Rate tables and what a rating costs
A table rating is the mechanism carriers use to price a risk they will accept but not at standard rates. Understanding it turns an offer letter from an insult into a document you can negotiate against.
One thing to be clear about first. No carrier publishes the underwriting manual that decides which table you land in. The thresholds are proprietary and they differ between carriers — that is the central constraint on this entire subject and the reason this page explains the system rather than reproducing a chart of conditions and outcomes. Anything online claiming to tell you which table a given A1c or blood pressure produces is broker-reported at best, and invented at worst. Our page on how underwriting works sets out why.
What is consistent across the industry is the structure. That structure is genuinely useful.
The rate classes above standard
Before tables, there are the preferred classes. Names vary — a carrier's "Preferred Plus" may be another's "Super Preferred" — but the ladder is conventional:
- Preferred Plus / Super Preferred — best available. Ideal build, no tobacco, clean labs, clean family history, clean driving record
- Preferred — very good, with one or two mild imperfections
- Standard Plus — better than average
- Standard — average mortality for your age and sex
Roughly half of applicants land at Standard or better. The classes above Standard are narrow, and the criteria for each are set by the carrier — which is why the same person genuinely can be Preferred at one insurer and Standard Plus at another.
How table ratings work
Below Standard, pricing moves onto the table system. Carriers use one of two labelling conventions and they mean the same thing:
- Letters: Table A, B, C, D … through roughly Table J
- Numbers: Table 1, 2, 3, 4 … through roughly Table 10
Table A equals Table 1, Table B equals Table 2, and so on.
Each table step adds a further increment of standard mortality — conventionally 25% of the standard rate per table. So the widely used convention is:
| Table | Also called | Approximate premium vs Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | 100% |
| A | 1 | 125% |
| B | 2 | 150% |
| C | 3 | 175% |
| D | 4 | 200% |
| E | 5 | 225% |
| F | 6 | 250% |
| H | 8 | 300% |
| J | 10 | 350% |
Two honest caveats. The 25% increment is the common industry convention rather than a universal rule — some carriers use a different step. And the multiplier applies to the mortality cost, so what lands on your bill depends on the policy's expense structure as well.
Use the table above to understand orders of magnitude and the shape of the ladder. Do not use it to predict your premium to the dollar.
Flat extras are a different thing
A flat extra is a fixed additional charge — a stated amount per $1,000 of cover per year — added on top of whatever rate class you receive. It prices a specific, identifiable risk rather than a general elevation of mortality.
Two properties make it important:
It is often temporary. A flat extra applied for a recent event — a cancer history within a defined recovery window, say — is frequently written to expire after a set number of years, at which point it falls off and the premium drops.
It stacks. You can be Standard with a flat extra, or Table D with a flat extra.
This is why "is that a table rating or a flat extra, and does it expire?" is one of the most valuable questions you can ask about an offer. Two offers with an identical first-year premium can be very different over twenty years.
Reading an offer that is not what you applied for
If the policy comes back rated, the document will state the rate class, any flat extra, and the resulting premium. Four things to do:
Ask what drove it. Carriers will usually say. Frequently it is one item — a lab value, a build measurement, a driving record — and knowing which changes everything about what to do next.
Check the ratable item is correct. Records get misread, DCIS gets coded as invasive breast cancer, an old diagnosis appears as current. Errors are more common than people expect and are correctable with documentation.
Ask whether it expires. See above.
Ask about reconsideration. Most carriers will re-review a rated file after a documented period of improvement — better labs, weight change, time since an event. It is never automatic; you have to request it with current records. Nobody sends a letter reminding you.
Why the same file gets different tables
Carrier appetite is the largest source of variation, and it is not random. An insurer writing a lot of diabetic business has built pricing and reinsurance around it. One with little appetite prices to discourage it. Both are reading the same bloodwork and reaching a legitimately different commercial answer.
Practical consequence: a rating from one carrier is information about that carrier, not a verdict on you. Shopping a rated file is where the real money is, and it is the entire argument of our page on what to do after a decline. How to think about carrier selection is on carriers.
Table shaving
Some carriers operate a programme that improves a rated offer by a defined number of tables where the file meets certain criteria — often applied to specific conditions where the carrier believes the standard tables overstate the risk.
It is real, it is not universal, and it is not something applicants are usually told about. It is worth an agent knowing which carriers currently run one, because it can move an offer by several tables without anything about your health changing.
What to do next
If you are holding a rated offer, ask the four questions above before accepting or walking away — particularly whether the loading is a table or a flat extra, and whether it expires.
If you have not applied yet, the useful takeaway is that the table system is a ladder rather than a cliff. Most impaired files are insurable; the question is where on the ladder and at which carrier. Our page on no-exam life insurance covers which application routes stay open when a file is rated.
Terms used here — attained age, flat extra, table rating, rate class, reconsideration — are all defined in the glossary.
Questions we get asked
What table rating will my condition get? We cannot tell you, and neither can anyone else honestly. The manuals are not public and they differ between carriers. What we can tell you is how the ladder works and what moves a file along it, which is what this page is for.
Is a table rating permanent? Not necessarily. Most carriers accept a reconsideration request after a documented period of improved control, and a flat extra frequently expires on a schedule written into the contract. Neither happens automatically — you have to ask.
Does a rating affect the death benefit? No. A rating changes what you pay, not what pays out. A Table D policy for $500,000 pays $500,000.
Can I be rated for something that is not a health condition? Yes. Build, driving record, hazardous occupation, aviation, dangerous hobbies, foreign travel and criminal history are all ratable, and some are handled by exclusion rather than by price.
Why did I get Standard when I was quoted Preferred Plus? Quoted rate classes are estimates based on what you told the agent; the offer is based on what the evidence showed. The gap is usually one item — most often build, cholesterol ratio, blood pressure or an item in the prescription record. Ask which.
Is it worth accepting a rated offer or should I keep shopping? Both, in that order. Accept the offer so you are covered, then shop it — you can replace a policy later, and being uninsured while you look for a better price is the genuinely bad outcome. Do not cancel anything until the replacement is in force.