If you know a lot about life insurance (especially Globe), please read & respond?

My mother has Globe life insurance (not the one that expires, I believe it's whole life). She is 71 now. She's had it over 2 years, maybe 3. She's thinking of raising the policy amount (since things are getting so high these says). She was healthy when she started the life insurance. Now, she has COPD. She gets things in the mail stating she can raise it, but that's one of the questions (if COPD is now present). Do you know how much more this would raise her monthly premium, than it would be if she did not have COPD? How much of an issue is this? Any info of this is apprecited. Thanks!

You can review the policy to see if she purchased the Guaranteed Insurability Rider which allows the policyowner to purchase additional coverage at certain stated intervals (either age or policy year options) without requiring further evidence of insurability. This coverage is very significant if an insured has become uninsurable sometime after the initial policy was issued and would be otherwise unable to obtain additional coverage.

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in America, claiming the lives of 122,283 Americans in 2003 and the number of women dying from the disease has surpassed the number seen in men. Because of this condition I doubt that your mother would be able to secure additional insurance at a reasonable cost unless she has the rider noted above.

If you can't find the rider call the broker to verify if she did or did not purchase the rider.

Whether she will be able to raise the amount of coverage without having to go through health underwriting again is a contractual issue. You will have to contact Globe for that.

If not, she will have to go through health underwriting, and how her COPD would effect the outcome depends on a number of factors. She might be better off dealing with an independent insurance broker on that. Since there are a number of companies that might handle her health situation better than Globe.