By far the best time to arrange critical illness and/or life insurance is when it is the last thought on your mind. Not top of mind. Take a typical young preson. He or she is at the beginning of their career, perhaps living at home, but thinking of looking around for an apartment or a flat or maybe even a house. He or she has a vehicle and the auto insurance that has been arranged for it was most likely their first step in the insurance ladder. And it was a learning experience in a foreign world.
If He or she decided to apply for some life insurance, while they are still young, in shape and healthy. they would get the best possible rates, if there was no dismal family health history. Probably the most valuable insurance at this stage is Critical Illness (CI) coverage.
While life insurance is designed to pay out to your beneficiaries if you pass away, Critical Illness coverage will give you
valuable support if you become critically ill. In our example, our young person, beginning their career, an illness of this type could be a huge financial disaster. It is a fact that one in three people will develop cancer at some time in their lives, but the good news is that treatment and cure rates are improving all the time. However, the costs are still there, the cure is very expensive and rarely covered by government or private health plans.
Advances in medical science thankfully mean that more and more people will survive many of the major serious illnesses.
Unfortunately this recovery can take many months, or even years and necessitate long period of time off work, with little
or no pay depending upon the employer and benefit package. It may not be possible to carry on with the same work, meaning a change of career. In some cases it may be necessary to change your home or car or both.
Without CI coverage, he would probably find that his company would pay his salary for around three months and after that our young person would have to rely on the disability benefit. For those on contract work and the self-employed the situation is even worse.
CI insurance will pay out a lump sum to cover your expenses and leave you to concentrate on your treatment and recovery. There is a very wide range of CI policies available. All will cover what are know as “Core Conditions”, which are Cancer, Stroke, or Heart Attack. Some will cover up to 23 additional conditions.
At the time of purchase of the policy, the medical conditions for which you would be covered should be fully listed. Go
through this carefully and make sure that you understand any exclusions within the coverage of the policy.
It is essential to fill in the application form very carefully. Your broker or agent would be familiar with the form and
is your best resource here. If you fail to disclose a previous illness or condition, then you may find that the insurers
will refuse to pay out when the insurance is required. Normally, the underwriter will ask for an Attending Physician's
Statement to avoid this happen. Our typical young person should be fine here, as long as he makes sure that He or she discloses all illnesses, no matter how minor they seemed at the time. The older you get, the more conditions and illnesses there are to remember and the greater chance you’ll forget something which you thought was trivial.
Having got CI coverage sorted, this would be an excellent time for our young person to arrange some simple life insurance. Simple life insurance is reasonably priced and offers important cover. A term insurance policy will run for a set number of years. If the policyholder should die during this period, a lump sum would be paid to his dependants. Even if there are no dependants when the young man first takes this coverage out, there may be loans and other debts and maybe some fairly “light” coverage, for a limited term would be a good step to take.
Our smart young person does not even have to waste their valuable time chasing insurance. A quick email to
barrie@jantzifinancial.com or a simple phone call to 1-800-878-1952 Ext 0 he can receive a no obligation quote.
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