The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) added a little more evidence to the pile indicating a rather rapid slow-down in the housing market. MBA’s Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for November shows mortgage
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Late payments on mortgages are approaching to keep dropping and credit is approaching to sojourn clever subsequent year, in partial since housing prices sojourn healthy in many areas, according to TransUnion.
Mortgage delinquencies will trip to 1.45% by a finish of subsequent year from 1.62% this year, a association forecast.
Among other trends approaching to insist subsequent year is an boost in home equity withdrawal, according to Joe Mellman, a comparison clamp boss during TransUnion.
Increased home equity lending can make it some-more approaching that loan-to-value ratios will rise, and put a kind of downward vigour on credit that could lead to some-more delinquencies.
But since home prices are rising as equity is being withdrawn, home equity lending is putting reduction vigour on LTVs than it differently would, Mellman said. Home prices are approaching to keep climbing by 2021, according to forecasts from a SP CoreLogic Case Shiller index.
So prolonged as those cost gains don’t outstrip borrowers’ income, rising home prices are doubtful to paint a housing bubble.
“We’re not there, during slightest not nationally, nonetheless there might be internal markets where it’s removing a small frothy. These are places like San Francisco and potentially even areas of New York,” Mellman said.
But consumer debt levels might bear examination on an particular basement in a entrance year. These are historically high and if they overtake existent or destiny income they can be a concern.
Student loan debt, for example, has been behaving quite feeble in instances where borrowers destroy to graduate, he noted.
Mike Walsh is one of many Philadelphia homeowners who schooled this year that his skill taxes would some-more than double.
But Walsh chose not to join a thousands of skill owners who appealed their new values this year 2018 — even nonetheless his annual taxation check jumped by 113%, to a sum of $4,884.
That’s given he suspicion a marketplace value that city assessors reserved to his triplex on Wharton Street was correct. The property, in South Philly’s sepulchral genuine estate marketplace and blocks from a famed cheesesteak dilemma featuring Pat’s and Geno’s, had not been reassessed given 2014.
“I only didn’t like a fact that my genuine estate taxes are going adult over 100%,” he pronounced final week. “And we don’t consider genuine estate taxes should ever go adult over 100%.”
In some other vital cities, vast taxation increases like Walsh’s are taboo given governments place caps on hikes. In New York City, for example, poignant increases are phased into taxation bills over a few years. Maryland caps a volume that an comment can arise in one year during 10%. Louisiana electorate authorized a list magnitude this year requiring that increases incomparable than 50% to be phased in over 4 years.
In Philadelphia, however, there is no extent to a volume by that assessments — a value used to calculate skill taxation bills — can boost in one year. The median value of a single-family home augmenting 10.5% in a new assessments of residential properties expelled this year.
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And distinct other counties in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia’s reassessments are not income neutral, definition that augmenting skill values meant a boost in taxation dollars for a city. City orator Mike Dunn pronounced a city and propagandize district will accept about $85 million in additional income formed on a augmenting 2019 assessments, after accounting for successful appeals and other factors. Last year’s reassessment of blurb properties was approaching to pierce in $118 million in additional taxation revenue.
The result, pronounced Robert P. Strauss, a highbrow of economics and open process during Carnegie Mellon University, is a flourishing faith in Philadelphia on a skill tax.
As skill taxation income grows, Strauss said, a city is “using reassessment kind of as a smokescreen.”
Since 2014, a city has directed to perform some-more visit assessments and consider properties during 100% of marketplace value, that is a volume during that a skill would sell. However, this year noted a initial time that all residential properties were reassessed given that new complement began.
With a new system, famous as a Actual Value Initiative, a city launched some programs to assistance struggling homeowners. They embody a bonus for owner-occupied primary residences, installment-payment plans, and taxation freezes for low-income seniors.
“It’s a unequivocally critical emanate given skill values can change unexpected and infrequently dramatically, and it’s essential for a skill taxation complement to have a approach of easing a weight on a homeowner who faces a remarkable change,” pronounced Joan Youngman, a comparison associate during a Lincoln Land Institute.
Councilman Mark Squilla, who has formerly due that comment changes be phased in, pronounced he would support a top on increases, though that would violate a state constitution’s unity proviso requiring that all properties are taxed during a same rate.
“I trust there’s still a approach to do that,” he said, “whether we do it ourselves or we do it by operative with a legislators in a state to give us a ability to do that.”
Dunn pronounced a Kenney administration believes that “capping assessments will, over time, emanate incomparable inequities in a skill taxation system” given it would change a taxation burden, withdrawal residents whose skill values did not boost to compensate a aloft taxation rate relations to their marketplace values than those with fast rising values.
How have skill taxation boundary worked out in other places?
While many states and cities do have boundary that have assisted taxpayers, experts advise that they can come with downsides.
“It’s not tough to solidify (taxes) though it’s unequivocally tough to thaw,” Youngman said. “You have to be really clever that whatever we puts in place addresses a problem with a smallest of destiny difficulties.”
Caps can change taxation burdens, and they can make it formidable for people to move, such as in California where Proposition 13 froze taxes during 1970s levels and singular increases to 2% per year. But when a home is sold, it is reassessed during marketplace value — fixation a most incomparable taxation weight on new residents or first-time homeowners.
A 2010 news by a International Association of Assessing Officers concurred that market-value assessments can emanate problems with predictability and affordability of taxes, though suggested opposite caps — recommending instead a forms of reserve nets that Philadelphia already has in place.
In some places, taxpayers pull for “truth in taxation,” Youngman said, that amounts to supervision confirmation that rising values can impact taxpayers.
“The thought is if you’re going to boost your income collections given a values go up, that underneath these manners we need to go by all a same stairs we would go by if we would change a taxation rate, … either it’s a open notice or a conference or a vote.”
Youngman pronounced experts admire Philadelphia for creation a pierce to market-value assessments in 2014. But what can be finished about a miss of top roof on how skill taxes can arise amid a success of a city’s genuine estate market?
Strict income neutrality, as is mandated for other Pennsylvania counties, might not be unsentimental given supervision costs do increase, Youngman said. But she pronounced shortening a taxation rate to some grade when there is a vast comment boost is an supposed practice.
“These wordless taxation increases where a bottom rises and you’re not only bringing in a normal boost of a few percent though we unexpected have a vast boost simply given of value changes, that’s always something to be intensely discreet about,” Youngman said.
Dunn pronounced a mayor is always open to deliberation taxation process changes while operative with city legislature on annual budgets.
“However, mandated income neutrality would bushel a city’s ability to continue to yield a turn of services that residents need and expect, as we would expected need to revoke services to compensate for rising non-discretionary costs.”
City legislature consecrated an review of Philadelphia’s Office of Property Assessment this year. It was scheduled for execution in September, though it hasn’t nonetheless been released. Jane Roh, a mouthpiece for Council President Darrell L. Clarke, pronounced a Office of Property Assessment is now reviewing a report.
If a review shows that skill assessments are accurate, Squilla said, city legislature should demeanour during shortening a taxation rate to make adult for comment increases.
“Some people would disagree that now you’re shortening a volume of income that goes into a ubiquitous account (and) you’re shortening a income that goes to a schools,” he said. “But we have to be means to change that on a backs of a residents and also a city services and a propagandize district.”
Intense foe among homebuyers stays as shown by a continual expansion of median down payments, according to Attom Data Solutions.
The median down remuneration on single-family homes and condos purchased with financing continues climbing, reaching a new high-water symbol given a data’s 2000 origin. The third entertain of 2018 had a median of $20,250, adult 16% year-over-year and adult 7% from the prior quarter’s $19,900.
“Despite all a signs of cooling demand, a rising down remuneration commission is justification that this housing marketplace is still utterly rival and lending standards are not almost relaxation in response to that weakening demand,” Daren Blomquist, comparison clamp boss during Attom, pronounced in a matter to NMN.
The third-quarter down remuneration figure was 7.6% of a median sales price, imprinting a top commission given a fourth entertain of 2003. It’s a arise from a 6.8% share from a year ago and final quarter’s 7.2%.
“Rising debt rates might even be call buyers to put some-more down in an bid to reduce their monthly payments and secure a some-more savoury debt-to-income ratio — both for them and for their lender,” Blomquist said.
San Jose, Calif., led all housing markets by down remuneration commission of sales cost during 24.7%, with San Francisco during 23.3% and Los Angeles right behind during 20.6%.
While median down payments strike a new high, debt originations declined annually for a fourth uninterrupted quarter. The third quarter’s 892,760 squeeze debt originations fell 2% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter.
“Rising debt rates continued to moderate direct for mortgages in a third quarter, quite refinance mortgages,” Blomquist pronounced in a press release. “There were some important exceptions to that trend, essentially in markets influenced by a hurricanes in a third entertain of 2017.”
The volume of home equity lines of credit also dropped. The third quarter’s 313,744 HELOCs was an 11% year-over-year decrease and down 14% from final quarter.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund investors sold more bonds in December’s opening days, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) said on Wednesday, putting even more of a chill on markets where companies and governments borrow.
Investors cashed out $5.2 billion from U.S.-based bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during the week ended Dec. 4, ICI said, intensifying what is already the worst sales of such investments since the 2008 financial crisis as markets fret about a U.S. economic slowdown.
Nearly $65 billion has dropped out of U.S.-based bond funds since October, marking the worst calendar quarter since the financial crisis, when investors cashed in $68 billion of debt-fund shares, according to Lipper, a research service.
The Federal Reserve is widely expected next week to raise its target interest rate for a ninth time in about three years. But the central bank’s efforts to restore normal policy a decade after it responded to financial crisis by pushing rates near zero has irked markets.
In addition to the rate hikes, investors have been worried about excessive corporate borrowing, rising short-term bond yields, U.S.-China trade tensions and slowing growth in corporate profits. The benchmark SP 500 stock index is down more than 8 percent, including reinvested dividends, over the past three months.
“While economic growth is slowing and earnings growth is expected to decelerate, we do not see either an economic or an earnings recession over the next 12 months,” said Charles Shriver, co-head of the Asset Allocation Committee at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. “There’s certainly elevated uncertainty, but I think that it’s important to look at the fundamentals and what we think is the trajectory for earnings.”
The pullback in stocks has actually helped safe-haven bond performance, but closely watched bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach said on Tuesday that bonds’ rally over the past few weeks has been unimpressive because of the unfavorable mix of rising U.S. government debt and rates.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Jonathan Oatis
Today’s trading session was far less eventful than anything else seen in the past few weeks, both in terms of movement and volume. Although Treasury yields were higher, most of the increase came in the overnight session, and additional volatility was minimal throughout the day.
By the time we get to MBS (as opposed to Treasuries), things were even more calm. Fannie 4.0 coupons were almost perfectly unchanged compared to 10yr Treasuries which lost more than a quarter of a point in price.
At least some of the pressure may have been due to the fact that it’s a 3/10/30yr auction week with today being 10’s. It’s not uncommon for bonds to lose a bit of ground heading into auctions Today was no exception with most of the losses coming BEFORE the somewhat weak 10yr auction.
The morning’s economic data was also a non-event with CPI coming in right on the screws.
In the bigger picture, we’re in the midst of a consolidation following the recently strong rally and the Fed Announcement coming up next Wednesday. Bonds may or may not take a ‘lead-off’ ahead of the Fed, but for the most part, that’s the event most likely to dictate the next wave of momentum.
Last month, the Federal Housing Administration released its Annual Report to Congress, revealing its concerns about the reverse mortgage program and its continued drain the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
While inflated appraisals were recently pinpointed as a contributing factor – and steps were taken to keep those in check – there may be another problem at play: occupancy issues.
When a reverse mortgage borrower vacates the property for 12 consecutive months – either because they’ve decided to move or they’ve passed away – the loan is called due and payable.
Borrowers must sign a form every year to confirm their occupancy, but without anyone physically verifying that it is, in fact, the borrower signing the form, there’s bound to be fraud.
Mike Branson, CEO of All Reverse Mortgage, said he thinks occupancy issues are alarmingly common.
All Reverse has been publishing a blog of a number of years answering public questions about reverse mortgages. Branson said they often get questions from people about non-borrowers living in a property that has a reverse mortgage.
“We field these questions almost daily,” he said. “They come up all the time.”
Branson said in some cases, the questions are from people who have a family member living in the property after the borrower has passed away. In other cases, it’s a neighbor complaining that a property with a reverse mortgage has been rented out and is falling into disrepair.
But as long as the occupant is signing that certificate every year with the borrower’s name, the loan remains in good standing – and on FHA’s books.
“I believe this is a bombshell,” said Shannon Hicks, president of Reverse Focus, whose video on HECM World recently drew attention to the scope of the issue.
“But interestingly, it’s not the bombshell that has influenced the recent program changes, those are all based on actuarial projections,” Hicks said. “But when it comes to realized claims on FHA’s insurance fund, this is a big hit…I would be surprised if FHA didn’t have the widespread abuse by non-occupied borrowers on its radar.”
While the FHA hasn’t taken steps to address this issue, it does appear to be aware of the problem.
On a call with reporters last month, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said the agency is concerned about non-borrowing spouses who may also be unlawfully residing in the property after the borrower passes away.
“One thing we feel strongly about – and we will have announcement on this soon – is we need a proper inventory of the occupants in those homes for HECMs, those [originated in] 2014 and earlier,” Montgomery said. “We want to do our level best to get a proper accounting of who is living in the home.”
As of now, the current system for tracking occupants includes the singing of a Certificate of Occupancy, which is sent by the servicer around the anniversary of the loan’s closing.
Gail Balettie, senior VP at reverse mortgage servicer Celink, said they give borrowers 30 days to sign and return the form.
“It’s a simple one-page form and it has to have language on it prescribed by HUD, which essentially is a warning that it’s a criminal offence to make a willfully false statement or misrepresentation to any department or agency of the U.S. government,” Balettie said.
If the first form is not returned on time, a second one is sent, and if that’s not returned, the servicer moves into action with a call campaign and a property inspection, according to the company.
“The property inspection vendor is going to knock on the door and attempt to verify the identity of the person living in the property,” Balletie said. “If they don’t answer the door, the inspector will observe whether or not the property appears to be occupied – if it contains personal belongings and furniture and if the utilities are on, and that’s what gives us a clue.”
Balletie said the vast majority of borrowers certify their occupancy without incident and that the biggest reason for default on a HECM is the death of the last remaining borrower.
But what about the potential for those certificates to be falsified by an unlawful inhabitant?
“We’ve pretty much done everything we can possibly think to do by incorporating the door knocks and the actual physical inspection of the property at the point where the borrower isn’t responding,” Balletie said. “I wish there was something else we could do.”
Mortgage originations are falling and will continue to do so in 2019, but rising home prices could cause an increase in homeowners seeking to tap into their equity, according to the 2019 consumer credit forecast from TransUnion.
TransUnion forecasted that overall, originations to subprime or near prime borrowers will increase in 2019 as lenders grow more comfortable with risk. Mortgage originations, however, will not fall under that trend. TransUnion predicts originations to subprime borrowers will rise only .3 percentage points to 3.9%.
But mortgage originations to all borrowers have been declining the past several quarters, and they will continue to do so in 2019, the forecast showed. Rising interest rates, increasing home prices and supply constraints are driving the lower origination numbers.
“While overall originations will be down in 2019, increases in home prices are resulting in record levels of home equity, which provide homeowners more opportunities to tap into low APR home equity products,” said Joe Mellman, TransUnion senior vice president and mortgage line of business leader. “This will particularly benefit consumers deciding pay off other higher interest rate products – as well as consumers finding it difficult to afford a new ‘move up’ house, who instead opt to invest in improving their existing home.”
Average mortgage origination balances will continue to trend upward in 2019, growing from an anticipated $208,831 at the end of the fourth quarter this year to $218,490 by the end of the fourth quarter in 2019, a 4.6% increase. This will be largely driven by increased prices for newly purchased homes, a drop in the refi share, and a potential shift in purchase mix.
But while TransUnion predicts more homeowners will be tapping into their equity, a recent Mortgage Monitor report from Black Knight shows that, after hitting several record highs, tappable equity, the amount available for homeowners with mortgages to borrow against before hitting a maximum 80% combined loan-to-value ratio, fell for the first time since the housing recovery began.
TransUnion also forecasted that delinquencies will continue their downward trend, falling from an anticipated 1.62% by the end of 2018 to 1.45% by the end of 2019. Delinquencies have fallen year over year every quarter since TransUnion started tracking in 2010.
The digital mortgage promise is compelling: new technology and better workflow meeting consumer, lender, servicer, investor and regulator needs and requirements — all built for compliance and protecting participants from unnecessary risk.
If executed properly, the transition from analog to digital drives value all along the mortgage continuum: improving customer experience and education, expanding capacity, reducing cost, minimizing fraud and shortening marketing-to-application approval cycle timing. Regulators have thrown support behind this evolution. Digitally-repeatable processes can help eliminate manual errors and provide auditable, transparent workflows, making compliance elements more transparent and easier to examine.
But digital success is not guaranteed: Get it wrong, and you’ve built a platform capable of automating repeatable defects, compliance errors and disclosure violations that could be viewed as fraud, unfair, deceptive, or abusive. Compliance and repurchase risk still exist at every step of completing a digital application, from submitting the application to processing, underwriting, closing and secondary-marketing. Compliance penalties and buyback demands aren’t going away any time soon, no matter how advanced technology becomes. That’s why, as digital technology is evaluated and implemented, chief compliance officers (CCOs) must have a seat at the table to ensure current compliance and proactively prepare for future compliance changes.
While many tech providers oversimplify by labeling their solutions “plug and play,” that’s rarely the case. The approach to evaluating new industry tools – and the companies offering them – should change with the CCO at the table to address current processes in light of going digital. Some hard questions to ask include:
How are entry-point applicant data and the application workflow handled differently in a virtual world versus a traditional mortgage process?
How can digital technology capture high-quality, verifiable data earlier in the workflow to help eliminate back end data-quality issues?
How can digital technology protect against UDAAP, TRID and Fair Lending violations?
How can digital technology truly improve portfolio- and investor performance expectations and reduce buyback risk?
Addressing these hard questions requires lenders to think about how they invest in digital and cloud-based solutions. For starters:
Validate that the provider has a compliance-driven culture.
Organizational values rooted in compliance
Compliance-minded personnel throughout the organization and a willingness to partner with client compliance groups
An independent compliance group providing business oversight into technology programs and maintenance
Ensure the provider’s technology is adaptable.
Technology that integrates into or enhances your existing compliance processes
Flexible and scalable solutions driving efficiency and data quality
Technology that easily adapts to business and regulatory changes
Press for data-rich solutions.
A high-quality data foundation featuring ongoing validation and transparency
Atomic data capture featuring complete, accurate and audit-ready data
Data mining and reporting flexibility and implementation expertise
Evaluate both the provider’s cloud and end-point security design.
A strategy for included security features or supplemental services to bolster cloud data protection
Constant monitoring of all traffic, user engagement and file movement with auditable event logs
A well-defined provider Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that complements your BCP
And finally, assess whether the provider has genuine and deep mortgage expertise to understand and deliver the meticulous detail of the mortgage process. Does your vendor prioritize a true partnership to solve your business problems, or are they merely focused on closing the deal?
If executed correctly and with viable partners, cloud-based and digital technology can be used to enhance the residential lending experience for all participants while creating more-compliant lending processes. These considerations will help you select the right tech vendor to support your success.
WASHINGTON — The volume of mortgages hold by inhabitant banks has discontinued by scarcely half given a financial crisis, to $3.26 trillion in a third quarter, according to a news by a Office of a Comptroller of a Currency.
The OCC’s quarterly metrics report, expelled Tuesday, showed continued improvements in credit peculiarity of debt loans during banks. But it also remarkable that a news is formed on $3.26 trillion in principal balances, representing 32% of all mortgages in a U.S. Ten years ago, that figure was $6.1 trillion in debt balances, representing 60% of all superb mortgages.
The towering decrease of mortgages during normal banks shows only how most a debt marketplace has changed to nonbanks. Regulators have formerly taken note of this change amid concerns that banks could take larger risks to stay competitive.
“The rarely rival sourroundings with nonbanks, quite in a residential debt market, formula in banks seeking to urge handling potency and deliberation introducing new consumer products,” a OCC pronounced in a semiannual risk news expelled progressing this month.
Overall, however, inhabitant banks continue to safeguard healthy mortgages. The OCC’s third-quarter debt metrics news showed that 95.4% of mortgages during banks were stream and performing, adult from 94.8% a year earlier.
New foreclosures fell 3.7% to 28,508 in a third entertain from a prior entertain and fell 16.8% from a year earlier. Mortgage modifications also declined entertain over quarter, by 21.3% to 25,701. About 69.2% of those debt modifications were to revoke a loan’s monthly payments.
At LifeInsure.com, our purpose is to provide you with great service and find you the most competitive prices. Your satisfaction is our goal. We Represent many of the top rated insurance companies in the United States.
Upon review of this site, you will find information that will help you gain an understanding of life insurance. Using our quote engine, you can compare a large number of highly rated companies, allowing you to find an affordable term life insurance or universal life insurance policy.
Competitive Prices from the Top Life Insurance Companies
Insurance companies establish their life insurance rates so every person of the same age and health would get the same rate from the same company. It’s not like buying a car where you negotiate. You get to see how all the companies in the life insurance database would rate someone of a certain age, for a certain amount of life insurance. The difference is you don’t have to call the various insurance companies or agents. You just enter your information and the life insurance market search appears instantly. Ultimately, the insurance company’s underwriting process (where they review your medical history and other factors) determine your final rate.
Even though the life insurance rates are set, we will do everything we can do get you a low-cost policy that fits your needs. We do that with our real-time quoting engine and our experience with the insurance companies at no extra cost to you.
You can contact us to clarify any of this and speak with one of our experienced life insurance agents.
Disclaimer: Our quote engine displays the quoted class as determined by you on the input page. The complete underwriting process is needed to determine whether you qualify for a rate class and what your actual premium will be. The quotes are shown for comparison purposes only and are subject to change during the underwriting process.
2. The Application
After you have reviewed the life insurance quotes and decided which policy you would like to apply for, you submit an application request from the quote engine. One of our licensed representatives will call you to complete the application over the phone (you will also have the opportunity to schedule a convenient time to do so after you submit the request).
The application is typically two parts – we take a very short application and then we will either transfer you to the insurance company’s application center, at which time you will complete the rest of the application or we will schedule your follow-up interview for you. Your medical exam will also be scheduled, if needed, at that time.
Each insurance company has its own application that includes a series of medical and financial questions. The answers you provide to these questions will be used to underwrite your coverage. The interview will last 25-30 minutes depending on the information required for the coverage you have selected.
Premium Payment
Premium payment is not required with your application. However, you may be given the option of submitting payment with your application in order to get temporary coverage during the underwriting period. Each insurance company has their own guidelines concerning temporary coverage, so please read the instructions carefully in your application packet.
3. The Medical Exam
Applications for most life insurance policies require a paramedical exam from a registered nurse. The exam can be done at your home or place of work or local office, if available. These nurses are contracted with one of the paramedical exam companies approved by most major insurance companies.
The exam takes approximately a half hour and can be done Monday through Saturday between 8:00 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. The exam typically includes blood and urine samples, blood pressure readings, height and weight measurements and questionnaire (additional tests, such as EKG, might be required due to age or insurance amount applied for). As it is recommended that you fast for eight hours prior to the exam, we usually suggest you get your exam first thing in the morning, if possible.
In order to get the best possible results from your exam, please follow the tips below:
Following these tips can help you attain the most favorable and accurate medical exam results:
Fast for 4-8 hours prior to the exam and try to schedule the exam for first thing in the morning, prior to eating.
Avoid stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes).
Limit salt and high-cholesterol foods 24 hours prior to the exam.
Refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages for at least 24 hours prior to the exam (can increase fat in blood and liver functions).
Limit caffeine and nicotine 24 hours prior to the exam (can increase blood pressure, cholesterol).
Smokers should not smoke 30 minutes prior to exam (tends to constrict artery walls and elevate blood pressure).
Drink a glass of water one hour prior to the exam.
Get a good night of sleep prior to the exam.
Helpful reminders
Be prepared with a photo ID at the time of the medical exam.
Provide names and dosages of current medications
Provide any history of problems associated with providing a blood sample.
Have available names, addresses and phone numbers of any doctors or clinics visited in the last five years.
Tell the examiner if exercise is a regular activity.
Tell the examiner if vitamins or aspirin are taken on a daily basis.If you are overweight or have large muscular arms, ask the paramed examiner to use a large blood pressure cuff.
If you have experienced one of the following impairments, you should follow these additional guidelines:
HYPERTENSION
Avoid stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes).
Schedule a morning exam.
Have the examiner take your blood pressure after you have had a chance to relax — three attempts at 10 minute intervals.
Take usual medications.
DIABETES
Schedule the exam for 2½ hours after a meal (no sweets or sugars after the meal), but if blood is being drawn, fast for 4-8 hours prior to the exam.
Empty bladder right after meal.
Drink 1-2 glasses of water before the exam.
Drink 2-3 glasses of water before the exam.
Avoid sweets or foods with sugar content before the exam.
Avoid strenuous exercise, such as running, for 24 hours prior to the exam.
URINARY SPECIMEN PROBLEMS (albumin, Red Blood Cells [RBCs], sugar, etc.)
Empty bladder right after meal.
Drink 1-2 glasses of water before the exam.
Drink 2-3 glasses of water before the exam.
Avoid sweets or foods with sugar content before the exam.
Avoid strenuous exercise, such as running, for 24 hours prior to the exam.
CORONARY, EKG PROBLEMS
Avoid stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes).
FINAL TIP
Do not try to hide any health issues or medical history – be completely candid with your answers on your application and with your medical examiner.
Following these tips will ensure a speedy exam and best results. However, if you would prefer to apply for a policy without having a medical exam, there are some options. These types of policies are typically more expensive, but for those who prefer not to get an exam, they present another option.
