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The push for rewarding good health has come from the health and life branches of the insurance industry, with the most recent effort coming from London-based Aviva PLC, which is hosting a roadshow across the country to promote its Wellness for Life rider. Participating agents can also become certified to sell the enhancement at the events.

Specifically, clients have access to health assessments and other wellness resources from Mayo Clinic Health Solutions, part of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. In exchange for visiting the doctor regularly or maintaining a weight within a specified range, consumers can save money on their life insurance coverage.

"If I'm insured, I can say that it pays me to pay attention to my health," said Scott Johnson, president of Creative Marketing International Corp., the Overland Park, Kan.-based distributor of the rider.

"Not only can I feel better and live longer, but I'm lowering the cost of life insurance over the long term," he said. "That's a lot of incentive."

BUILDING RELATIONSHIP

Certainly, life carriers will benefit if they can wait a few more years to pay off on an insured's claim, but advisers say that by becoming involved in their clients' health, they are adding to their relationship and saving investors money on premiums.

"Good health is a tremendous financial asset; bad health is a tremendous financial liability," said Robert W. Brown, a CFP with RB Brown Insurance Agency Inc., a Frankfort, Ky.-based office of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Ill. He declined to disclose the firm's assets under management, but he has been in business for 28 years.

"The dialogue needs to change dramatically," Mr. Brown said.

Advisers observed that the path to lower life and health insurance premiums, and client wellness, begins with nurturing, not nagging.

A combination of rapport and common ground helped Mr. Brown with a female client whose health took a dive after she spent 15 years caring for her ailing husband and mother. After her husband's death, the investor's health was "so poor that her longevity was very much threatened by the lack of care for herself while caring for others,"he said.

The client went back on track to cut health expenses by starting a diet and exercise program, hiring a personal coach and seeking medical advice to help her gradually reduce her medications.

Mr. Brown, who himself had lost 20 pounds and begun going to the gym regularly, helped guide the widow as she restored her health.

"It's not my role to be a nutritionist or a physician," he said. "But in a sense, I was able to talk about what worked for me and what helped; I coached, mentored and encouraged her."

However, this type of intercession requires a light touch, especially if the client is less than forthcoming about his or her unhealthy habits, advisers observed.

"It's not something that all planners feel comfortable getting into," Ms. Kirchenbauer said.

For instance, one of her clients didn't mention that he was a smoker but came in to his appointments smelling like an ashtray. The client wouldn't admit to it, but the question finally came up when he was considering a long-term-care insurance policy, and the adviser asked point-blank if he smoked or had any health conditions.

Only then did the client admit to his habit.

But encouraging clients to drop the cigarettes helps.

"We have clients who have stopped smoking," Ms. Kirchenbauer said. "Then they go back to reapply and have their premium lowered."

Smokers can pay up to double or triple the life insurance premiums of non-smokers, Ms. Kirchenbauer said.

Nevertheless, advisers and agents who write life insurance policies should keep in mind that once they know about investors' health issues, they will have to use that information when they help the client apply, and that could easily be very expensive.

If a client notifies his adviser that he or she has been diagnosed with high cholesterol or depression but is receiving treatment, the investor will likely have a tough time getting coverage — even if the problem is under control, Ms. Kirchenbauer said. But even in that case, it is better for clients to be honest with the agent or adviser lest the truth come out in the underwriting, she said.

Despite the awkwardness behind approaching clients for their health details, advisers observed that it is ultimately their duty to see how their investors' health will affect their financial plan — especially if it is a problem that can be corrected.

"Health is a piece of the total equation," Mr. Brown said. "Ultimately, there needs to be in a more direct sense more reward for being proactive and taking care of your health — and a penalty if you don't."

E-mail Darla Mercado at dmercado@investmentnews.com.

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