How Your Fitbit Can Earn You Lower Rates

Your life insurance premium and health go hand in hand, but few companies offer you monetary incentives for improving your health. One company is rethinking life insurance and even going so far as to help policyholders track their daily health and fitness goals to help them reduce annual premiums.

John Hancock has partnered with Vitality to integrate wellness programs with life insurance policies to encourage customers to live better, more active lifestyles. The insurance company provides personalized health goals and free Fitbits to new policyholders. Customers who reach health milestones can earn discounts on their annual premiums, in addition to other rewards. Health insurance companies have been using incentives to encourage participants to develop healthy habits for years, but John Hancock is taking a new, more-involved approach.

Related: 10 Cheap Fitness Apps to Replace Your Gym Membership

Discounts for Healthy Living

Establishing Fitness Goals

After completing the insurance policy application process, John Hancock customers can complete an online assessment from Vitality Health Review to determine their Vitality Age. Your calculated age helps you gauge your overall health. This number might be higher or lower than your actual age. The average American, in fact, has a Vitality Age five years older than their actual age, according to a 2013 analysis by The Vitality Institute.

The Vitality Health Review takes your age, gender and body characteristics into account. You will also be asked to identify exercise patterns, eating habits and overall mental well-being. Your responses are calculated to produce a set of personalized health goals. With your Fitbit, you can then track your progress and report results to John Hancock.

Earning Vitality Points

A Fitbit is a wristband-like device that tracks your daily activity, food intake, weight and sleep patterns. Your personal fitness information can be tracked online to earn you “Vitality Points.” During the course of a year, the points you accumulate are calculated to determine your program status level. The healthier your lifestyle, the greater your status level and its associated discounts and rewards. You can earn additional Vitality Points in other ways, such as by:

• Quitting smoking
• Getting an annual health screening
• Getting a flu shot

Rewards for Healthy Policyholders

As you accumulate Vitality Points, you can apply them to earn rewards and discounts from travel, shopping and entertainment partners. You can also shave up to 15 percent off you annual premium, depending on your policy.

Consider a 45-year-old couple of average health purchasing Protection UL with Vitality life insurance policies of $500,000. By establishing and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits, this couple can cut costs by more than $25,000 on their premiums by the time they turn 85 years old, if they achieve a certain status each year. The savings grow as they live longer.

Health Matters in Life Insurance

John Hancock’s life insurance program offers an innovative approach to getting people excited about healthy living. Traditionally speaking, the life insurance industry doesn’t have a reputation of being terribly interesting to the average customer. Insurance has one of the worst overall industry reputations out there. Only 36 percent of customers view the industry in a positive manner, according to a 2015 Reputational Quotient survey from Harris Interactive.

By incentivizing customers to live healthier lives, John Hancock can help lower payouts. A customer can benefit with rewards, discounts and a healthier lifestyle.

Americans are Unhealthy

Many American adults struggle to live healthy, active lifestyles. Approximately 60 percent of adults are either overweight or obese, according to a 2013 survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Another CDC survey of 77,000 adults found that:

• 1 in 2 Americans do not meet federal recommendations for aerobic activity and muscle strengthening exercise.
• 2 out of 3 Americans regularly drink alcohol.
• 1 in 5 Americans smoke.

The incentives offered by John Hancock and Vitality might be able to help policyholders lead healthier lives. With opportunities to save money and benefit from discounts, customers can see the fruits of their labor, even when they might not be looking in the mirror.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Your Fitbit Can Earn You Lower Rates

This article by Laura Woods first appeared on GoBankingRates.com and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.