Critical Illness Insurance And Terminal Illness Insurance Are Two Different Policies
Today, most of us are covered by a life insurance policy, but few care to think if the coverage is enough to sustain a family on the event of the insured’s premature death. Even if that gets some concern, fewer still bother to consider what will happen if some critical illness robs them of their earning capacity. Remember, a life insurance policy will pay only if the insured dies while the policy is still in force. A critical illness insurance on the other hand pays out a lump sum if the insured contracts a critical illness covered by the policy.
Unlike a life insurance policy, a critical illness policy does not require the insured to die. Typically, such policy is bought to cover expenses incurred for the treatment of any critical illness. However, the insurer is not concerned about how you spend the money. You can spend it on actual treatment or use it to pay up debts incurred for the treatment or even to buy recuperation aids like wheel chair or something like that. The money can also help you to supplement decreased income and fund the change in lifestyle.
A critical illness policy is often bought in conjunction with a term life insurance policy. However, if you want such ‘bolt-on’ benefit, you have to buy it at the time of the policy purchase only. It is best if you talk to your broker about it. In fact, there are quite a few more products that you can consider adding as rider, but you must be aware of their full benefit before you do that; or else you will be spending your hard earned money without any benefit. That is why consulting financial experts such as an experienced broker is necessary at the time of policy purchase.
Receiving life insurance quotes is the first step towards any policy purchase and you can do that online too. The quotes are approximate price you may receive. Always receive quotes from quite a few carriers so that you can compare them and receive the widest coverage at the least possible rate. It is obvious that the quotes for different life insurance plans are going to be different. However, if you study the quotes, you will realize that for the same plan and same amount of coverage, different carriers offer different rates.
The life insurance quotes can be different for different carriers because of two main reasons.
• The guidelines that are followed to determine the insurability of a person can be different for different carriers. Hence, the rates are different too.
• The goodwill of the company also plays a good part. Talk to your broker to know more about the financial status and claim payment record of each carrier.
Term life insurance quotes are always low because it is a pure life insurance policy. Therefore, if you want a large benefit at affordable rate, visit some online broker and receive instant term life insurance quotes from multiple carriers with a single click of the mouse. You can then compare and choose. However, make sure that the broker has some contact number or address posted somewhere prominently on the homepage. Without such number or id, how will you contact them in case you have any doubt? Such a gesture also shows that they are genuine.
Although you are not buying any product from the brokers, it is important to be careful. It may be that it is just a front to collect personal information and so be a little wary of giving out too much personal information. Now, let us go back to the original topic. The term life insurance cost is very reasonable although the benefit is large. Therefore, you can add policies like critical illness insurance as a rider without undertaking any major fiscal burden. It is needless to point out that you can also buy it separately. Only go through the illness covered by the particular policy and make sure all major illness are covered by it.
Often the critical illness policy covers a very rare disease whose treatment is very expensive. Such inclusion naturally increases the premium rate. Therefore, you need to see if you want that type of coverage. You can also add Accelerated Death Benefit, also known as terminal illness insurance to your original policy so that you get a lump sum on diagnosis of any terminal illness. Remember, it is different from critical illness policy because it requires you to be certified that you are going to die within 12 months while the critical illness do not have any such specification. There are so many minute details to be aware of. That is why it is important to consult some experts first.
