If there’s any part of the life insurance transaction that preserves the status quo, it’s underwriting. Medical underwriting hasn’t changed in a long time because the fundamental underlying theories haven’t either. Life insurance is a mortality based instrument. Therefore, it must be underwritten medically. That involves old medical records, new examinations and a host of highly skilled (and highly paid) people on the street and in the home office who know how to take many disparate facts to come to a categorical conclusion. I’ve heard plenty of people say that underwriting is more art than science and I tend to agree with them.