Family History on an Application

A Canadian life insurance application usually asks whether your parents, brothers or sisters have had heart disease, a stroke, cancer, diabetes or another condition the form names, how old they were when it was diagnosed and, if they have died, their age and the cause of death. The insurer uses your answers as one part of life insurance underwriting, together with your own health, your test results and the amount of coverage you are asking for.

Three habits carry you through these questions. Answer from what you actually know, exactly as the question on your form is worded. Say plainly when you do not know something, instead of guessing or writing "No" to fill the box. And keep family history apart from genetic test results: a relative's diagnosis is family history, while a genetic test result is protected by the federal Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, which forbids an insurer to require a test or its results.

Everything here is written by someone paid by commission from an insurer when a policy is issued, as stated on the author page and at the foot of every page.

What does a family history question on a Canadian application ask?

It asks for a few plain facts about close relatives by birth. Who the relative is. What condition was diagnosed. How old the relative was at diagnosis. And, if the relative has died, the age at death and the cause. Some forms list named conditions and ask you to mark each one that applies; others ask one open question and leave room for you to describe what you know.

The wording on your form is the rule. Each insurer writes its own questions, and they differ in which relatives they name, which conditions they list and whether they set an age limit. Read the exact question before you answer it. If a word such as "family", "sibling" or "before age" is not defined, ask the insurer, through your advisor, how it wants that word read, and keep the answer in writing if it changes what you would write.

Whose family history counts: the person insured, not the owner

The questions are about the family of the person whose life is insured. When you apply on your own life, that is you. When you own a policy on someone else's life, a spouse, an adult child or a business partner, the family history on the application is theirs. An adult person insured normally answers the health questions and signs the application; for a child, a parent or guardian answers.

As owner, you need an insurable interest in the life you insure, and the person insured normally has to consent; both are explained on financial underwriting and insurable interest. In Quebec, the Civil Code places the duty to declare on the client, meaning the person applying for the contract, and on the insured as well if the insurer requires it (Civil Code of Québec, art. 2408), so both should read the completed application before it is signed.

How do you prepare your answers before you sign?

Do the gathering before the interview, not during it. A question read aloud over the telephone invites a quick answer from memory, and that is how avoidable errors reach a form. A ten-minute call with a parent or a sibling the week before can turn a guess into a fact.

Before you sign, have this in front of you:

• For each parent, brother and sister: alive or deceased, and the current age or the age at death.
• For each relative who has died: the cause of death as you know it, including an accident.
• Any heart attack, stroke or other heart disease, any cancer (and which cancer), diabetes, or any other serious condition, with the age at diagnosis.
• Whether any brother or sister is a half sibling, and whether you were adopted or have lost contact with part of your family.
• Every point you are unsure of, written down as a question to put to the insurer.
• If you or a relative has had a genetic test, a note to keep that result apart from the list above; the section on genetic tests explains why.

Plan for four situations. Each has a clean next step:

Then read the completed application before you sign it, including every answer someone typed for you: the answers are yours, whoever held the pen. Keep the copy attached to your policy; it is the record an insurer reads if a question arises later.

Which relatives should you include?

Start with the relatives the question names, and stop where it stops. Parents, brothers and sisters are the relatives many forms name, because they share the largest part of your genetic makeup and, often, the environment you grew up in. Some forms name only parents. Some add a grandparent, or another relative for one specific condition. A few also ask about a brother or sister who died young of a cause the form treats as relevant, whether or not a diagnosis was ever recorded. None of those choices carries over from one insurer's form to another's.

Half brothers and half sisters. A half sibling shares one parent with you, and a hereditary tendency can pass through that shared parent. If your form does not say whether half siblings are included, ask. If you cannot get an answer before you sign, disclose the diagnosis and state the relationship: "half brother, same mother". An extra fact, clearly labelled, is easy for an underwriter to weigh. A missing one is far harder to explain later.

Step relatives, in-laws and adoptive family. A family history question is asking about inherited risk, which a step-parent, a brother-in-law or an adoptive relative does not share with you by birth. Even so, if the form uses a broad word such as "family" and gives no definition, ask what it means rather than deciding alone.

Which conditions do insurers ask about, and why?

Heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes appear on many family history questions, and some forms add other conditions by name. They are asked about because they can run in families and affect how long a person lives, and an early diagnosis in a close relative may say something about your own risk that your current test results cannot yet show.

Heart disease and stroke. A heart attack or a stroke in a parent or a sibling, particularly at a younger age, may point to an inherited factor in how the body handles cholesterol, regulates blood pressure or forms clots, which diet and exercise may not fully remove. The insurer is not asking whether that relative smoked or ate badly. Your own habits are asked about directly elsewhere on the form.

Cancer. Some cancers, including breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer, show a hereditary pattern in a share of cases. So some forms ask about named cancers, and others ask about any cancer in a parent or sibling. Read which one yours asks. If it says any cancer, include each one you know of, with the type if you know it: "colon cancer at fifty" says more than "cancer".

Diabetes and other named conditions. Where your form names a condition, answer for it. Where it does not, you are answering the question as written, not listing every illness in the family.

Why does the age at diagnosis matter so much?

Because an illness that appears early in life points toward an inherited tendency, while the same illness late in life looks more like an ordinary part of aging. A parent's heart attack at forty-five says something different about your own risk than the same heart attack at eighty-five, even when a form asks about both under one question.

No single age describes every Canadian application. Some questions ask only about diagnoses before a stated age; others ask for the age at onset with no limit and leave the weighing to the underwriter. If a question sets an age and your relative was diagnosed after it, that question does not reach the diagnosis, but answer any other question on the same form that does, such as the cause of death. Never assume a diagnosis drops out because another insurer's form once used a cut-off.

The cause of death matters for the same reason. A parent who died of a heart attack at fifty and a parent who died in a car accident at fifty died at the same age, yet only the first says much about inherited risk. That is why a form may ask for the cause and not only the age. If yours asks, give the real cause, accident included.

How is family history weighed against your own health?

Together, and case by case. The insurer reads your family history alongside what it measures in you directly: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and, for some ages and amounts, a resting electrocardiogram. The effect of a family history depends on the condition, how many relatives had it and at what ages, your own results, the product, the amount you apply for and the insurer's own rules.

Favourable personal results help. They do not guarantee a standard offer: a strong family pattern can still count, especially where one of your own readings sits close to a threshold, and two insurers can weigh the same history differently. Nobody can tell you in advance which way a particular file will go.

Family history and rate classes. Some insurers price a product in several classes: one or more preferred classes below standard, a standard class, and rated classes above it. Family history can be one of the criteria for a preferred class. So its effect may show up as a better class you do not qualify for, rather than as a surcharge above standard. Some insurers offer preferred classes only on certain products, or only above a certain amount of coverage. Ask which classes the product has at the amount you are applying for, and which family history criteria apply to each.

When the decision comes back, it will take one of a few forms:

The meaning of each outcome, and how a table rating differs from a flat extra, is set out on rated, postponed or declined.

Illustrative example. Assume you apply for $500,000 of coverage, and the premium in the class you hoped for would be $1,800 a year. Assume the offer comes back one class lower, at $2,100 a year. The difference is $2,100 minus $1,800, or $300 a year; over twenty years of level premiums, 20 times $300 is $6,000. Now assume instead that the offer is rated, at $2,700 a year. The difference is $900 a year, and over the same twenty years, 20 times $900 is $18,000. These are round numbers chosen for the arithmetic, not quotes from any insurer or any product. Your own offer states its premium in dollars, and that is the figure to compare.

A class is usually fixed when the contract is issued, and the difference runs for as long as premiums are payable, which on a permanent policy can be decades. Critical illness and disability insurance pay on different events, so the same history can be weighed differently there; read each application's question on its own.

What if you do not know your family history?

Say so. "Unknown", given honestly, is an accurate answer, and giving it is not a misrepresentation. What turns an unknown into a problem is filling the gap: guessing a diagnosis, or writing "No" because the box needs something in it. "No" tells the insurer that none of your relatives had the condition, and you do not know that.

Tell your advisor and the insurer what is unknown, give anything you do know, and ask how they want the uncertainty recorded on this particular form. Some forms have an "unknown" choice; others leave space for an explanation. Then read the answer as it was recorded before you sign. The duty you owe is framed around what you know: in Quebec, the Civil Code speaks of the facts "known to him" (art. 2408), and the common-law provinces set a comparable duty in their own Insurance Acts.

Adoption is the clearest case. You may have no reliable information about a biological parent or sibling, and no underwriter can obtain what does not exist in your own knowledge. Some adoptions came with partial, non-identifying medical information. If you received any, supply it; if you did not, say so.

A parent who died when you were young, or estrangement from part of the family, leaves the same gap for a different reason. You may know only a cause of death, or only what you were told as a child. You are not expected to re-establish contact in order to fill in an insurance form. Give what you know, say how you know it ("family says heart attack"), and say where your knowledge stops.

How an insurer weighs an unknown history varies. Some assess the file mainly on your own results; some may ask for more evidence; where an insurer treats "unknown" more cautiously than a clean "No", the file can take longer or be assessed more conservatively, for a reason that reflects a gap in information, not your health. Ask your advisor, before you apply, how the insurer handles an unknown family history.

Can an insurer require a genetic test, or ask for a result you already have?

No. The federal Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, S.C. 2017, c. 3, protects you at three points:

• No required test. No one, an insurer included, may require you to undergo a genetic test as a condition of entering into or continuing a contract, or of offering or continuing specific terms in one, and no one may refuse to do those things because you refused a test (section 3).
• No required result. No one may require you to disclose the results of a genetic test on those same conditions, and no one may refuse you because you declined to disclose them (section 4).
• No use without your written consent. A person engaged in those activities may not collect, use or disclose the results of your genetic test without your written consent (section 5).

Section 2 defines a genetic test as "a test that analyzes DNA, RNA or chromosomes for purposes such as the prediction of disease or vertical transmission risks, or monitoring, diagnosis or prognosis", and says that to disclose "includes to authorize disclosure", so an insurer cannot reach a result indirectly by asking you to authorize a laboratory to send it. The Act sets no coverage threshold: it applies at every amount. A breach is an offence under section 7, punishable on indictment by a fine of up to $1,000,000, imprisonment of up to five years, or both. In practice, a question demanding a genetic result may not be made a condition of your coverage, and a blank answer to such a question may not be held against you.

The Supreme Court of Canada upheld these sections in 2020, in Reference re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, 2020 SCC 17, reversing the Quebec Court of Appeal, so they apply in Quebec as in every other province. Member companies of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association had also made a voluntary commitment not to ask for existing genetic results below a stated amount of coverage; the statute, which has no threshold, is now the rule that matters. The full reading of the Act is on the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act and what an insurer may ask.

Where the protection stops

The Act protects a genetic test result as a test result. It does not take family history off the application, and it does not turn a diagnosed illness into protected information. The line runs like this:

The fourth row needs care: section 4 speaks of "the results of a genetic test" without limiting the words to your own test, and whether a question reaches a relative's result is a legal reading. You may choose to provide a favourable result of your own, because section 5 allows its use with your written consent. Nothing obliges the insurer to act on it, so ask in writing what it will do with it first. If you are unsure whether any question on your form reaches a genetic result, ask the insurer in writing before you answer, or ask a lawyer (in Quebec, a lawyer or a notary).

What does the duty of disclosure ask of you?

Begin with what it does not ask. An insurer may not make a genetic test result a condition of your contract or its terms, and may not refuse you because you declined to give one (section 4 of the Act above). The duty of disclosure described here is about the facts the application asks for and you know: your own health and, on this subject, your relatives' diagnoses, ages and causes of death.

In Quebec, article 2408 of the Civil Code of Québec says the client, and the insured if the insurer requires it, "is bound to represent all the facts known to him which are likely to materially influence an insurer in the setting of the premium, the appraisal of the risk or the decision to cover it". Article 2409 adds that the obligation "is deemed properly met if the representations are such as a normally provident insured would make, if they were made without material concealment and if the facts are substantially as represented". Two words carry the weight: known and materially. The duty reaches what you know, and it reaches facts likely to matter to an insurer's decision.

In the common-law provinces, each province sets a comparable duty in the life insurance part of its own Insurance Act: an applicant discloses the facts within their knowledge that are material to the insurance, and a failure to do so, or a misrepresentation, can let the insurer avoid the contract, subject to the time limit and the other rules of that Act. The wording and section numbers differ from province to province.

For family history, answer each question accurately from what you know. Whether a wrong or missing answer matters in law is a separate question: it turns on whether the fact was material, and the consequence depends on your province, the facts and the timing.

What happens if a family history answer turns out to be wrong?

Provincial law limits how long an insurer can rely on an innocent misstatement, and no limit protects fraud. In Quebec, article 2424 of the Civil Code provides: "In the absence of fraud, misrepresentation or concealment as to risk does not justify the annulment or reduction of insurance which has been in force for two years". In the common-law provinces, the Insurance Acts set a comparable limit, commonly expressed as two years during the lifetime of the person insured. In both systems, fraud stays outside the limit.

Within that period, an insurer can act as soon as it learns of a material misstatement. That can happen during the lifetime of the person insured, for example when you apply for more coverage or a change to the policy and the new file shows something different, as well as when a claim is made. The consequences, which range from nothing at all to the annulment of the contract with premiums returned, are set out on misrepresentation on an application. A reinstatement after a lapse can start a fresh period for the statements made to obtain it.

If you notice an error, before or after the policy is issued, write to the insurer with the correct fact and how you learned it, and keep a copy. Assume neither that the mistake is harmless nor that the coverage is automatically lost. After issue, the correction puts the true fact on the record while you are there to explain it. It may change your class or premium, or nothing at all. What it avoids is a dispute at a claim, when nobody is left who can explain what was meant.

What if a relative is diagnosed after you apply?

It depends on when. Between the day you sign and the day the policy is in force, read the declarations you sign at application and at delivery. Some ask you to confirm that your answers are still true, or to report changes, before the policy is placed in force. If a parent or a sibling is diagnosed in that window and your paperwork asks about changes, tell the insurer and ask whether it changes anything.

Once the policy is in force, an answer that was accurate when you gave it does not become false because a relative is diagnosed later. The duty you owed was about the facts you knew at the time. Your premium and class are set by the terms of your contract, so read them, and if you want certainty, ask the insurer to confirm in writing that a later family diagnosis does not affect your policy.

The new fact matters the next time you apply, for more coverage or a new policy, because the new application asks again.

Can a family history rating be reviewed later?

Ask. Your insurer can tell you whether your particular rating can be reviewed, when, and what evidence it would need. Some insurers consider a request after a period in force, and the terms are theirs. Time alone does not entitle you to a new class. Do not wait for the insurer to start a review: the request comes from you or your advisor.

Two kinds of evidence carry weight. The first is a factual correction. If the original file recorded the wrong relative, the wrong age, or a cause of death that turns out to have been misattributed, the correct record moves a file more reliably than any argument about the insurer's judgment. Send the document that proves it, such as a death certificate.

The second is your own record over time. If you were rated in your thirties because of a parent's early heart attack, years of favourable results of your own may be relevant to a later request; whether it accepts that is the insurer's decision under its own rules. The general mechanics are on rated, postponed or declined.

Is it fair to be priced on a relative's illness?

It is imperfect, and it helps to see why. You are priced partly on facts about other people, which you did not choose and cannot change. A parent's heart attack sits in the same file as your own blood pressure and can raise the price of your coverage. That is not a flaw a better answer corrects; it is what the question is built to do.

The question is also blunt. A parent's illness may have had causes you do not share: decades of a different diet, a different occupation, a smoking history you never had, or an exposure specific to another place and time. A form generally cannot separate an inherited tendency from a circumstance that happened to someone else.

None of that changes how you answer: accurately, from what you know. It can change how you apply. Two insurers can weigh the same history differently, and some will give an informal view before a full application is submitted; ask your advisor whether that is available for your case. Preparation cannot change your family. It can make sure your file is read on the facts rather than on gaps.

What can family history decide, and what can it not?

Family history can affect the underwriting of a policy: the class you are offered, the premium, and sometimes whether an insurer makes an offer at all. It cannot tell you whether to buy life insurance, how much, or which kind of policy fits. Those questions come first, and they have nothing to do with your relatives' health.

Settle them in order. Whom does the coverage protect, how much do they need, and for how long? Can the premium be carried through an ordinary bad decade, not only a good year? Then compare the actual offers, in dollars, with your other commitments and the cash you need within reach. A family history that costs you a class is a reason to compare offers carefully, not on its own a reason to change the kind of policy.

On a permanent policy, including participating whole life insurance, the class affects the premium for the whole premium-paying period, and it can affect the relationship between premiums and guaranteed values. If your offer is in a lower class or rated, ask for the illustration at the class actually offered, read the guaranteed columns first, and ask the insurer in writing whether any extra premium from a rating adds to the guaranteed values or to the dividends the policy may receive, or whether it pays only for the additional risk. Dividends are not guaranteed. The answer is in your contract, not in a general rule.

Who this matters most to, and when to get help

It matters most if a parent or a sibling had heart disease, a stroke or a cancer at a younger age. That is the pattern the question exists to weigh. It also matters if you do not know your family's medical history, if you or a relative has had a genetic test, and if you are buying a policy on someone else's life. In that last case, the answers belong to the person insured.

It matters less if nobody in your close family had a serious illness young, and your own results are strong. Even then, read the question. A form that asks about any cancer, at any age, still wants an accurate answer.

Get help before you sign, not after. Three cases call for it. The form uses a word you cannot read with confidence. A question seems to ask for a genetic result, yours or a relative's. Or you find an error after signing. The insurer can answer the first in writing. For the other two, ask a lawyer (in Quebec, a lawyer or a notary) if the insurer's answer leaves doubt, and sooner once the policy is in force.

Which questions should you ask, and who answers them?

Put each question to the person who can answer it:

Questions to put to the insurer before you sign:

• "Which relatives does this question include, and does sibling include half siblings?"
• "Does the age in this question mean age at diagnosis, age at death, or both?"
• "How do you want an unknown answer, or an approximate age, recorded on this form?"
• "Which classes does this product have at the amount I am applying for, and does family history affect eligibility for each?"
• "If my offer is rated, what caused it, and can the rating be reviewed? When, and on what evidence?"
• "If I choose to provide a genetic test result, what will you do with it?"
• On a permanent policy: "Does any extra premium from a rating add to the guaranteed values or dividends, or does it pay only for the additional risk?"

Before you sign: a short checklist

• You have read every family history question in full, with its definitions and any age it sets.
• Every relative the form names is covered, with the condition, the age at diagnosis and, where it applies, the age and cause of death, accident included.
• Every estimate is marked as an estimate, and every unknown is recorded as unknown, never as "No".
• Any doubt about who counts has an answer from the insurer, or the fact is disclosed with the relationship stated.
• No genetic test result has been given unless you chose to give it, knowing what the insurer will do with it.
• You have read the completed application, including answers typed for you, and you will keep the copy attached to your policy.

A family history question prices part of your coverage on facts about your relatives, weighted by which relative and at what age, and read together with what the insurer measures in you directly. Answer it accurately, from what you know, in the words of your own form. To go through your form and your offers side by side before anything is signed, bring them to a first conversation.