Does Skydiving Void Life Insurance?

Skydiving is an experience of a lifetime. But how does that skydive impact the rest of your life? Besides all of the amazing side effects like euphoria, increased physical awareness, a perspective shift, and increased confidence, does skydiving void life insurance? The questions around skydiving and life insurance are more complicated than a simple yes or no answer. If you go skydiving once, like a tandem skydive, can you get life insurance? Is your life insurance policy voided if you skydive once or twice? What about if you have a skydiving license?

When it comes to skydiving, life insurance premiums depend on various factors, including how often you’re jumping out of an airplane. Read on if you’re wondering how your skydiving experience will impact your ability to get, or retain, life insurance coverage.

Skydiving once or twice typically doesn’t impact life insurance coverage. Life insurance companies look at a customer’s overall behavior to determine the appropriate premium they’ll charge for coverage. As long as the rest of your activities fall in a low-risk category, one skydive isn’t going to raise much of a red flag. In fact, going skydiving probably isn’t even the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done.

That’s not to say that your life insurance will definitely provide coverage if something does happen on a skydive. But they’re most likely not going to raise your rates just because you decide to step out of your comfort zone here and there. It’s best to contact your life insurance agent before booking your skydive if you have any questions regarding your coverage, but chances are you’ll be able to fly free without the worry of any complications.

Taking up skydiving as a hobby adds a little bit more to the equation. Just like with anything else that deviates from the normal risks associated with living day to day, going skydiving regularly will raise an eyebrow around the insurance office.

Even jumping a few times a year could increase your life insurance rate by $2 to $5 per thousand dollars of coverage. And if you jump more regularly, the hike could go as high as $10 per thousand dollars. The extra fee is typically determined based on the number of times a person jumps per year, so you can imagine what really serious jumpers pay. Some skydivers make many hundreds of jumps every year!

With the extra premiums associated with being a skydiver, it might sound tempting to avoid disclosing your hobby to life insurance companies. But that’s not the best idea, because if something were to happen to you while skydiving, it could actually void the life insurance policy altogether.

Certain companies actually offer life insurance specifically tailored to skydivers and other extreme athletes to help offset the cost of having life insurance while living on the edge.

It’s a good idea for everyone to have some form of coverage. But the decision to get life insurance is a personal one and should take into account more than one single event. And when it comes to including skydiving in the decision, it’s a less risky activity than you probably think it is. In fact, thanks to advancements in technology and training, skydiving has gotten consistently safer since the beginning of the sport. We can see this represented in data from the last 20 years:

What’s more, these statistics include all types of skydives: tandem skydives, student skydives, and jumps by licensed skydivers. The majority of deaths occur within the licensed skydiver community when jumpers push their limits.

When it comes to tandem skydives specifically, there has been one fatality for every 500,000 tandem jumps annually based on a 10-year average. That makes tandem skydiving the safest way to make your first skydive.

Of course, we’re skydivers and not insurance folk. If you have any questions about how skydiving might affect your life insurance policy, cross your T’s and dot your I’s by talking to your insurance agent or doing some independent research.

Related Article: 7 Skydiving Safety Measures in Place You Should Know