Developed in 1990, the Clinical Underwriting® process uses the most current medical research to evaluate applicants individually, focusing on the elements that truly affect a person's longevity, such as lifestyle, family and medical history and compliance with doctors' orders.

This unique method of underwriting allows U.S. Financial Life to offer applicants who have been rated or declined by other insurance companies some of the best rates in the industry.

There are four cornerstones that are the basis of Clinical Underwriting:

• Control
--Refers to controllable medical conditions where modifications in risk factors make a difference.
• Compliance
--Refers to following doctors' orders.
• Complete Information
--Refers to determining the "whole picture" of someone's compliance through validation with underwriting tools such as medical records and personal history interviews.
• Common Sense
--Refers to the ideology that it is reasonable to assume someone who understands their medical conditions and modifies their risk factors is a better risk.

Nicotine Use
Clinical Underwriting also features a revolutionary approach to occasional cigarette smokers. Common sense dictates that a person who smokes occasionally is at far less risk than a person who smokes heavily. Clinical Underwriting recognizes those differences and evaluates each individual accordingly.

Medical Breakthroughs
Medical breakthroughs occur daily, yet current life insurance practices employed by many insurance companies ignore these advances. Other insurance companies may deny applicants coverage based on medical information from an outdated underwriting manual. U.S. Financial Life is continuously reviewing the most recent medical literature. This state of the art research is then utilized to provide a more informed and accurate offer.