Disability, or Income Protection Insurance (IPI) is an insurance policy, available in Nova Scotia, paying benefits to policyholders who are incapacitated and hence unable to work due to illness or accident. IPI policies were formerly called Permanent Health Insurance (PHI).

The lifestyle you enjoy, your children’s college education, and your savings for a comfortable retirement all depend on your ability to earn a living. If you were suddenly unable to work and had less money coming in, plus additional money going out to cover medical expenses and other bills related to your disability, where would the money come from to replace your lost income?

With your own private plan, you can customize the plan to suit your needs, choose your benefit period (how long you will receive benefits), choose your elimination period (how soon you will receive benefits after the disability occurs), choice of premium options to fit your budget or career stage, purchase additional benefits to add further protection against inflation, for retirement funding, or a return of premium in the event no claims are made. Considering 1 out of 3 people will become disabled for over 90 days before the Age of 65 and that the average disability that lasts over 90 days is 2.9 years, protecting one’s income in the event of accident or illness should be a top priority.

Insurance Benefits

Income protection insurance. policies offer a number of benefits in comparison to other insurance policies such as accident, sickness and unemployment insurance or personal accident and sickness (PAS):

• Benefits are payable when the policyholder becomes incapacitated and after the deferred period has passed and continue until the earliest of death, recovery of health, retirement or the term of the contract.
• Benefits are paid regularly (usually weekly or monthly) and are free of tax.
  The insurance company cannot cancel or refuse to renew the policy provided that the policyholder continues to pay the premiums.
• A waiver of premium option may be provided whereby premiums for the IPI policy are not required while benefits are being paid from the policy, but the policy cover continues as normal.

Critical illness insurance or critical illness cover is an insurance product, where the insurer is contracted to typically make a lump sum cash payment if the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses listed in the insurance policy.

Critical Illness Insurance was designed to provide financial assistance in the form of a lump sum, tax free payout to help you cope with the stress and difficulties associated with such an event. The benefit is paid on first diagnosis of one of a list of critical illnesses. Coverage can be issued from $10,000 up to $2,000,000.

There are no stipulations on how the money is used. You can use it to pay off debts and mortgage, supplement income, pay for experimental treatments not offered in Canada, to get quicker treatment outside of Canada, take an extended vacation or to make alterations to your home that may be necessary because of your new condition.

There are 23 covered illnesses; the four illnesses that make up most of the claims are Cancer, Heart Attack, Stroke, and Coronary Bypass Surgery.

The average age of people who make a claim is 49.

Heart Disease, Stroke and Cancer are the leading health issues facing Canadians today, in fact, 39% of Canadians will develop cancer during their lifetimes, there are over 70,000 heart attacks each year, and every 10 minutes, one person in Canada has a stroke.

Medical advances have dramatically improved Life Expectancy, but we all remain vulnerable to possible illnesses. Odds are you or somebody you know will experience a medical setback at some point and survive. Make sure you are aware of the potential costs of care and recovery and that your benefits will meet your needs or you will have to rely on your hard earned savings and investments to bridge the gap.

Here is the best part: if you are fortunate enough to have never made a claim, your premiums will be returned to you any time after 10 years, 15 years or at the ages of 65 or 75.

Long-term care insurance (LTC or LTCI) helps provide for the cost of long-term care beyond a predetermined period. Long-term care insurance covers care generally not covered by the traditional or provincial health insurance.

There is a real chance that at some point in your life you may need to enter a long term care facility or receive special medical care in your home. This type of care does not come cheap, and depending on the level of care you may want or need, the cost may not be provided by your government health plan.

With the benefit of long term care insurance you may not have to withdraw your savings, or fully rely on other sources of funding. If a person requires assistance to perform 2 or more of the 6 activities of daily living (Bathing, Dressing, Toileting, Continence, Transferring, and Feeding) or if continual supervision is required because of deteriorated mental condition, then they would qualify for benefits between $150-$2000/week.

Given the current demographic situation and the fact that life expectancies are on the rise these plans are becoming more and more an essential part of retirement planning.