Individuals & Families

Critical Illness Insurance

Reading this sentence just gave you cancer.

Ok, stick with it for a moment.

Obviously it didn't give you cancer. And we're not making light of what is a very serious disease. But we just want you to think ... what if? Medically, systems are in place for you. But how would you cope? You'd probably have to take time off of work. Maybe you have disability, maybe not. Someone else would likely have to take time off to look after you. Bills keep coming in. You might have to pay someone to help with your kids. How are you going to pay for all that?

Getting a critical illness can devastate your finances. And when you're sick, that's the last thing you want to think about. Critical Illness Insurance helps to cover that. It can be one of the most cost-effective things you will ever do to protect your savings.

While we're imagining that, let's imagine something else a little more fun. Let's say that you start a bank account and the insurance company starts a bank account. You put $5 a month into your bank account. The insurance company puts $50,000 into their bank account. If you get sick, you and the insurance company switch accounts. That's essentially what's happening here. How it works:

30 days after a diagnosis of one of the covered conditions, you'll get a cheque for whatever amount you chose to be covered for. You can use that money however you want -- and it has no affect on your disability payments.

So, for example, if you had signed up for $100,000 of coverage, 30 days after a diagnosis you'd get a cheque for $100,000.

Question: How much does it cost?

Answer: Costs will depend on things like your amount of coverage age, gender, smoker status, and how long you want the rate guaranteed. At the low end, about the same as a couple of lattes per month. Wouldn't this be worth it to protect your family?

Question: What diseases are covered?

Answer: This will depend a lot on the insurance carrier. As an example, these are some of the conditions that are covered:

Accidental loss of limbs
Aortic surgery
Aplastic anemia
Bacterial meningitis
Blindness
Cancer (life-threatening)
Coma
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Heart attack
Heart valve replacement or repair
Kidney failure
Major organ failure on waiting list
Major organ transplant
Paralysis due to an accident
Severe burns
Stroke (cerebrovascular accident)

Question: Do I need this?

Answer: One of our clients is a single mom who was diagnosed with cancer. She had this in place and it has helped her get through a very difficult time. If that happened to you, and you knew you'd had the chance to buy this -- for very little -- and didn't, how would you feel about that choice?