How Life Insurance with Living Benefits Can Help Protect Your Financial Future
Most people buy life insurance to protect their family if they pass away. But there is another question that deserves just as much attention: What Happens if You Suffer a Heart Attack, Stroke, Cancer Diagnosis, or a Serious Chronic Illness and Survive?
Your health insurance may help cover doctors, hospital care, and treatment. But, it will not replace your lost income, make your mortgage payment, buy groceries, or cover the everyday expenses that continue while you recover. That is where life insurance with living benefits may provide an additional layer of financial protection.
Life Insurance You Can Be Able to Use While Alive
Living benefits, also known as accelerated death benefits, may allow you to access part of your life insurance policy’s death benefit while you are still alive after experiencing a qualifying illness.
Depending on the policy, benefits may be available for a qualifying:
- Critical illness
- Chronic illness
- Terminal illness
This is your money and can be used for household bills, medical expenses, replacing lost income, caregiving, home modifications, debt, or other financial needs. In many cases, there are no restrictions requiring the benefit to be used only for medical care.
This is why we often describe it as “Life Insurance You don’t have to die to be able to use.
How Living Benefits Can Help During a Serious Illness
Imagine being diagnosed with cancer and needing several months away from work. The medical expenses would be difficult enough. Now add the lost paychecks, mortgage, utilities, groceries, transportation, and other regular bills your family still has to pay.
A qualifying living-benefits payment could provide money directly to you while you are going through treatment and recovery. That financial flexibility could help you protect your savings, keep up with household expenses, and focus more of your attention on getting better.
*The exact illnesses covered and the amount available will depend on the insurance company, policy, and rider provisions.*
The Three Main Types of Living Benefits
Critical illness benefits
A critical illness rider may provide access to part of the death benefit following a qualifying condition such as a heart attack, stroke, cancer, kidney failure, or major organ transplant with many more conditions that would be covered. Covered conditions and severity requirements differ among insurance companies, so receiving a diagnosis alone does not always guarantee that a claim will qualify.
Chronic illness benefits
A chronic illness rider applies when an insured person can no longer perform a required number of activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, eating, or transferring without assistance. Some policies may also provide benefits for qualifying severe cognitive impairment. Definitions and requirements vary considerably, making it important to understand the actual policy language.
Terminal illness benefits
A terminal illness rider allows early access to part of the death benefit when a physician certifies that the insured has a limited life expectancy, usually 12 to 24 months as defined by the policy. This money could help with medical care, household expenses, debt, or simply provide more financial freedom to spend meaningful time with family.
How Is This Different From Standard Life Insurance?
Traditional life insurance is primarily designed to pay beneficiaries after the insured person passes away. A policy with living benefits still provides life insurance protection, but it can also give the policyholder access to money following a qualifying illness while they are alive.
Using living benefits will generally reduce the amount eventually paid to beneficiaries. The payment may also be discounted or subject to fees, depending on how the rider is structured. That is why two policies with the same death benefit are not automatically equal. The definitions, exclusions, benefit calculations, and covered conditions all matter.
Does Your Current Policy Include Living Benefits?
Many people have life insurance through work or own a policy purchased years ago without knowing exactly what it covers. Your current policy may include an accelerated death benefit, but it may only cover terminal illness. Other policies may offer broader critical or chronic illness protection.
Before replacing or purchasing coverage, have your current policy reviewed. Replacing life insurance can involve new underwriting, a new contestability period, new surrender charges, and other important considerations.
At the Shanley Insurance Agency, we can help you review what you currently have and compare it with today’s living benefits life insurance options in South Carolina.
Protect More Than the People You Leave Behind
Life insurance should protect your family after you are gone. The right policy may also help protect your income, savings, home, and financial independence while you are still here. Living benefits cannot prevent a serious illness. But they may help prevent that illness from becoming a financial crisis for your family.
The Shanley Insurance Agency has been helping families since 1999. As a trusted independent agency, we can compare life insurance options from multiple companies and help you understand which living-benefit provisions may fit your needs.
Do not wait until your health changes to find out what your life insurance will actually do. Contact the Shanley Insurance Agency today for a complimentary policy review and living-benefits consultation. We are you Living Benefits Specialist here in Upstate SC and have been trusted since 1999.
Call (864) 868-5194 or visit www.shanleyscagency.com to get started.
Living benefits are subject to policy terms, qualifying conditions, exclusions, benefit limits, and insurance-company approval. Accessing an accelerated benefit will reduce the policy’s death benefit and may affect other policy values. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances. Consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice.
