover For People Living With HIV.

Back in 1999 it was unthinkable for people living with HIV to be offered Life Insurance. The Insurance industry was still asking perceived higher risk groups to take a compulsory HIV test and there was absolutely zero appetite from the Insurance industry for insuring a medical condition that was considered to be a major threat to their profitability.

It took a further six years for the Insurance industry to agree to finally consider Chris Morgan’s case for stopping the targeting of gay men with HIV tests and agreeing to treat HIV as a global issue effecting people from all walks of life. It is hard to believe that through until 2005 the Insurance industry still mostly viewed HIV as a gay issue – but it is true.

Within the HIV and Insurance Guidelines that came into effect in 2005, he also asked for commitment from the Insurance industry to offer Life Insurance to people living with HIV. It then took a further four years of consultation and negotiations for the first HIV Life Insurance products to finally be available to the consumer in 2009.

From what appeared to be an impossible position back in 1999, we now have seven mainstream insurance providers that offer Life Insurance for people with HIV. This of course has led to HIV people protecting their families and mortgages and an amazing increase in an awareness of different insurance products within the HIV community.

We are now receiving literally scores of requests for Income protection and Critical Illness Cover which is a very similar situation to the one that he faced in 1999. Also similar to 1999, there currently appears to be little or no appetite from Insurance Companies to look at Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover products for people with HIV.

This of course needs to change! So, for this reason we have decided to start a campaign asking for the Insurance industry to take the issues around Income Protection and Critical Illness seriously. In 2015 we plan to address this issue directly with the Insurance industry and we will keep you updated of developments as they happen.

You can keep up to date with the campaign by visiting the new Unusual Risks Facebook page … Please join our campaign by “Liking” their page !!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unusual-Risks-Mortgage-Insurance-Services/559801650787699

Unusual Risks and their HIV Life Assurance Survey 2014 have recently been featured in Cover Magazine and on the website My So Called Gay life …

http://m.covermagazine.nqlnginx.incbase.net/cover/news/2375250/more-insurers-offer-life-cover-for-people-with-hiv

http://mysocalledgaylife.co.uk/pub/2014/10/13/hiv-life-assurance-survey-2014/

If you require more information on HIV Life Assurance, HIV Life Insurance, HIV Mortgages or Hepatitis C Life Assurance, Hepatitis C Life Insurance, Hepatitis C Mortgages you can contact our sponsors Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services on 0845 474 3075, or email at Enquiries@unusualrisks.co.uk or on the web at http://www.unusualrisks.co.uk/

HIV Life Assurance Survey 2014 …

By chris | Published: October 13, 2014

News from our sponsors … Unusual Risks, the medical financial advisers are today announcing the results of their HIV Life Assurance Survey 2014. After contacting all of the major Life Assurance providers in the UK, they can report that 70% of insurers are now offering some form of HIV Life Assurance.

This is the fourth year that Unusual Risks have surveyed the availability of HIV Life Assurance in the UK, with the earliest survey result in 2011 indicating only 50% of insurance providers were offering any form of HIV Life Assurance.

This year Unusual Risks have expanded their survey to find out more about the availability of Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover to people living with HIV. They have also looked at the number of HIV Positive People that would consider taking out such policies if they became available.

Speaking about their survey, Chris Morgan, Lead Financial Adviser of Unusual Risks said;

‘We recently surveyed the top ten life assurance groups servicing brokers and were delighted to see that 70% of companies are still offering Life Assurance to HIV Positive people. It is encouraging to see a wide range of Life Assurance products available to the HIV community’.

‘Unusual Risks are constantly working with insurance providers to create better products and services for the HIV community. In this year’s survey we also decided to look at the availability of Income Protection Insurance and Critical Illness Cover to people with HIV’.

‘We are now receiving regular enquiries about the availability of Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover from HIV Positive people. However, we are still unable to offer these types of products to people living with HIV as they are unavailable in the market place’.

In this year’s HIV Insurance Survey Unusual Risks established that currently 0% of the major Insurance companies surveyed currently offered any form of Income Protection Insurance or Critical Illness Cover to people already diagnosed with HIV.

In a further part of their survey Unusual Risks established that 61% of people living with HIV would consider taking out some form of Income Protection or Critical Illness Cover if it was made available to them in the market place.

Chris Morgan at Unusual Risks led the campaign for the introduction of HIV life Assurance from 1999 through to its introduction in 2009. He believes that it’s now time the UK Insurance industry take a serious look at providing Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover for people with HIV.

HIV Life Assurance & HIV Life Insurance for Business Mortgages & Commercial Lending

By chris | Published: September 29, 2014

Our Sponsors … Unusual Risks are the UK’s leading financial advisers offering advice around HIV Life Assurance, HIV Life Insurance and HIV Mortgages. Our advisers have been looking after people with HIV for over 15 years and they led the campaign to get Life Cover for people living with HIV in the United Kingdom.

Our lead financial adviser Chris Morgan represented the consumer within the Industry Working group that led directly to the HIV Life Assurance products that are available in the market place. He also Co-wrote the original HIV and Insurance guidelines that are widely used within the UK Insurance Industry today.

Since the introduction of HIV Life Assurance in 2009 people have used the new products for many different reasons. 70% of individuals taking HIV Life Assurance take insurance to protect their mortgage, whilst the remaining 30% of individuals take out Insurance to protect their family or children.

One of the less documented uses for HIV Life Assurance is for Business Protection or Key Person insurance as it is also called in the Business and Corporate world. Key Person Insurance provides money that allows a business to continue should anything happen to a key shareholder, director or employee of the business.

Unusual Risks have been contacted a number of times by business people looking to protect their new Business Mortgage, Commercial Finance or Private Equity Deal. Business Bank and Commercial money lenders quite often make Life Assurance a condition of lending, which can make life difficult for business people who are HIV Positive.

Unusual Risks have saved a number of commercial deals by arranging HIV Life Assurance for our clients. Chris Morgan our lead financial adviser is highly experienced at arranging life assurance in both individual and commercial circumstances. Here’s some examples of his recent work.

In one recent commercial case we arranged £2,000,000 of Life Assurance for a client who needed the insurance to meet the requirements of his private equity investors and partners. In another business case we arranged £250,000 of HIV life Assurance for a client taking out a Commercial Mortgage with his Business Banking Manager to buy a hotel.

In both cases Unusual Risks were the key to meeting the lenders conditions, allowing our clients to complete both business deals. If you are a business person who happens to be HIV Positive and are concerned about getting business life assurance, please call us to find out more about how we can help?

National Press For HIV Life Assurance and HIV Life Insurance …

By chris | Published: September 8, 2014

Our friends … Unusual Risks the medical financial advisers have recently appeared in the national financial press with their latest Press Release focused on HIV Life Assurance and HIV Life Insurance.

They are very proud to have appeared in both the leading Financial Industry Newspaper – The Financial Times, FT Adviser and also the leading Financial Industry Magazine, Cover Magazine.

To read these stories please visit the links below …

Financial Times – FT Adviser

http://www.ftadviser.com/2014/08/11/insurance/life-assurance/data-reveal-fall-in-average-hiv-life-assurance-G1BgAbbP3oBiNOBv2r4yzK/article.html

Cover Magazine

http://www.covermagazine.co.uk/cover/news/2359645/dramatic-changes-to-hiv-life-assurance-unusual-risks

NEW SURVEY …

Unusual Risks are currently collecting data relating to the needs of the HIV community around Income Protection and Critical Illness Cover in order that we can challenge the Insurance Industry on this important issue in the future

If you have been on HIV medications for at least 12 months and are either employed, or self-employed we would like to ask you to complete our latest HIV Insurance Survey.

Click Here To Complete Their Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7HD379C

European Diversity Awards …

By chris | Published: September 5, 2014

Chris Morgan the lead financial adviser at our sponsors Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services has been shortlisted for a European Diversity Award.The Awards Ceremony is to take place on the 2nd October, at London’s Natural History Museum.

The awards recognise excellence in the areas of gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, race, culture and religion across Europe. The category that he has been shortlisted is Barclays Campaigner of the Year – Recognising the outstanding contribution of individual campaigners to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Chris has been campaigning on behalf of the LGBT, HIV and African Communities within the financial services industry for over 15 years …

His work led to the equalisation of Insurance products in the UK for LGBT people and opened the door to financial products for HIV Positive people in the UK. He encouraged the UK Industry to view HIV and the HIV Community as global issues, instead of focusing on race, sexuality or gender.

More specifically he co-wrote the Insurance Industry guidelines that Insurance companies use in regards to the treatment of LGBT people and people living with HIV. He also challenged the Insurance Industry over the way they treated HIV positive people and led the negotiations to secure Life Insurance products for the HIV community in the UK.

Chris now spends the majority of his time arranging Life Insurance and Mortgages for LGBT and African families who are living with either HIV, Hepatitis and TB. He has always offered financial advice without fear of discrimination, attention to colour, creed, sexuality, health status or personal beliefs.

Dramatic Change In Average HIV Life Assurance …

By chris | Published: August 11, 2014

Our friends Unusual Risks, the medical financial advisers have today published the results of their latest research into the average amounts of Life Assurance that HIV Positive men and women are insuring themselves for. Currently HIV Positive people who are taking out Life Assurance in the UK are insuring themselves for an average of £114,607.

This latest survey was conducted as a follow up to similar surveys released around the same issues where the average figures were £134,130 in 2012 and £134,667 in 2013. Although the new figures are surprising they reflect changes in the general accessibility of Life Insurance products to the HIV community.

Chris Morgan, Marketing Manager of Unusual Risks, Mortgage & Insurance Services says,

‘It has come as a complete surprise that the Average Sum Assured of an HIV Life Assurance Policy has decreased over the last year to £114,607. However, at the same time over the last twelve months we have also seen a rapid increase in the number of people taking up HIV Life Assurance products’.

‘We believe the volume of people taking HIV Life Assurance has increased by around 140% over the last two years, which seems to have had an effect on the average sum-assured being taken by policy holders. We are of course delighted to see that more people with HIV are protecting their homes, mortgages, families and children’.

Unusual Risks have been campaigning for a wider range of Life Insurance products and fairer premiums since the launch of HIV Life Assurance back in 2009. Over the last five years there has been a continued change in the accessibility of HIV Life Assurance, with premiums now being both realistic and affordable for those applying for cover.

In last year’s HIV Life Assurance Survey it was established that 70% of Life Insurance providers now offer cover to people with HIV. However, the terms and premiums they offer vary wildly between different insurance companies. Those looking for HIV Life Assurance are urged to seek specialist advice before applying for Insurance.

National Press Coverage For HIV Life Assurance …

By chris | Published: July 21, 2014

Our sponsors Unusual Risks have recently enjoyed national press coverage for their latest HIV Life Assurance and HIV Life Insurance Survey.

They appeared in the leading mortgage industry magazine “Mortgage Finance Gazette” and also in the leading insurance industry magazine “Cover Magazine.”

Their recent survey established that 70% of HIV Positive people taking out Life Insurance did so for the purpose of protecting their mortgage. The survey also established that 30% of policies were taken out to protect partners, families and children.

Click here to read the Mortgage Finance Gazette …

www.mortgagefinancegazette.com/insurance/70-per-cent-of-hiv-life-assurance-applications-protect-mortgages/

Click here to read Cover Magazine …

www.covermagazine.co.uk/cover/news/2344478/most-hiv-life-insurance-applications-now-to-protect-a-mortgage