Did you know, Critical Illness and Disability work together - but they are quite different.
Disability will only pay you if you are ill or injured (depending on your policy) and cannot work. You must also satisfy your waiting time that you have chosen. For some people this is 0 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or 120 days as an example. So, let’s say you have cancer and you have a 90 day wait on your policy. You have to wait 90 days before you can make a claim.
Whereas, if you had critical illness, as long as you met the definition of the cancer, critical illness will pay out 30 days after the diagnosis. This can be quite crucial for you to have the money right away vs the 90 day wait. Disability is meant to keep the roof over your head. It is going to pay for the life you have today as you know it. This will be used to pay the mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities, groceries, cable, internet and whatever else you need to keep things going. There’s no extra money here for any unforeseen expenses that can come with illnesses.
The critical illness insurance pays out where the disability insurance fails to do so. The insurance covers those necessary gaps, and top the employee off financially to ensure that they have enough funds to survive.
Also, critical illness insurance covers those medical expenses that are not covered by healthcare insurance plans, such as deductibles, copays, and non-covered options.
This is why critical illness and disability are both equally as important. Picking one over the other is definitely a gamble as to what may happen to you. Having life insurance is great, however, you should add disability and critical illness to your insurance portfolio because you are more likely to suffer an injury or an illness vs a death. Living through these illnesses and/or injuries can be quite expensive and if you don’t have the insurance, where are you going to take the money from? Some people use their savings, some people will use a line of credit and some will use their credit card. All of those options either put you further into debt or reduce your retirement.
If you would like to know more about your insurance plans, or if you have any questions about either of these plans, I'll be happy to talk to you! Book a 20 minute call with me here.
