One of the most important health questions that people get asked when they apply for life insurance is, “Have you used a tobacco product in the last 12 months?” If you answer “Yes,” that means that in the eyes of your life insurance company, you qualify as a smoker, and that means that your life insurance company is going to expect you to pay a higher life insurance premium than you would have to pay if you were a non-smoker.

Why? Basically, and sorry if this sounds morbid, but: Smokers are more likely to die. In fact, as this old document from the life insurance industry (published in 1979) shows, smokers had such a high mortality rate (they were more than 2 times as likely to die as non-smokers of the same age and overall health) that the life insurance industry had to start classifying smokers and non-smokers into separate underwriting categories.

That means your life insurance company needs to manage the risk of insuring your life – and if you’re a smoker, you’re not as safe of a bet for the life insurance company to make. Higher risk means higher premiums – and the higher premiums that go with being a smoker can add up to thousands of dollars over the course of the life insurance policy’s term.

Why are smokers a higher risk for life insurance?

The fact of the matter is: smokers are at a higher risk of death, at all stages of life, from a variety of causes like cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia and even home-based fires (caused by un-extinguished cigarettes). Life insurance companies are in the business of helping protect people’s income and assets in the event of premature death – but if you’re a smoker, your death is more likely to be premature, and so the life insurance companies need to collect additional premium dollars to make up for this risk.

How much more do you have to pay for life insurance if you smoke?

It’s hard to generalize because every person’s situation is different – different life insurance companies have different underwriting standards, different premium rates, and different policy details. Life insurance premium costs vary depending on the length of term and the amount of coverage, and the age and health history of the policyholder.

However, financial blogger Jeff Rose has a great article here where he compared online life insurance quotes for smokers and non-smokers, and he found that smokers can expect to pay almost four times as much for their life insurance premiums. Jeff Rose ran some quotes on a $250,000 30-year term life insurance policy to see how premiums would compare for smokers and non-smokers. He found in one example that if you’re a 40 year old male non-smoker, you might get an annual life insurance premium of $375 ($31.25 per month). That same premium for a 40-year-old male smoker would be $1,434 per year ($119.50 per month) – almost 4 times as much!

If you smoke, is it “too late” to get low-cost life insurance?

It’s never too late to make positive changes in your health, and smoking is no exception. If you stop smoking today, you’ll not only save money on cigarettes, doctor bills and health insurance premiums, but you can also expect to qualify for a lower rate on life insurance premiums. However – most life insurance companies want to know that you have been 100% tobacco-free for the past 12 months. So when you’re ready to quit, make sure you give it a full year before you re-apply for life insurance as a non-smoker.

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