eCig and Vaping Underwriting Changes at Prudential

From the underwriting department at Prudential:

“Underwriting Communication – E-cigarettes:

The purpose of this note is to give everyone a heads up that we will be changing our position on e-cigarette users.

As you are aware, vaping has been at the center of the news over the past few months and linked to a few deaths and multiple illnesses. There have been warnings from the FDA, federal government and some states banning the use of flavored e-cigarettes.

We took a stand a few years ago when e-cigarettes started gaining popularity to treat them similar to the way we assess the use of cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, etc………………treat them as non-smokers and offer NSP as our best class. We received some pushback from our reinsurers at the time but stood by our decision and wanted to keep a close eye on it.

I truly believe it is time for us to change and classify vaping as a smoker and reduce the overall risk exposure to the company. Our reinsurers also have been asking us when we will make the change so obviously support this action.

I wanted to get advance notice out to all of you so you are aware and can start communicating the change to your external partners. We are looking to make a quick system change to reflect users of e-cigarettes as smokers on applications dated 10/21/2019 and later. We will honor any application that has already been written prior to that date and will continue to consider those applicants as non-smokers.”

Please call our office for more details.