There are additional benefits associated with our life Insurance and annuity solutions provided by optional riders. We call them Living Benefits, and we have been providing them since 1937. Based on the product, living benefits can provide benefits should a qualifying terminal, chronic or critical illness or critical injury occur1, or if your desire is to have an income that you cannot outlive.
The Accelerated Benefit Riders allow you to receive a partial or full acceleration of the eligible insured’s death benefit if the insured has a qualifying medical condition. There are no premiums for these riders; however the Accelerated Benefit Rider will pay a discounted accelerated benefit for the amount of the death benefit you choose to accelerate on your policy. The death benefit will be discounted because it is being paid prior to the actual time of death. As a result, the amount of the actual accelerated benefit paid will be less than the amount of the death benefit requested for acceleration. Receipt of an accelerated benefit payment may be a taxable event. You should consult a tax advisor regarding the tax status of any benefit paid under these Riders. Accelerated benefits may affect your eligibility for Medicaid, supplemental security income, or other government benefits or entitlements. The maximum cumulative Death Benefit that can be accelerated is the lesser of the total Death Benefit on the policy or $2,000,000. The maximum cumulative death benefit includes the base policy and primary riders that are accelerated.
With an accelerated death benefit rider, several events in your life could give you early access to the large portion of the death benefit of your life insurance policy in event of qualified illness:
Before you can purchase life insurance, you need to qualify for it.
We will ask you to provide us with information that we then use in what is called underwriting. This is the process that an insurance company uses to determine risk.
Second, all of this information is provided to an underwriter. An underwriter is someone who is specially trained to assess your application and determine what risk, if any, may exist. Once all of your information has been reviewed, the company will either approve or deny your request. That process can take days or weeks depending on the information received.
Lastly, your agent will contact you and go over the results of your underwriting and details of your policy.
Living Benefits may be provided by optional Accelerated Benefits Riders.
Riders are supplemental benefits that can be added to a life insurance policy and are not suitable unless you also have a need for life insurance. Riders are optional, may require additional premium and may not be available in all states or on all products. This is not a solicitation of any specific insurance policy.
Payment of Accelerated Benefits will reduce the Cash Value and Death Benefit otherwise payable under the policy. Receipt of Accelerated Benefits may be a taxable event and may affect your eligibility for public assistance programs. Please consult your personal tax advisor to determine the tax status of any benefits paid under this rider and with social service agencies concerning how receipt of such a payment will affect you.
