Critical Illness Insurance

With advances in medical science improving the chances of survival after the diagnosis of a serious illness, there is a heightened need for insurance benefits designed to help protect your lifestyle after the onset of a critical illness.

Critical illness insurance coverage provides the insured with a cash lump sum in the event of the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness or death. While many homeowners take out simple life coverage, few take out any form of critical illness insurance. This is because they fail to appreciate the financial consequences of becoming seriously ill and being unable to work. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that the premiums are higher than they are used to seeing with a life policy.

Critical Illness Insurance Calculator Courtesy of Canada Life

Covered Critical Illnesses

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Aortic Surgery
• Aplastic Anaemia
• Bacterial Meningitis
• Benign Brain Tumour
• Blindness
• Coma
• Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
• Deafness
• Heart Attack
• Heart Valve Replacement
• Kidney Failure
• Life-Threatening Cancer
• Loss of Limbs
• Loss of Speech
• Major Organ Transplant on Waiting List
• Major Organ Transplant
• Motor Neuron Disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Occupational HIV Infection
• Paralysis
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Severe Burns
• Stroke

*The critical illness insured conditions identified above must meet the definitions contained in the policy.

 

The Critical Illness Cover Application Process
Those applying for critical illness cover will complete an application form. This covers matters such as: age, weight and medical conditions suffered by a policy-holder and their immediate family. This information is passed to an underwriter who determines premium levels and medical condition exclusion.

Plan Features
The following plan features come with every policy.
Flexible Term, Payment and Coverage Options
Choose from a variety of coverage and premium options to help meet your needs.

Illness Assist Benefit

• Provides you with a one time lump sum of 10% of the critical illness benefit up to $25,000.
• Payment of the illness assist benefit will not cause the policy to terminate or the critical illness benefit to be reduced by the payment of the illness assist benefit.

The illness assist benefit is provided if you receive a written diagnosis for one of the following:

• Ductal breast cancer
• Early prostate cancer
• Superficial malignant melanoma or if you undergo coronary angioplasty

Surgery Advance
Provides you with an advance of up to $15,000 of your critical illness benefit if you’re diagnosed with a critical illness as defined in the policy and you require surgery as a result of the critical illness.

Guaranteed Premium
The premium for the basic policy and any optional benefit riders, except the Second Event Rider, is guaranteed for as long as the policy remains in force.

Charitable Donation
If a critical illness benefit becomes payable, we may make a $500 donation to an approved charity of your choice. The donation is made on a non-contractual basis and is paid above any benefit payable to you.

Optional Riders

Customize your LifeAdvance critical illness insurance policy to suit your individual needs with our optional benefit riders.

Second Event Rider

Provides you with a limited amount of coverage for a second critical illness if you receive a critical illness benefit for heart attack, life-threatening cancer or stroke before age 65.

If your first claim is for heart attack or stroke, second event coverage will be provided for life-threatening cancer. If your first claim was for life-threatening cancer, second event coverage will be provided for heart attack.

Return of Premium Riders

We offer a choice of return of premium riders designed to return some or all of the eligible premium paid for the policy to the owner if you don’t suffer a critical illness.

• Return of premium at withdrawal – 4 versions of this rider are available with a variety of option dates and return of premium amounts to best suit your needs. Full and partial withdrawals are available on each of the option dates and a paid-up option is built-in to 3 of these riders.
• Return of premium at withdrawal or expiry – full and partial withdrawals are available on each of the option dates and a policy expiry benefit is built-in to each of these riders.
• Return of premium at expiry – eligible premium is returned on the policy expiry date if the policy is maintained.
• Return of premium at death – eligible premium is returned if you die from any cause.

Loss of Independent Existence Rider

A lump sum benefit is payable to the owner if this optional rider is included in the policy. If you elect this rider, the Loss of Independent Existence is included as an insured condition under the policy, increasing the number of critical illness insured conditions from 24 to 25.

Disability Waiver of Premium Rider

If you’ve been totally disabled for 90 days, we will waive the premium while your total disability continues