Can I get life insurance with smokers and tobacco users?

Q: Can I get life insurance with smokers and tobacco users?

Usually yes. The question is which underwriting path applies: level benefit, graded benefit, or guaranteed issue. Half of the policies placed in this book were for tobacco users, including placements at level benefit rather than graded. Outcomes are determined by the insurance company's underwriting.

Life Insurance for Smokers

Answer five quick questions and a licensed agent will come back with the options you actually qualify for. No medical exam, no obligation.

What are you looking to cover?

The three underwriting paths, and what moves you between them

Final-expense and simplified-issue life insurance resolves to one of three benefit structures. Which one a carrier offers is an underwriting decision made by that carrier on your actual application — not something an agent can promise in advance.

Level benefit: The full death benefit is payable from day one. This is the least expensive path per dollar of coverage, and it generally requires no significant recent health history.
Graded benefit: The payout is reduced during the first two to three years, then becomes full. A managed, stable condition is ordinary to underwriters here. What moves the answer is the medication, how long the condition has been controlled, and whether there has been a hospitalisation recently — not the diagnosis by itself. Carriers differ sharply: the same health picture can be graded at one carrier and declined at another, which is the whole reason to compare before applying rather than after.
Guaranteed issue: No health questions are asked at all. It is the most expensive path per dollar of coverage and normally carries a two-year waiting period for non-accidental death. It is the fallback, not the starting point.

If you use tobacco

You will be quoted at tobacco rates, which commonly run roughly double non-tobacco for the same age and coverage amount. Nobody can rate you as a non-smoker, and an agent who offers to is setting up a policy that can be rescinded. What genuinely does differ between carriers is the look-back window, and how each one treats cigars, chew and vaping versus cigarettes.

If you have been declined before

A previous decline does not close the door, but it does matter: carriers ask about it, and a second decline is harder than the first. The reason to talk to a licensed agent before applying again is to find out which carriers would still consider you on a graded basis, which costs less per dollar of coverage than guaranteed issue.

If you are 70 or older

The number of carriers still issuing new policies narrows with each age band, and some cap the coverage amount available. That makes carrier selection matter more, not less.

What to have ready before you apply

Your date of birth, the state you live in, a list of current medications and what each one treats, any hospitalisation or surgery in the last two years, and who you want the money to go to.

What this is and is not. This is general underwriting information, not an approval, not an offer of coverage, and not a price. No premium appears on this page because a real premium comes from a specific carrier applying its own underwriting to your actual application. Eligibility, benefit structure and premium are set solely by the issuing insurance company.

Questions about which path applies to you? Speak with a licensed agent: (504) 891-2000. No contact information is required to have used any of the above.

What actually decides this

With smokers and tobacco users, the question is almost never "can I get covered" — it is which underwriting path you qualify for. There are three, and they are very different:

Level benefit — full death benefit from day one. Needs the cleanest health answers.
Graded or modified benefit — pays a reduced amount if death occurs in the first two to three years, then the full amount. This is where most managed conditions land.
Guaranteed issue — no health questions at all. Has a waiting period for natural causes, and costs more per dollar of coverage.

An independent agent's job here is to know which carriers put smokers and tobacco users on which path before an application is submitted, because a decline leaves a record and makes the next attempt harder.

From policies this office has actually placed: Half of the policies placed in this book were for tobacco users, including placements at level benefit rather than graded.
Describes prior applications only. It is not a prediction, a quote, or a guarantee about your application, and every outcome is determined by the insurance company's own underwriting.

By the numbers, state by state

Prevalence of adults who currently smoke across the five states this office is licensed in — 2025 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System:

Arkansas — 14.2% (95% CI 12.8%–15.5%, 634 respondents)
Iowa — 11.7% (95% CI 10.9%–12.5%, 924 respondents)
Wisconsin — 10.8% (95% CI 10.0%–11.6%, 1,162 respondents)
New Hampshire — 8.2% (95% CI 7.1%–9.3%, 389 respondents)
Arizona — 7.7% (95% CI 6.5%–8.9%, 407 respondents)

For comparison, the median of all state, DC and territory estimates is 10.6%. That benchmark is a median across jurisdictions, not a population-weighted national rate, and it carries no confidence interval.

“Adults who are current smokers (variable calculated from one or more BRFSS questions)”
— CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, calculated variable _RFSMOK3

Why this matters for an application: nicotine use is not a neutral factor — it is the single largest rate class driver in life underwriting, and tobacco rates commonly run roughly double non-tobacco for the same age and face amount. That is the real reason to compare carriers: their definitions and look-back windows differ, and some treat occasional cigars, chew, or vaping differently from cigarettes. Nobody can make a smoker a non-smoker on paper, and an agent who implies otherwise is setting up a rescinded policy.
Source: CDC BRFSS Prevalence Data (dataset dttw-5yxu), 2025, crude prevalence, adults 18+. Population data, not a statement about any individual application.

What you need to have ready

Your date of birth and the state you live in
A list of current medications and the conditions they treat
Any hospitalisation or surgery in the last two years
Whether you have used tobacco or nicotine in the last twelve months
Who you want the money to go to

No paramedical exam is involved in this product line. Most applications are a conversation and an electronic signature, and the carrier returns an underwriting decision rather than a salesperson's opinion.

By state

Other situations we place coverage for

Licensed for life insurance in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin. If you are outside these states we cannot write your policy and will tell you so rather than take your information.