

I don’t know that I was shocked, but certainly took note the other night when, unless my memory is as bad as my wife says, I saw an advertisement for bipolar disorder medication during prime time.

The medication is Abilify and I am not posting this to endorse it or make any claim at all about its’ effectiveness. I will offer one article just so anyone that hasn’t heard about it has a base to start their investigation from. I did want to note that, just like hearing for the first time that life insurance is attainable for someone with bipolar disorder, there is a sort of “out of the closet” feeling to seeing it recognized as something that can be talked about openly.

The other end of the scale which I doubt we’ll see was America’s fond embracing of “ED” problems and the associated medications. Depression and medications for it have been advertised for years without going over the deep end. It has helped to raise awareness of depression and anxiety disorders. I hope that it can do the same for bipolar disorder.

We continue to experience success in placing reasonably priced life insurance cases for folks with well controlled mood disorders, whether anxiety, depression or bipolar. This is huge. If there was some way to quantify the number of people who are declined annually just for mentioning these types of issues on their application I have not doubt it would be huge. Staggering. And the crime (although it’s not really a crime) is that many companies will simply decline these cases off hand without getting medical records or any additional background information.

What we’ve found is that the few reasonable companies that employ the few reasonable underwriters in the business are actually doing their job. They are underwriting rather than offering knee jerk opinions, or buckling to a board of directors who have laid out a clear agenda of not insuring anyone who isn’t perfect in every way. The real blessing is that there is reasonable out there and it can be obtained.

Bottom line. We’ve had great success given a few parameters. Obviously it would be a case of adverse selection to offer good rates to those who are truly on the edge, hanging on to life by a frayed thread. But for those who have a history of keeping it together, being compliant with medication and treatment, and maintaining stable family and work lives, the door is open.