Summary
An interesting new insurance plan has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance. The life insurance policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain diseases. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow AFI’s lead .

A not for profit insurance firm has launched an insurance plan which offers fish-eaters and vegetarians a reduced cost mortgage insurance .

The deal, considered to be the 1st of its type, is being introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering non-meat eaters a six per cent cheaper premiumon mortgage protection premiums
The company claimed that veggies ought to pay less for the product, which pays out if the plan holder dies, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a range of chronic diseases, including some cancers.

Elaine Fair, AFI’s managing director, said that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is lowered by up to 42% and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to 30%, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly the same insurance costs as people who eat meat.
She says that AFI think that this is not fair and says the life industry should acknowledge the idea that being a vegetarian can create a positive impact on life expectancy and cut its monthly charges accordingly.

A normal plan is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance policies are brought to the market by LV=, which was previously known as Liverpool Victoria.

In common with normal life policies, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the monthly premium including whether the applicant smokes, their sex, weight and age.

Just at the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is making the 6 per cent discount itself from the commission it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist insurance cover. In the company is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically worthwhile for LV= to underwrite yet another policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.

Indeed there are huge savings to be had, a forty-year-oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a 20-year period.

Where life insurance quotes is concerned, AFI considers that insurance companies should start to treat meat eaters and non-meat eaters in ways that are similar to the way they view non-smokers and smokers. Perhaps other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.

Some senior executivesin the insurance industry doubt whether there is robust proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurance company could prove that applicants who had stated that they are vegetarian did not munch on an occasional bacon sandwich.

When it comes to smoking, it’s true that there are your Doctor’s records – if you now don’t smoke it’s likely that your Doctor would know. However, this is not the case when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.

But some veggies contend that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a veggie has become a vegetarian, they do not regress to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.