Don't lie: Your life insurance depends on it

As you fill out that life insurance application, what if you choose to leave off pertinent information about your past or current health? Could the medical decisions you make in the future inadvertently void the life insurance policy you purchase today?

These are questions that may have crossed your mind if you've had a serious illness or condition such as sleep apnea or cancer; or if you avoid mainstream medicine in favor of alternative treatments, reject medical treatment as a tenet of your religion or refuse treatment for a potentially life-threatening issue.

Lying on your life insurance application is one thing; it can void your policy. But once the ink dries on your life insurance policy, in most cases, you're covered under the terms of your contract, regardless of the health care decisions you make going forward.

"If you have your policy in place and you've been paying for your policy, the changes in health that you have going forward would not be material," says Jacki Goldstein, vice president and chief medical officer for MetLife in New York.

You're covered, no matter what
Dr. Robert Pokorski, chief medical strategist for The Hartford's Individual Life Insurance Division in Woodbury, Minn., agrees. "You will still be covered no matter what you do. Somebody may have high blood pressure and after a period of time stop taking their medicine. Even if you stop, your insurance continues. If your doctor recommends surgery for cancer, some people say no. We will still pay the claim when it occurs."

That said, you could endanger your policy before it's written based on the information you disclose -- or fail to disclose -- on your life insurance application.

"The only thing, generally, that can void a life insurance policy is fraud on the medical application," says Rick Nathanson, Seattle-based insurance expert and author of "Can You Afford to Grow Old?"