Turned down by an insurer: what it means and what to do

The letter fits into one paragraph. The insurer thanks you for your interest in its products and regrets that it cannot act on the application. No reason is named. The cheque for the first premium is enclosed, cancelled.

The most common reaction is to put the letter away and never raise the subject again. That is understandable: an insurance refusal feels like a verdict on your health, and nobody wants to hear it repeated.

Yet it is the moment when the most rights are available, and when the most people are unaware of them.

What a refusal says, and what it does not

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Québec's financial sector regulator, describes the step in question this way: "Before offering you an insurance product, an insurer generally has to assess your 'insurability.' This involves verifying that you are not already seriously ill."

That assessment leads to more than two possible answers. An insurer can accept the application as it stands. It can accept it while asking for a higher premium — the Québec regulation governing representatives in fact uses the word "surprime" in its section 27, dealing with the case of an insurer "prepared to issue a contract in accordance with the conditions requested in the insurance application but at an additional premium." It can accept while excluding a specific cause. It can defer its decision. And it can refuse.

A refusal is therefore one insurer's decision, at a given moment, on a specific application. It is not a permanent status, it is not a medical assessment, and it is not the answer every insurer would give. Risk selection criteria belong to each insurer and are not public.

You have the right to know what the decision rests on

This is where Québec law offers the most concrete lever, and it has nothing to do with insurance law.

The Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels dans le secteur privé, Québec's private-sector personal information act, applies to anyone carrying on an enterprise, insurers included. Its section 27 is explicit: every person carrying on an enterprise who holds personal information on another person must, at the request of the person concerned, "confirm its existence to them and communicate that information to them, allowing them to obtain a copy of it." Computerized information must, on request, be communicated "in the form of a written and intelligible transcript."

Section 28 adds the second part: if information concerning you "is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous," you can require that it be corrected.

And since the 2021 amendments, section 12.1 covers the increasingly common case of a decision rendered by a machine:

"Every person carrying on an enterprise who uses personal information in order to render a decision based exclusively on the automated processing of such information must inform the person concerned of that fact not later than at the time they inform them of the decision."

On request, the enterprise must then inform you of the personal information used, of "the reasons and the principal factors and parameters that led to the decision," and of your right to have that information corrected. The same section provides that you must be given the opportunity to submit observations to a member of the enterprise's staff who is in a position to review the decision.

In other words: a written request, addressed to the insurer's person in charge of the protection of personal information, can turn a silent refusal into a readable file. And if that file contains an error — a diagnosis transcribed incorrectly, a report belonging to someone else, an out-of-date result — section 28 gives you the means to have it corrected.

What an insurer has no right to require

A 2017 federal statute draws a clear line. The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (Loi sur la non-discrimination génétique) prohibits, in its section 3, requiring a person to undergo a genetic test as a condition of providing them with goods or services, of entering into or continuing a contract with them, or of offering them particular terms in a contract. The same section prohibits refusing any of those activities on the grounds that the person has refused to undergo such a test.

Section 4 does the same for results: no one may require a person to disclose them as a condition, nor refuse on the grounds that they have refused to disclose them. Section 5 prohibits collecting, using or disclosing the results of a genetic test without the person's written consent. Contravening any of those sections is an offence within the meaning of section 7. The exceptions in section 6 cover health care practitioners providing care and researchers, not insurers.

Note the exact scope. The Act covers genetic tests and their results. It does not prevent an insurer from asking questions about your current state of health, your diagnoses, your treatments or your lifestyle habits.

What you, for your part, must disclose

The Civil Code of Québec imposes a symmetrical obligation, and it is best to know it before filling out a new application after a refusal.

Article 2408 requires the policyholder, and the insured if the insurer requests it, "to disclose all the circumstances known to them that are likely to materially influence an insurer in setting the premium, appraising the risk or deciding to accept it." Article 2409 sets the measure: the obligation is deemed to have been properly met when the declarations are those "of a normally provident insured," made without material concealment.

The sanction is severe. Article 2410 provides that misrepresentations and concealment entail, at the insurer's request, the nullity of the contract, "even in respect of losses not connected with the risk so misrepresented." And that sword stays raised for two years: under article 2424, in the absence of fraud, a misrepresentation may no longer serve as grounds for the annulment or reduction of insurance that has been in force for two years.

An earlier refusal is among the information applications commonly ask about. Staying silent about it to improve your chances amounts to trading a refusal for a contestable contract — that is, shifting the problem onto your beneficiaries' shoulders. Our guide to replacing a policy explains why that two-year period matters so much.

The doors that remain

None of them is guaranteed, and nobody can promise you acceptance. Here, nonetheless, is what exists.

Another insurer. Each insurer applies its own selection criteria. An authorized financial security advisor can submit your file elsewhere, taking into account what the refusal revealed.

A product with different medical requirements. Depending on the insurer, some products do not require a medical exam, and the health questionnaire is shorter, or absent. These formulas have their trade-offs, and our guide to life insurance with no medical exam explains the order in which it is better to knock on those doors — the order is not neutral.

A group plan. Joining an employer's plan generally does not go through the same individual assessment. Our guide to group life insurance describes its limits, in particular the fact that it usually ends with the job.

Time. A health record changes. A stabilized condition, a completed treatment, time elapsed since an event: these are facts a new application can present.

And above all: what you already have. The Authority asks the question and answers it in one line. Do you have to inform the insurer of a change in your state of health while the contract is in force? "For life insurance, the answer is no. The insurer assesses your state of health only when the contract is issued." An existing policy therefore does not deteriorate because your health changes. That is the best reason never to let go of a contract in force while you look for something better.

If you believe the decision rests on an error

Refusing a risk is an insurer's right. Handling your file negligently or refusing to answer you is not.

Enterprises regulated by the Authority must adopt a complaint processing and dispute resolution policy, and distribute a summary of it to their clients. Some complaints can follow a simplified process, which applies, the Authority writes, "to complaints for which the enterprise is able to offer the client a satisfactory solution within 20 days."

If the final answer does not satisfy you, the next step is provided for: "The client has the right to request that their complaint be examined by the AMF if they are dissatisfied with the final response provided by the enterprise or with the way it handled their complaint." The enterprise must then transmit a complete complaint file to the Authority within a maximum of 15 days following receipt of the request for examination.

The Authority also maintains a register of firms and individuals authorized to practise, and its information centre answers questions from the public.

Frequently asked questions

Does a refusal stay recorded somewhere?

You cannot make it disappear, and above all, article 2408 of the Civil Code requires you to disclose the circumstances known to you that materially influence the appraisal of the risk. The right approach is not to hide it, but to obtain from the insurer, under section 27 of the Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels dans le secteur privé, a copy of what it holds about you.

How long should you wait before applying again?

There is no legal waiting period. What changes things is a new and documentable fact: a completed treatment, a normal test result, a stabilized condition. An authorized advisor will be able to tell you what, in your file, is likely to be reassessed.

Is an additional premium better than a refusal?

They are two different decisions, and one is not a softened version of the other. An application accepted with an additional premium produces a contract in force, with all the protections of the Civil Code, including incontestability after two years. The amount itself depends on the insurer and on your file; we do not put a number on it and nobody should, without having seen your application.

Can the insurer ask for results of genetic tests I have already taken?

Section 4 of the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act prohibits requiring a person to disclose the results of a genetic test as a condition, and section 5 prohibits collecting, using or disclosing them without written consent. If you are asked for them in this context, that is a question to put to the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Does this text replace an advisor?

No. We are neither a broker nor an insurer, and we assess no files. We explain published rules. To have your situation reconsidered, speak with a financial security advisor authorized by the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Sources

• Autorité des marchés financiers, "8 questions et réponses pour démystifier l'assurance vie": https://lautorite.qc.ca/grand-public/assurance/assurance-vie/8-questions-et-reponses-pour-demystifier-lassurance-vie (accessed August 11, 2026)
• Autorité des marchés financiers, "Vos obligations en matière de traitement des plaintes": https://lautorite.qc.ca/professionnels/obligations-et-formalites-administratives/traitement-des-plaintes/vos-obligations-en-matiere-de-traitement-des-plaintes (accessed August 11, 2026)
• Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels dans le secteur privé, RLRQ chapter P-39.1, sections 12.1, 27 and 28: https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/P-39.1 (accessed August 11, 2026)
• Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (Loi sur la non-discrimination génétique), S.C. 2017, c. 3, sections 3 to 7: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/fra/lois/G-2.5/page-1.html (accessed August 11, 2026)
• Civil Code of Québec, articles 2408, 2409, 2410 and 2424, consolidated text, LégisQuébec: https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/CCQ-1991 (accessed August 11, 2026)
• Règlement sur l'exercice des activités des représentants, RLRQ chapter D-9.2, r. 10, section 27: https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/rc/D-9.2,%20r.%2010 (accessed August 11, 2026)

This text presents general information. We are neither a broker nor an insurer, and we give no insurance advice. For your own situation, consult an authorized financial security advisor.