BRCA: The Result They Cannot Ask You For

A predictive BRCA result does not have to be disclosed to a UK life insurer, and it cannot be asked for — at any sum assured. If you had a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene test because a relative carried the fault, and you have no cancer diagnosis yourself, that result sits outside what an insurer is allowed to request. This is the single point almost every page on the subject gets muddled, so it is worth being exact about it.

The exactness matters because there are two completely different kinds of BRCA test, and they are treated in opposite ways. A predictive test, taken when you have no symptoms, to estimate future risk, is off-limits to the insurer. A diagnostic test, taken to explain a symptom or to characterise a cancer you already have, is ordinary medical information and is treated like any other result on your record. The word "BRCA" tells you nothing on its own. Why the test was done is everything.

So the honest answer to "do I have to tell them" is: it depends which test you had, and this page draws that line properly. Get it right and you neither hide something you are obliged to share nor surrender a result the rules were written to protect.

The short answer: a predictive result is protected

UK life insurers that have signed the Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance — which in practice covers the major life insurance market — commit not to ask for, and not to take account of, the results of predictive genetic tests. A predictive BRCA1 or BRCA2 result falls squarely inside that protection. You do not have to disclose it, the application should not ask for it, and if a question appears to demand it, that is the question to query rather than the rule to fear.

This is a deliberate piece of public policy, not a loophole. The concern it addresses is real: that people would avoid a genetic test that could save their life, in case the result made them uninsurable. The Code exists so that finding out you carry a BRCA fault, and acting on it, does not cost you the ability to protect your family. Using that protection is exactly what it is for.

The same reasoning runs through the neighbouring genetic situations. A consumer kit bought out of curiosity is still a predictive test, which is why a 23andMe health result does not have to be declared to a life insurer either; and a predictive test you take after your policy has already started cannot be used against the cover you hold.

The line almost every page misses: predictive versus diagnostic

Here is the distinction that decides everything, set out plainly.

A predictive test is done in someone with no symptoms of the condition, to estimate the chance of developing it in future. The classic case is the woman whose mother and aunt had breast cancer, who is tested and found to carry a BRCA1 fault, but who is herself well. That result speaks about risk, not about any current illness — and it is precisely the kind of result the Code shields.

A diagnostic test is done to explain something that is already happening: to investigate a symptom, or to characterise a tumour that has already been diagnosed, so that treatment can be chosen. If you have had breast or ovarian cancer and the tissue was tested for a BRCA fault to guide your treatment, that is diagnostic. The cancer itself is disclosable ordinary medical information, and the BRCA finding is part of that medical picture, not a protected predictive result.

The practical test is simple: were you well when the sample was taken, and looking forward — or unwell, and looking for an explanation? Well and forward-looking is predictive, and protected. Unwell and explanatory is diagnostic, and disclosable.

One caution. If a predictive test led you to see a doctor, and that doctor investigated something, the medical consequences of those investigations are ordinary medical information even though the gene result is not. A screening MRI, a biopsy, a benign finding removed — those are events on your medical record, and if the form asks about investigations or procedures you answer honestly about them. The protected item is the predictive result itself, not everything that happened around it. Keeping that boundary clear is what stops a truthful applicant either hiding too much or giving away too much.

What the Code actually says, and the one exception

It is worth being precise, because a vague version of this rule is what causes people to over-disclose. Signatory insurers agree that they will not require or take into account the result of a predictive genetic test. There is a single exception, and it is narrow: a predictive test for Huntington's disease, and only where the life cover applied for is above a stated large threshold.

Source: HM Government and the Association of British Insurers, Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance — the Huntington's disease exception applies only to life cover above £500,000.

BRCA is not Huntington's disease, and it is not in that exception. So there is no sum assured — not a modest mortgage policy, not a very large one — at which a predictive BRCA result becomes askable. The threshold in the Code has nothing to do with BRCA at all. If you take one thing from this page, take that. The same total protection applies to other predictive cancer-gene results, such as a Lynch syndrome result, which is never askable for insurance purposes.

You can read the Code, which is published jointly by government and the industry, on the Association of British Insurers website.

The three BRCA situations, walked through

Most people arrive at this question in one of three situations. It helps to place yourself in the right one.

You are a healthy carrier. You were tested because the fault runs in your family, the result was positive, but you have never had cancer. This is the pure predictive case. The result is not disclosable, cannot be asked for, and does not affect the terms you are offered. You still answer the ordinary health and family-history questions truthfully — but the gene result itself stays out of it. Our companion piece spells this out for the specific case where you are BRCA positive and buying cover.

You have had cancer. If you have been diagnosed and treated, the cancer is disclosable in full, and any BRCA testing done as part of that care comes with it. Here the insurer underwrites the illness on its specifics rather than the gene — the type, the stage, the grade, how long since treatment ended. That is a different exercise entirely, and we set it out in why "in remission" means nothing to an underwriter.

Source: NHS England and the National Disease Registration Service, Cancer Survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2018 to 2022 — survival differs substantially by stage at diagnosis, which is why insurers underwrite the diagnosis rather than a single word.

You have risk-reducing surgery in your history. Some carriers choose preventive surgery. That is a medical procedure, and it is disclosable as part of your medical history — but the predictive gene result that prompted it is still protected. You can be truthful about the operation without surrendering the result behind it. If you are unsure how these threads separate, an FCA-authorised broker who understands the Code can help you present the picture correctly. When you are ready to see terms, you can get life insurance quotes and have exactly that done.

Why you might choose to share a result anyway

The Code restricts what an insurer may require. It does not stop you volunteering something helpful. This matters most for a negative result.

Suppose breast cancer runs in your family, you were tested, and you tested negative for the family's BRCA fault. The family history question will still be asked, and you must answer it accurately — the history is real. But a negative predictive result is favourable evidence that you are not carrying the specific fault, and you are free to offer it so the underwriter can take it into account. In a strong-family-history case that can be the difference between terms set cautiously on the history alone and terms that reflect the reassuring test.

There is a judgement in it, which is why it is worth taking with a broker rather than deciding alone at the keyboard. Volunteering a result invites the underwriter to consider it, and once considered it cannot be un-seen; in most strong-family-history cases a clear negative helps, but the sensible order is to understand how a particular insurer would treat both the history and the result before you hand either over. A broker who knows the Code can sound that out.

You are never obliged to share it. The choice is entirely yours, and the protection is a floor you can stand on, not a ceiling you must accept.

Family history is a separate question you still answer

This is where over-confidence trips people up. The genetic Code protects your test result. It does nothing to the ordinary family history question, which is a standard part of almost every application and which you must answer accurately.

If the form asks whether a parent or sibling was diagnosed with a particular cancer before a certain age, that question is fair, it is not a genetic test, and a careful, truthful answer is required. Declining to answer it, or shading it, because you feel your family history is "genetic information" is a misreading of the rules and the kind of inaccuracy that causes disputes later. The clean position is straightforward: protected predictive result stays out; honest family history goes in. If you want to understand your own inherited risk before you answer, Cancer Research UK has clear, non-commercial information on BRCA genes and family risk.

Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK

The Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance is a UK-wide agreement between government and the insurance industry, so the core protection — that a predictive BRCA result cannot be required — applies wherever in the UK you live and apply. There is no separate Scottish or Northern Irish version of the genetics rule that changes the answer.

What varies by nation, as always, is the machinery of medical evidence rather than the genetics rule. Where an insurer seeks a report from your GP with your consent, England, Wales and Scotland operate under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, while Northern Ireland uses the equivalent 1991 Order. That right to see a report before it goes to the insurer is a useful safeguard: it lets you check that a protected predictive result has not been swept into a medical report by mistake. The genetics protection is the same across the UK; only the paperwork around ordinary medical information differs.

For the wider picture, our guide to getting cover with a history, a condition or a job gathers this page together with the neighbouring genetic and medical situations.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to tell a life insurer about a positive BRCA result?

Under the Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance, signatory insurers will not ask for or take account of predictive genetic test results, with one exception: Huntington's disease for life cover above £500,000. BRCA falls outside that exception, so a predictive BRCA result is not asked for and does not have to be disclosed, at any level of cover. A diagnostic BRCA result, taken because you already had cancer, is disclosable as part of that medical history.

What is the difference between predictive and diagnostic?

A predictive test looks for a gene variant in someone with no symptoms, to estimate future risk. A diagnostic test is taken to explain symptoms or to confirm and characterise an existing condition. Predictive results are protected by the Code; diagnostic results are ordinary medical information and are treated like any other test on your record.

Can I mention a negative BRCA result to get better terms?

Yes. You may volunteer a favourable predictive result if you want it considered, and insurers can take it into account. The Code restricts what insurers may require, not what you choose to share. Family history questions must still be answered accurately either way, because the history exists independently of any test.