Stewart Financial Services

Living Benefits

Breathe Easier… With Living Benefits

Life Insurance You Don’t Have to Die to Use…

…Gives you the option to accelerate all or a part of your death benefit, while living, if you experience a qualifying terminal, chronic, critical illness, or critical injury. The accelerated benefit riders are no additional cost and are optional, so you don’t have to use them unless you want to.
Since the benefit is unrestricted, once you qualify, you can use the benefit for any reason. Benefits might be used for, but are not limited to:

LIVING BENEFITS – Terminal Illness

Generally, if you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will result in death within 24 months or certification of the illness by a physician.
The benefit payment will be a lump sum. There is no waiting period or annual benefit limit, but there is a lifetime limit on the number of benefits you can receive across all Accelerated Benefits Riders.

You can elect to either:

  • Request the full acceleration, on a discounted basis, and use the lump-sum as you wish.
  • Choose to leave a portion of the policy’s death benefit intact and receive a partial benefit.
  • Choose to leave the policy intact for your beneficiary.

LIVING BENEFITS –Chronic Illness

A doctor has certified, within the past 12 months, that you are unable to perform two out of six “activities of daily living’ for a period of at least 90 consecutive days without assistance, or that you are cognitively impaired.

Activities of Daily Living

  1. Bathing
  2. Continence
  3. Dressing
  4. Eating
  5. Toileting
  6. Transferring

Generally, the rider needs to be in force for a period of two years.  There is an annual limit on the number of benefits you can receive.  There is also a lifetime limit on the number of benefits you can receive across all Accelerated Benefits Riders.

Note that you do not have to be in a licensed facility to receive payments and that you can apply for benefits every 12 months.  Benefits can be used for any reason (with 1 state exception), and do not need to be used for medical expenses.

If you should need it, and you qualify, after the waiting period you can:

  • Accelerate portions of your death benefit every year to receive benefit payments.
  • Leave the policy intact for your beneficiary

LIVING BENEFITS Critical – Illness or Critical Injury

Critical Illness includes:

  • ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
  • Aorta Graft Surgery
  • Aplastic Anemia
  • Blindness
  • Cancer
  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • End-Stage Renal Failure
  • Heart Attack
  • Heart Valve Replacement
  • Major Organ Transplant
  • Motor Neuron Disease
  • Stroke
  • Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Critical Injury includes:

  • Coma Paralysis
  • Severe Burns
  • Traumatic Brain Injury

The discounted benefit you receive for the critical illness or critical injury rider takes into consideration four different categories depending on the severity of the illness:

>Minor                            > Severe

>Moderate                     > Life-Threatening

The highest payout will result from the Life-Threatening category.

Generally, the rider needs to be in force for 30 days prior to diagnosis in order to accelerate. There is no annual limit, but there is a lifetime limit on the number of benefits you can receive from all Accelerated Benefits Riders.

You can elect to either:

  • Request the full acceleration, on a discounted basis, and use the lump-sum as you wish.
  • Choose to leave a portion of the policy’s death benefit intact and receive a partial benefit.
  • Choose to leave the policy intact for your beneficiary.

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