Disclosing skydiving, piloting and diving: how underwriters treat hobbies

If you jump out of airplanes, fly them or dive underwater for fun, you can usually still buy life insurance, and you should tell the insurer about it. How the hobby is treated depends on how often you do it, how you were trained and what the insurer's guidelines say. The outcome might be nothing at all, a higher price, an exclusion for that activity or, for the most extreme cases, a decline. What a policyholder should not do is leave the hobby off the application, because that is the one choice that can leave a family without a payout.

The questions below are the ones people ask most often, answered in depth. They describe general patterns. Individual insurers differ, and nothing here predicts an offer.

Why the application asks

Why does the application ask about my hobbies at all?

Underwriting tries to match price to risk. A hobby that raises the chance of accidental death raises the chance of a claim, so the insurer asks. The life insurance application usually contains a short list of activities, such as scuba diving, skydiving, climbing, racing, and private flying, and an answer of "yes" to any of them tends to trigger a supplemental questionnaire.

The insurer has two goals. One is pricing: an experienced, well-equipped hobbyist who does an activity a few times a year is a different risk from someone doing the same thing every weekend. The other is fairness to the rest of the pool. If risky activities went unreported, other policyholders would pay for them through higher premiums.

There is no single industry list of "hazardous avocations." Each insurer defines its own, which is why the same hobby can be handled differently from one company to the next. The broader guide scuba, skydiving, climbing and life insurance gives the full list of activities insurers commonly ask about.

What the questionnaires cover

What does the skydiving questionnaire usually ask?

Expect details that measure experience and exposure. Typical items include:

• Total number of jumps, and the number in the past year.
• The type of jumping: tandem with an instructor, solo, formation, wingsuit, canopy-piloting, or competitive.
• Your license or rating level, if the sport's governing body issues one.
• Whether you also do BASE jumping, which many insurers treat very differently from skydiving.
• Plans to increase participation, such as competing or becoming an instructor.

Why those items? The risk is not the same across all jumping. A person who has done one tandem jump on a birthday is in an entirely different category from a person with hundreds of jumps and a wingsuit. Insurers often treat one-time or occasional tandem jumps as low risk, and some do not charge for them. Regular solo jumping may bring a surcharge or an exclusion. BASE jumping and wingsuit flying are the activities most likely to produce a decline or a firm exclusion.

What do pilots get asked?

A private pilot or an aspiring one will be sent an aviation questionnaire that covers certificates and ratings, total flying hours and hours in the past 12 months, the type of aircraft, the purpose of the flying and any accidents or violations. It will also ask whether you hold an FAA medical certificate and whether it was ever denied, restricted or issued by special exception.

The type of flying matters more than the word "pilot." Scheduled airline crews are commonly treated much like other healthy professionals, while private, instructional, agricultural, aerobatic, bush, test and homebuilt flying draw more scrutiny. Occupation and hobby both count: a person who flies for a living and also owns a small plane for weekends has two kinds of exposure to describe. The guide life insurance for pilots covers the occupational side, and this article concentrates on disclosure.

What about scuba and other diving?

For diving, the questionnaire usually asks for your certification level and the agency that issued it, the number of dives, the deepest depth you reach, and whether you do cave, wreck, ice, solo or decompression diving. Some also ask about commercial or technical diving.

Recreational diving in open water to modest depths with a certification is frequently accepted at standard rates. As depth, technical complexity and the lack of a buddy go up, so does the likelihood of an added charge or an exclusion. As with skydiving, an insurer might treat 20 shallow vacation dives a year very differently from regular technical diving.

How offers turn out

What are the typical outcomes?

There is no formula, but the outcomes tend to fall into a handful of categories:

A flat extra and an exclusion are the two that matter most to a family. The next question explains the difference.

Is a flat extra better than an exclusion?

They protect you differently, and the better choice depends on what you worry about.

With a flat extra, the policy covers the whole risk, including death in the hobby, and you pay more for it. With an exclusion, the premium is lower but the policy does not pay if the death is caused by the named activity. If the excluded activity causes a death, the insurer may deny the claim, or may only return the premiums, depending on the wording.

Say a hypothetical 35-year-old parent is offered $500,000 of 20-year term coverage either at a base premium of $40 a month plus a flat extra that adds $10 a month, or at $40 a month with a skydiving exclusion. These figures are illustrations, not prices. The extra $10 a month is $120 a year, or $2,400 over 20 years. Whether that is worth it depends on how much of the parent's risk is in the hobby and how the family would manage without the payout. Some people accept the exclusion because they plan to stop the activity; others want the full coverage. Neither is wrong, but the choice should be conscious. Ask the agent to show both offers side by side.

Also check how the exclusion is worded. An exclusion for "scuba diving" could mean any dive or only dives beyond a stated depth. Ask for it in writing and read the endorsement attached to the policy. The guide what life insurance doesn't cover: exclusions to know explains how exclusions work in general.

Can the flat extra go away later?

Sometimes. Some flat extras are written for a set period and some can be reviewed. If you stop the activity or your experience changes the picture, you can ask the insurer whether it will reconsider. Insurers differ, and a request does not guarantee a change. Ask when you buy whether the charge is temporary and what the process for review is. The guide table ratings and flat extras explained describes how these charges work.

Answering accurately

What if I do not do the hobby anymore, or only did it once?

Answer the question as asked, and give the facts. A common application question reads along the lines of "have you participated in the past [number of] years, or do you intend to in the next [number of] years?" The time frame matters, so read the exact wording. If you did a single tandem jump on a trip five years ago, the honest answer to a question about the past two years may be no. If you did one last summer, it may be yes, with a note that it was a single tandem jump.

When you are unsure whether something counts, do not decide silently. Ask your agent or the insurer's underwriter how to answer, and write down what you were told. The agent can often get an informal opinion before you apply, a route the post informal inquiries: testing an insurer's view before you apply describes.

What if I take up the hobby after I buy the policy?

In general, a policy is issued on the basis of the application at the time, and the policy continues on its original terms even if you later take up a new activity. Policies generally do not ask you to report a new hobby after issue, though you should check the contract for any notice requirement. But exclusions are written into the contract, and some riders, particularly accidental death benefit riders, have their own lists of excluded activities. The detail sits in the contract language, so read it. If you plan to change from casual to serious participation, buying before you do can lock in terms based on today's activity, but be accurate about your plans if the application asks about them.

Also consider an upgrade: if you move into a riskier form of the activity and want more coverage later, the new coverage will be underwritten on your then-current activity.

What happens if I hide the hobby and die doing it?

This is the case the whole disclosure process exists to prevent. If the application asked about an activity and you answered no, and then you died in that activity, the insurer can investigate the application, especially in the first two years. If it finds a material misrepresentation, it may rescind the policy and return the premiums instead of paying the death benefit. The details vary by state and by the facts, and a court might see them differently, but the risk is real and the family bears it. what happens if you lie on a life insurance application and the two-year contestability period describe how this plays out.

It is also not only a question of the first two years. A death that results from an excluded activity can be denied at any time if the exclusion applies. So the safe course is to disclose accurately, accept whatever terms are offered, or shop elsewhere.

Disclosure is also easier on the family emotionally. A policy with a surcharge or an exclusion that the family knows about is a known quantity. A policy that turns out to rest on an inaccurate application leaves loved ones in a dispute at the worst time.

Preparing and shopping

How should I prepare for the questionnaire?

1. Collect your numbers. Dive logs, jump logs, pilot logbook totals for the past 12 months and in total, certificates and ratings with dates.
2. Write down your plans. Competitions, new ratings, instructor training, trips abroad.
3. Describe the activity precisely. "Tandem jump with an instructor, once" and "40 solo jumps in the past year" are different statements. Use exact figures, not impressions.
4. List your safety practices. Equipment maintenance, training, supervision, buddy systems and conditions you avoid. Underwriters care about them, though they do not guarantee a better offer.
5. Be consistent. The hobby may also be visible in other records: a pilot's medical certificate, a membership in a club, a photograph on social media. Your answers should agree with what a reasonable check would find.
6. Ask an independent agent who has placed hobby cases. Agents who work with many insurers know which ones are more comfortable with a given activity. See life insurance brokers vs agents.

Should I use an agent or go direct?

For an unusual hobby, an independent agent or broker is generally more useful than a single-company online form. The reason is that guidelines differ widely, and an agent can show the details to several underwriters and compare outcomes. Online instant-decision systems often cannot handle a questionnaire and may route you to a person or decline automatically; the post when an online instant decision says no: what to try next covers what to try if that happens. Whichever channel you use, compare offers on the same amount and term and look at surcharges and exclusions, not only the premium.

Does travel for the hobby matter?

It can. Diving or climbing trips overseas, or flying in another country, may raise separate questions on the application and sometimes trigger residence or travel restrictions. If your hobby takes you abroad regularly, ask the agent how travel is treated. The guide foreign travel and life insurance applications covers the main points.

What if I get an offer I do not like?

You have options. You can ask the agent which factor drove the terms and whether more information, such as proof of training or a lower activity level, could change them. You can have the agent approach other insurers. You can accept a policy with an exclusion if you understand it. Or you can keep your hobby and buy a smaller policy that fits the risk, then add more coverage later. What you should not do is accept an offer and quietly misdescribe the hobby to a second insurer to get a better rate.

Key takeaways

• Tell the insurer about skydiving, flying and diving; the hobby name matters less than your experience, training, frequency and plans.
• Common outcomes range from no charge to a flat extra, an exclusion, a cap or a decline, and insurers differ, so compare offers on the same coverage.
• A flat extra keeps the hobby covered at a higher price, while an exclusion lowers the price but leaves that activity unprotected; read the exact wording.
• Hiding a hobby can lead to a denied claim or a rescinded policy, especially in the first two years, while an honest disclosure gives your family a known quantity.
• Prepare numbers and logs before you apply, and consider an independent agent who has placed hobby cases.