Here's what you'll want to know before you put pen to paper to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Life insurance medical and lifestyle questions

Your life insurance company wants to know how likely it is that you will die while you are insured. It asks you a series of questions about your family's health, your health, and the activities you participate in to determine that risk.

The company will charge you more for coverage if you are not in good health. As a result, some applicants may exaggerate the truth on their life insurance applications, which is a bad idea.

Lying on your life insurance application can result in your application being denied or your benefits being denied later. Policies typically begin with a “contestability period,” which is a two-year period during which, if you die, the insurance company can investigate the details of your application to see if you omitted anything or lied. If you do, the insurer will almost certainly deny your claim.

Your family’s health history

Because certain diseases in your family can shorten your life expectancy, the life insurance company will want to know if your parents or siblings have been diagnosed with or treated for heart or kidney disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, or other conditions.

If they have, find out what age they were when they developed the condition and, if they died, what age they were when they died. Insurers are primarily looking for diseases with earlier onset, so if your parents died at a later age, you will not be penalized. For example, depending on the company, an insurer may inquire if any of your family members had heart disease or cancer before the age of 60 or 65.

Your medical history

Although you provided health information to obtain a quote, you will need to provide it again for your life insurance application. There's no point in lying because your insurer will use your medical records and information from the MIB Group (formerly the Medical Information Bureau) to verify everything.

MIB is used by life insurance companies because it collects health information from multiple providers in one location. This data can assist an insurance company in determining how risky you are to insure.

MIB maintains a database of health conditions that applicants have reported on applications for individual life, health, long-term care, and other insurance types made in the last seven years. If you previously applied for a life insurance policy and stated that you had been treated for cancer, MIB will raise a red flag, and your life insurer will likely want to investigate further.

MIB does not receive data from every insurer. You can test the accuracy of the MIB file by obtaining your own.

Have the name, address, and phone number of your primary physician and the last doctor you saw, as well as the date of your last visit, on hand.

Be ready to provide the date, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment for a wide range of medical conditions. The list will be lengthy and will include:

• High blood pressure.
• High cholesterol.
• Chest pain.
• Ulcer.
• Anemia.
• Immune deficiency.
• Leukemia.
• Cancer, tumor and melanoma.
• Diabetes.
• Asthma.
• Brain disorders (even chronic headaches).
• Suicidal ideation, depression, and anxiety
• Anorexia or bulimia.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Problems with eyes, ears, nose or throat.

Current medications, drugs and alcohol

The life insurance application will inquire about your use of illegal drugs in the past, current alcohol consumption, prescription medications, and whether you have ever been advised to seek addiction treatment.

Lifestyle history

Typically, the life insurance company will inquire about any criminal convictions or a history of a suspended driver's license, moving violations, or DUI. If you do, make a note of the dates — insurers are generally only interested in events that occurred within a specific time frame, such as the last five years.

Future plans for risky activities

Piloting a plane, rock climbing, ice climbing, hang gliding, scuba diving, skydiving, and car racing can all increase your risk of death, so the life insurance application will ask if you have participated in any of these activities or intend to participate in any of them. Dangerous hobbies will raise your life insurance premiums or result in a denial.

If you intend to travel outside the United States in the next year or two, the application may ask you.

Nonmedical life insurance questions

When you apply for a policy, your life insurance company will also require a slew of practical and logistical details. These questions do not address the risk you pose to a company, but without the answers, your life insurance would be ineffective.

Life insurance beneficiaries

When you buy a policy, you'll fill out an application that names your life insurance beneficiaries. Beneficiaries are the people who will receive any benefits from your insurance policy if you die while it is still in effect. You can give each of your beneficiaries a different percentage of the benefit. For example, you could assign 70% to your spouse and 30% to your brother.

You should also be prepared to name a contingent beneficiary. If the primary beneficiary dies before you, this is the person who receives the benefit.

Make sure you have the Social Security numbers and birth dates of your beneficiaries.

Payment frequency

The application will most likely ask you how frequently you want to be billed. Single payment (meaning one large lump sum), annually, semi-annually, quarterly, and monthly are common options.

Other life insurance policies

The life insurance company will want to know if you have any other life insurance applications pending, as well as the amount of insurance you are looking for. If you appear to be applying for more life insurance than your situation requires, the company will most likely inquire as to why.

The application will also inquire about the amount of individual life insurance you currently have in place.

Sign your name

Why should you pay special attention to signing your name? Because the application for life insurance is a legal document. It can be used against you if you purposefully misreported anything, which the insurer would consider fraud.

The insurance company will verify everything to the greatest extent possible, which may include pulling your:

• Medical records.
• Prescription drug record.
• DMV report.
• MIB report.
• Credit history (to look for bankruptcy).

Term life vs. permanent life applications

You must complete all of the steps outlined above regardless of the type of insurance you purchase. However, the application processes for term life insurance and permanent life insurance, such as whole life, differ slightly.

Because term life insurance does not have a cash account (the part of a permanent policy that grows in value over time), you will not be required to answer any financial questions other than who will receive the benefit of your policy when you die.

Permanent policies are more complicated financial instruments. They fluctuate in value over time, either at a fixed rate or through investments that rise and fall in value. As a result, you'll need to answer some additional financial questions when applying for a permanent life insurance policy.

Depending on the product, you'll need to decide how to take loans from your cash account, whether you want your death benefit to include the cash account, how to divide premium payments among investment accounts, and whether you want to certify that your seller presented a prospectus. There may be additional questions about your financial fitness.

Life insurance medical exam

Following the submission of your application, you may be required to take a life insurance medical exam in order to qualify for coverage or to obtain the best rates.

A paramedical examiner will contact you to schedule an exam if your policy application requires one. You'll schedule the exam for a convenient time and location, such as at home in the morning.

Height, weight, urine and blood samples, and a review of all medical questions are typically included in the exam. When this is done, you'll be an expert on your own medical history.

A medical exam is not required for all types of life insurance. Simplified issue and guaranteed issue life insurance both try to avoid the exam by collecting more health information or charging higher premiums for coverage than traditional life insurers.

After the application

The length of time it takes to issue your policy is determined by how quickly the insurer receives your medical records and verifies your application information. If the insurer has any follow-up questions, the process will be prolonged. The review of your application typically takes a few weeks, according to Life Happens, an educational nonprofit supported by insurers and brokers.