What are living benefits?
Living benefits are available in term, whole and universal life policies.
For further clarification, living benefits kick in in cases of chronic, critical or terminal diagnoses. Listed below are examples of each case:
Critical Illness: Critically ill means you’ve been diagnosed with a health condition such as a heart attack, stroke, cancer, end stage renal failure, ALS, a major organ transplant, blindness, or paralysis resulting from specific underlying conditions.
Chronic Illness: Chronically ill means you’re no longer able to perform, without substantial assistance from another person for a period of at least 90 days, at least two out of the six Activities of Daily Living, or you require substantial supervision by another person for a period of at least 90 consecutive days.
Terminal Illness: Terminally ill means you have a medical condition, resulting from bodily injury or disease, or both, which is expected to result in death within 12 months of diagnosis.
Imagine taking out a 30-year term policy that will cover you for $500,000 should you pass in that time period. 10 years have gone by, so your term policy is still in effect when you go to the doctor for your annual check-up. This visit is different because you have experienced belabored breathing lately. The doctor runs a few tests, and it's worse than you imagined. You have just been diagnosed with the chronic condition COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder).
You have health insurance, but will that be enough to pay for the ongoing treatment? Thankfully, 10 years ago you qualified for and purchased LIVING BENEFITS with your lift insurance policy, which allows you to make a claim on your $500,000 while you are still alive. Now according to the severity of the disease, you will be able to draw out a percentage of the death benefit while you are STILL ALIVE and be able to get through this chronic condition with plenty of financial assistance!
This is just one of the examples of how living benefits truly are a lifesaver.