Insurance: Life, Loss of Licence, Sickness etc (NOT hull insurance)

[JTobias]

Guys

At the moment id be happy to find a policy that will actually provide cover. I'll adjust the level of cover to the premium I'm willing/able to afford if necessary.

Joel

[myassisgrass]

Loss of License Insurance (or LOL)

What varieties and sorts of insurance policies are available for pilots who have lost their license permanently due to medical reasons? What policy does your company have in place or what policy have you personally purchased to provide you with the coverage you require?

[Jet Ranger]

BALPA

If I understood good, with BALPA you have the best rate for Loss of licence. How much per month?

And one more question, what are the conditions to become BALPA member ( to be ATPL-H in UK or something like that...) ?

Thanks for answers

[212man]

And one more question, what are the conditions to become BALPA member

To qualify for Full Membership you must hold a current professional pilots licence or flight engineers licence issued by the UK or any of the JAA countries, be engaged in British commercial flying and be based in the UK or employed by a UK Company abroad. Alternatively you may be a ground instructor or helicopter winchman employed in British commercial flying

The following are eligible for associate membership:

Unemployed/Retired - British-qualified flight crew currently unemployed or retired
Overseas - JAA licence holders working for non-UK companies abroad
Trainee - Actively training to obtain Commercial Pilots Licences

Curiously, the quoted text is not recognised as text and so I have to write something to get the number of characters to the minimum posting size!

[Thomas coupling]

I'm sure that for some, I sound like an old tape recording but as long as there are pilots out there asking these questions, I will fore warn them about LOL:

There are 2 types of LOL insurance:
1. One off pay out in the event the licence is revoked.
2. Loss of salary remuneration scheme.

The former pays mega bucks in a one off payment and the premiums can be very steep (example: for £250,000 cover, you are looking at £2000/yr premium (ish)).

The latter pays UP TO your old salary on top of your new (non flying) job, for a fixed period (2yrs etc). Premium for this is small (suggest £500/yr).


This next statement is the most important thing to remember:

LOL ONLY PAYS OUT IN THE EVENT YOU LOSE YOUR LICENSE FOREVER.

(examples of LOL are: terminal cancer / diabetes / certain heart issues etc.

ALL other groundings lead to SUSPENSION of your license by the CAA which means you will NOT get the insurance money.
[90% of all LOL claims are rejected on these grounds].
It is because every other illness can, theoretically be cured/resolved in the future, no matter how long it takes...OR, you can fly twin pilot with your particular ailment thus allowing you to retain your license.

ALL lol insurances are predicated on what the occupation of the insured, is. And for nearly all insurances of this type, the policy describes the individual requiring cover, as: PILOT. This means that as long as you can pilot ANY aeroplane (even if you are not qualified on type), you won't get paid.

The secret is to negotiate with the LOL issuers and get them to change it to your specific occupation. For example:

Let's say you are a single pilot IFR driver for an offshore company. You fail your medical because of a detached retina after a swimming accident. You will lose your JOB because the CAA will not authorise you to fly without a second pilot. The insurance company will NOT pay out because the policy says you are a PILOT. Theoretically you could go fly for an airline as a second pilot.
To get round this - you get the insurance company to change your occupation to: PILOT: single pilot operations only. That way, when you lose your job, you can claim your insurance. (Some companies protect their terms by preventing you from flying for a further 'x' years after the payout).

BE WARNED: READ THE POLICY. Secondly you get what you pay for: There is no such thing as comprehensive cover for a pitiful premium.

[Jet Ranger]

Very precise explanation. Thanks

[hihover]

Thomas

Excellent post, thanks.

Tam

[NorthSea Newbie]

Life assurance with critical illness cover required - recommendations?

Could anyone recommend a provider for life assurance and critical illness for a North Sea helicopter pilot? Going through the usual channels returns ridiculous, over-the-top quotes as the providers seem to think that flying on the North Sea carries a big risk. I have searched this topic already but the search results returned quite outdated results. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[NorthSea Newbie]

Anyone? I'm sure there must be at least someone who's paying less than the £170 per month I'm paying at the moment.

[Thomas coupling]

Try Haywards Insurance, London. BUT it's all gone thru the roof lately and your current quote is about on a par!

[NorthSea Newbie]

Thanks Thomas. I'll give them a try.

[212man]

I looked at term life insurance about 12 years ago, for £175,000, and was quoted £175 pm. That was only via a broker - it wasn't available on the high street - so your premium looks quite reasonable by comparison. I also looked at critical illness cover (a few years before that,) and frankly for a pilot it didn't seem worth it because as long as you could use one finger the schemes seemed to exclude payments, and certainly not for the type of typical loss of licence causes (asthma, tinitus, diabetes etc.) Mind you that was a long time ago, so maybe things have changed?

[jemax]

I agree, I had terrible trouble, normal Premium for me should have been about £20, I was quoted generally about £100 per month.

In the end I kept trying and got the cover at a normal rate through a major provider. I think this is due to an administrative cock up, I have my declaration in writing as is the cover from them, stating "helicopter pilot" keep trying lots of companies, you might get lucky in the end as I did.

[Thomas coupling]

Jemax, I presume you read about the job description aspect of these policies? I mentioned it years ago but will re-iterate for newcomers:

If you are simply described as a helicopter pilot, it means they won't pay out if you can technically continue to be a helicopter pilot anywhere in the industry. If you are working as a single pilot operator, then this insurance will not protect your current job as the company will presume you will go work for a twin pilot operation??? It simply won't pay out

Let's see where LOL insurance in its original format, won't pay out:

UK police pilot
UK HEMS (single pilot ops) pilot
Crop sprayers
Corporate pilot (single pilot ops)
Charter pilot
AFI / Instructor (unless the student accompanying you is already qualified on type)
Private yacht pilot

All of the above assumes your licence has been suspended and not revoked.
If it is revoked you will always get a pay out.

[jemax]

TC thanks I should have been more specific, I was talking about life cover only