Thanks to advancements in medicine, people today are often expected to survive a life-altering critical illness. But how would you and your family handle the financial impact of such an illness?
By incorporating critical illness insurance into your financial security plan, you may be able to maintain your family’s lifestyle while you recover from a covered condition, including life-threatening cancer, heart attack and stroke. Having a plan in place means that, if you’re faced with a severe illness, you can focus on your recovery.
It’s simple: Critical illness insurance can provide you with a lump sum tax-free payment in the event that you develop a covered critical illness. This may be particularly important if you’re one of your household’s primary income earners and have dependents, such as children or elderly parents.
If you have critical illness insurance and become ill with a covered condition – and you meet the survival period requirement – you’ll receive a tax-free lump sum cash payment you can use however you want. Pay for in-home medical assistance, access private or out-of-country treatment, cover the cost of medications and medical devices, put money towards the mortgage or take time away with your family to recuperate – it’s up to you.
Developing a critical illness could have a significant impact on your plans to retire by forcing you to take money out of your retirement savings to cover expenses. By providing you with some financial relief, critical illness insurance could help keep your retirement plans on track.
While the chance of developing a life-altering illness increases with age, it’s important to note that such an ailment can affect anyone. Consider that there are roughly 70,000 heart attacks and 50,000 strokes in Canada each year – that’s a heart attack every seven minutes and a stroke every 10 minutes. Take a moment now to use our handy risk calculator to know your risk of experiencing a critical illness.
The return of premium option on critical illness insurance allows you to receive up to 100% of your premiums back if you never make a claim.
A life-altering critical illness can affect more than just your finances. That’s why we provide medical support through Best Doctors, a service that provides you with access to the expert opinions of 53,000 peer-nominated physicians to help you find the right diagnosis and treatment information. We also offer emotional support through Shepell, which provides a variety of counselling services.
