A Pilot’s Life
Life insurance is obviously an important commodity to most Americans, but no more so than to pilots. Insurance, in general, is naturally critical to persons who fly airplanes and helicopters for either work or recreation. Although advances in aircraft technology, flight practices and pilot training have made traveling by air often safer than riding in an automobile, accidents and mishaps do happen and planes do crash. Many hundreds of American pilots and their passengers lose their lives or are seriously injured every year in tragic incidents. And although the total number of fatalities has been on the decline over the last several decades, annual aerospace incident rates remain level as the number of licensed aviators increases over time and as flight demographics evolve.
Considering the inherit risks of their occupation or avocation of flying, pilots need to be insured with the same frequency if not more than the rest of us.
U.S. life insurance companies offer term and permanent solutions for most commercial, corporate and private aviators, yet the policies tend to be very expensive. Flat extras for aviation exposure commonly land in the $3.00 per thousand to $7.00 per thousand price range depending on the severity of the risk exposure including the occupation and experience of the pilot. These premium loads, in conjunction with standard life insurance rates, can be financially taxing on anyone who flies for a living or in their spare time.
The most viable coverage alternative or life policy supplement is standalone accidental death insurance. Petersen International’s High-Limit Accident Plan is a simplified-issue term product designed to provide a death benefit in case of loss of life due to unnatural occurrences including aircraft incidents. The benefits platform is flexible and can be customized to cover a client 24 hours per day or carved-out for coverage only while piloting. The plan also offers dismemberment benefits which are extremely important as claims statistics indicate that many aeronautical accidents cause severe injury, but don’t always result in the death or immediate death of the insured person.
Regarding cost to the consumer, Petersen’s pilot AD&D rates fall mostly below life industry flat extras for private and professional pilots, and available benefit limits are the highest in the market – $50,000 to $50,000,000 per person.
Petersen International also has the rare ability to cover pilots in extraordinarily hazardous lines of work including agriculture, firefighting, law enforcement, construction, high-tension electrical work, religious missions, the oil industry and even intelligence/surveillance contractors working in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Contact our pilot insurance specialists at (661) 254-0006 to learn about the full line of life supplement, accident and disability benefits we have available for professional and private aviators.