[Which cancerous diseases are significant for the risk assessment when underwriting life insurance?]

Abstract

Cancer is the most important cause of death in life insurance and not cardiovascular disease! Life insurance is bought by persons aged between 15 and 65 years with an average of about 35 years. Therefore mortality statistics for the total population cannot be transferred to life insurance. In that segment cancer ranks before cardiovascular diseases. In females, cancer is even more important than in males because they are less prone to cardiovascular diseases in the age groups under consideration. Tumor mortality rises after age 40 and reaches its peak in males at age 70, in females the curve is moved towards higher ages and peaks at age 80.