Enhancements to Pacific Life’s Underwriting Requirements

04-30-2020

In an effort to streamline the process and improve their speed of service, Pacific Life Insurance Company is making changes to their underwriting requirements.

What Is Changing?

Beginning May 1, 2020, the following enhancements will take place.  

• Age and Amount Guidelines: Updating age and amount requirements to better align with industry standards
• Examiner’s Report: Eliminating the requirement to provide examiner’s reports
• Supplemental Health Questionnaires: Introducing new supplemental health questionnaires for certain conditions to reduce Attending Physician Statements (APSs)

NOTE:  These underwriting changes are unrelated to COVID-19. 

 

Updated Age and Amount Guidelines

To better align with industry standards, Pacific Life is making the following changes to the age and amount requirements. To view the complete Age and Amount Guidelines chart, please reference page 8 of the updated Underwriting Guidelines brochure.

• Paramed exam, labs, and EKG will be valid for up to 12 months for insureds up to age 70 who are approved standard or better. For insureds age 71 or older or for those who are approved substandard, the paramed exam and labs will be valid for 6 months and the EKG will be valid for 12 months
• For amounts up to $10 million, the Natriuretic Peptide blood test (NT-ProBNP) will replace the Electrocardiogram (EKG)
• Treadmill stress test will be replaced with an EKG and the NT-ProBNP blood test
• The NT-ProBNP blood test will also be completed on proposed insureds age 71 or older for all face amounts and all proposed insureds applying for more than $10 million
• For ages 0-64, the requirement for an inspection report will be raised from $3 million to $5 million  MD exam is being replaced with a paramed exam
• The senior supplement will be required at age 71 instead of age 70
• 3rd party verification of financials1 will be required for all insured's applying for more than $10 million

Elimination of Examiner’s Report Requirement

The examiner’s report portion of the paramed exam is no longer necessary, which increases the number of facilities available to collect medical underwriting requirements.

Introducing Supplemental Health Questionnaires

To reduce the number of Attending Physician Statements (APSs), Pacific Life is introducing new supplemental health questionnaires for certain conditions, including mental health disorders, asthma, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, heart murmur, and sleep apnea. Pacific Life will email questionnaires directly to the proposed insured or, for those who participate in the fulfillment process, a Pacific Life representative may call the proposed insured to complete the questionnaire. For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, please click here.