As if your nerves haven’t already hit the ceiling when applying to get the life insurance coverage you need for your family, the underwriting process seems to drag it out to indefinite lengths, making your anxiety shoot through the roof.

The underwriting process is an extremely important part of obtaining life insurance, and can be a lengthy ordeal. Since underwriting has to help determine whether a person should be accepted for a life insurance policy, and helps decide their rates based on their risks, there is a lot that has to be evaluated.

This can take some time to go through, especially considering the number of applications underwriters get on their desks each day.

On average, the underwriting process takes about a month but depending on the information provided and the time it takes to contact outside sources, it can take anywhere from a few weeks, to a few months to get insurance.

The underwriting process requires some patience and understanding, but with these basic tips, you should be able to speed things up by making the operation go as smoothly as possible:

Be Prepared With Answers

Whether you are starting the process over the phone with an agent or underwriter, or filling out a form online or by hand, you can speed up this procedure by being prepared. Before reaching out to the insurance company, do some research, and look up all the questions they will ask you. Then gather your information, and find out the things you may not have memorized, so that you will be ready to provide them with that information at a moment’s notice if needed. By having this information on hand, you can help get your application in as fast as possible, which is only the start of the underwriting process.

Fill Out Your ENTIRE Application

How many times have you filled out a form and left parts blank because the question was too hard, or you were too lazy to find the answer? Well, this approach isn’t going to fly here. These underwriters need to know all of the information they have requested on those forms, and sooner or later they will have to get it from you. If you take the time to fill out the entire form, and find even the toughest answers, you can save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent going back and forth with your underwriter.

Make Sure Your Application Is 100% Correct

The worst thing you can do is purposely lie on your life insurance application. The second-worst thing you can do is lie unintentionally by guessing on numbers. Not only will this look shady to underwriters, and can potentially get you dropped from the company or cause you to have higher rates as punishment, but it can also spread out the process while the underwriters do their research to find the correct information. If you just give them the facts up front, it will be a lot easier for everyone.

Get Your Medical Exam Done ASAP

No one really likes going to the doctor, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary, such as when applying for life insurance. Most life insurance companies require applicants to undergo a medical exam, to check their health and help determine their risk. The sooner you get this done the better. If you can get your medical exam done as soon as possible to send in the results, you apply and get insurance in a short time period.

While the underwriting process can be time-consuming, by following these steps you can do your part to speed up the process. Just remember to keep in mind that the underwriters are doing everything they can to crunch the numbers and get you the best insurance policy and premium rates, as fast as they can. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is an excellent life insurance policy.