Insurance Questions to Ask Clients
A needs-assessment sequence for insurance agents and advisors. It moves from what the client already holds, through who depends on their income and what a rebuild would actually cost, into the health, household and lifestyle details underwriting will ask about anyway.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What made you get in touch?
Why ask it
The trigger matters more than the product they think they want. A new mortgage, a baby, a friend's denied claim and a renewal price rise each lead somewhere different, and clients rarely volunteer it unless asked at the start.
What do you have in place now, and who is it with?
Why ask it
Ask for carrier names, not categories. Clients routinely say they have life insurance when what they have is a small group benefit that ends the day they leave the job.
When did you last actually look at any of these policies?
Why ask it
Five years or more usually means the coverage is indexed to a house, salary or family that no longer exists. It also tells you whether this is someone who reads documents or files them unopened.
Who depends on your income, and for how long would they need it?
Why ask it
Turns dependents into a duration you can price. People name children and stop, forgetting a spouse who left work, an aging parent, or the sibling they quietly help every month.
If you could not work for six months, what would cover the bills?
Why ask it
Most clients answer savings, then revise the figure downward once they have said it out loud. That correction is the disability conversation, and it does not happen if you open with the product.
What would it cost to rebuild the house today, rather than what you paid for it?
Why ask it
Purchase price and rebuild cost drift apart, and after a stretch of high construction inflation plenty of policies sit well under. If the client answers with market value or the mortgage balance, the dwelling limit needs checking.
What is in the house that a standard policy would not fully cover?
Why ask it
Prompts for rings, instruments, tools, bikes and collections, all of which sit under sublimits nobody reads. This is where underinsurance is most common and cheapest to fix.
Who else drives the cars, and is anyone under twenty-five?
Why ask it
Undeclared drivers are a routine cause of disputed auto claims. Asking directly catches the adult child home from college, which a general question about household members does not.
Do you run anything from home, even part time?
Why ask it
Homeowners policies generally exclude business property and business liability. The online shop, the weekend photography and the occasional consulting invoice all count, and clients almost never think to mention them.
Do you rent any of it out, or host guests?
Why ask it
Short-term letting changes the risk and often falls outside a standard policy entirely. The answer tends to be yes with a qualifier attached, and the qualifier is the part that needs writing down.
Any dogs, a pool, a trampoline or a wood stove?
Why ask it
Four specific items that move liability pricing and carrier appetite. Named one by one they get answered honestly. Asked as a general question about hazards on the property, they do not.
How is your health at the moment, and do you take anything regularly?
Why ask it
Keep this plain and unhurried. Clients under-report because they expect to be penalized for honesty, and most find a list of medications easier to give than a diagnosis.
Has anyone in your immediate family had heart disease or cancer before sixty?
Why ask it
Family history moves the underwriting class on life and critical illness cover. Asking about age at diagnosis, not just the condition, gets you the detail the application will require anyway.
Do you smoke or vape, and when did you last?
Why ask it
The date is the part that matters, since carriers work to a fixed window. Framing it as when rather than whether produces a more accurate answer and keeps a misstatement off the application.
Do you fly, dive, climb or ride motorcycles?
Why ask it
Named activities get declared and general questions about hobbies do not. An undisclosed one can sink a life claim at precisely the moment the family needs it paid.
How much could you comfortably pay yourself before insurance stepped in?
Why ask it
A better route into deductibles than asking about risk tolerance, because the answer is a number. If the figure they name is larger than what sits in their savings account, say so.
What are you paying in total now, and what figure would make you stop and think?
Why ask it
Gives you the benchmark and the ceiling in one answer. A client who cannot total their current premiums usually has overlapping cover somewhere, and it is worth finding before you quote anything.
Have you ever had a claim denied, or a policy cancelled?
Why ask it
Prior cancellation affects eligibility with some carriers and will surface during underwriting regardless. Hearing it from the client first lets you place the risk properly rather than collecting a decline.
Out of everything we have covered, what worries you most?
Why ask it
Sorts the recommendation for you. Whatever they name is what they will actually pay for, and it is frequently not the largest exposure on your worksheet.
If something happened tomorrow, who would call me, and would they know where the paperwork is?
Why ask it
Closes on the failure nobody plans for: a valid policy that nobody can find. It also surfaces out-of-date beneficiary designations, which are among the most common and most costly errors in the file.
Running a needs assessment
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Running the meeting
Ask for documents, not descriptions
Clients describe coverage they do not have. Getting the declarations pages in front of you turns a guess into a gap analysis, and it is the fastest way to find overlap they are already paying for.
Put the sensitive questions in the middle
Health, family history and money get better answers once someone has already answered ten easy things and has a sense of why you are asking at all.
Give the reason before the question
One sentence of context measurably improves accuracy. Ask about medication without it and people round down; explain that underwriting will check and they tend not to.
Documenting the conversation
- Record what the client declined as well as what they bought, and confirm the declined items in writing.
- Note where each number came from: a valuation, a statement, or an estimate off the top of their head.
- Flag anything they said that conflicts with the application and resolve it before submission rather than after a loss.
- Keep your record of what you recommended. Errors and omissions disputes turn on the advice given, not the premium collected.
Common pitfalls
Quoting before the fact-find is finished
A number on the table ends discovery. The client starts optimizing the premium instead of telling you about the business they run out of the garage.
Treating market value as rebuild cost
They are different figures and they move independently. If the client offers one, ask for the other before you set a dwelling limit.
Letting the client name the product
Someone asking for term life may actually need income protection. Take the request seriously, then ask what event they are picturing when they say it.
Skipping the review cycle
Most underinsurance is a policy that was correct four years ago. Book the next review before you leave this meeting, while the reason for it is obvious.
One note on rules
What you may ask, what you must record and what you can rely on varies by jurisdiction and by line of business, and several of these questions carry specific disclosure requirements. Follow your regulator's rules and your firm's compliance guidance rather than any generic list.