The insurance term for living benefits is accelerated death benefits. This allows you to be paid a portion of your death benefit from an insurance policy while you are still alive if you have a terminal, chronic, or critical illness. For terminal illness, the insured will be diagnosed with an illness that has 1 - 2 years to live. Chronic illness is based on the insured not being able to perform 2 of the 6 daily living activities (ADLs) due to an illness or accident. The 6 daily living activities are bathing & hygiene, dressing, eating, mobility, & toileting. Critical Illness is a list of diagnoses of certain diseases. 95% of the cases are heart attack, cancer, & stroke. Though the list is 12 illnesses, i.e. renal failure, major burns, major organ transplant, blindness due to diabetes, & coma to name a few. Depending on how severe the illness is, will decide the percentage of the death benefit paid for the living benefit. The more severe the illness, the higher the payment will be. Find more information by reaching out or visiting our dedicated page on the subject.
No this is a life insurance claim.
No this is a life insurance claim.
The amount paid to the insured will be reduced from the death benefit.
No, a form needs to be filled out, a doctor's statement on the insured's illness, and the medical records concerning the illness are typically what is requested.
No, most do not. The ones that state they have living benefits usually have riders for terminal illness only. All of our policies have all 3 types of illnesses to ensure the client is fully covered.
ABSOLUTELY every adult! Especially if you have a family, whether you are the breadwinner or the one staying at home raising the children. If you are a key person, it's extremely important to have living benefits. Most key person insurances only cover if the person passes away.
Most bankruptcies are due to medical issues. You may have the best medical insurance but what about paying your mortgage, car payment, putting food on the table? If you can't work for months, where do you get the money?
The only annuities we recommend are fixed indexed annuity. The interest rates for fixed indexed annuities are tied to an equity index, such as S&P index of 500 stocks. The growth opportunity fluctuates more than that of a fixed annuity, but less than the growth opportunity for a variable annuity. Index annuities carry what’s called a guaranteed minimum return. Typically, this means if you buy a fixed indexed annuity, you are guaranteed to receive at least a certain amount of your principal back, plus 1 to 3 percent interest. If your index performs consistently well, you have the potential to earn a higher return than traditional fixed annuities. If the stock market drops, you will NOT lose any of your money. So you get all the gains but none of the losses from the stock market because the money are tied to an equity index.
Often people who are considering a fixed indexed annuity are told or read that their annuity money isn’t insured
by the FDIC. While this is true, consumers can be confident their fixed annuities ARE strongly protected.
In fact each annuity already comes insured by the company who issued the annuity. And, if the insurance
company fails, it has secondary protection from the state guaranty association up to a maximum amount, as
with the FDIC, determined by each state. State guaranty associations and the guaranty funds they manage
provide a safety net for policyholders, ensuring that each annuity is protected and that policyholders will
continue to receive their annuity benefits.
Because fixed annuities are insurance products, the insurance company who issues them and the insurance
producer who sells them are regulated by the company’s state Department of Insurance. The Department is
responsible for protecting consumers and ensuring the financial health of their state’s insurance companies.
The insurance industry is a strong part of the state’s business and economic climate. Life and annuity
companies are the largest single source of bond financing for American business, holding 18 percent of all
U.S. corporate bonds.
Many people like the idea of guaranteed income for life (which they receive by electing the life
option). An income rider on a fixed indexed annuity allows the owner to build a secure retirement
income. The payout provided by the income rider is then guaranteed by the issuing insurance carrier
for the life of the annuity owner. The issuing insurance carrier bears all of the investment and longevity
risk on the guaranteed payout, which means that the consumer is completely protected from these risks.
Some annuity carriers even provide for the income to substantially increase in the event that the annuity
owner becomes confined to a nursing home, further sheltering the owner from risk. In addition, the
customer retains access to the annuity’s remaining value while continuing to reap the benefits of interest
credited to the annuity’s value.