Why does it take so long to process an application?
While you're waiting on your insurer to process your life insurance application and issue you an offer, one of the insurer's underwriters is evaluating your mortality risk. Based on your mortality risk, the underwriter appoints you to a particular rate class, which in turn determines your life insurance rate. Insurers have to walk a fine line of offering you a cheap rate (cheaper than their competitors' rates) while not charging you less than they can afford, so this process deserves considerable attention.
However, most of the time you spend waiting on a response to your application, the underwriter is not just mulling over your case. The underwriter is waiting on responses to requests of his/her own!
To determine your health class, the underwriter reviews your medical records, and getting them can be a lengthy process, particularly if you have a long medical history and have consulted with multiple physicians. Occasionally it will take a long period of time to retrieve just one doctor's records, particularly if the doctor's office is not automated or if the doctor is part of an HMO, a large practice, or a teaching hospital staff with a bureaucratic record retrieval process.
