October 2025 Council Message
Did you know some life insurance policies include living benefits?
Do yours?
Certain policies offer benefits during your lifetime – these are known as “living benefits.”
One such benefit is a whole life insurance policy’s cash value, which can grow taxdeferred. You can access it during your lifetime either through a partial loan or a full surrender of the policy, or as collateral. You would have this at your disposal to help with a down payment, tuition, to supplement your income in retirement, or in case of emergency.
Secondly, living benefit riders, which you can add to a whole life policy, can help make funds available to you if you’re diagnosed with a chronic or terminal illness.
No one expects a devastating diagnosis, but if it happens, you’ll be able to put your whole life insurance policy to work immediately — while you and your family need it.
One of those riders is the new Chronic Illness Armor rider, which helps guard your family against the financial strain of a chronic health diagnosis. For a modest premium, this rider allows you to access your policy death benefit to cover mortgage payments, medical bills or any other expenses that come in the wake of a chronic illness. There are no restrictions on what you can use the accelerated benefits for!
The Terminal Illness Rider will also accelerate your death benefit and can help provide funds if you receive a terminal diagnosis that shortens your life expectancy. Like the Chronic Illness Armor rider, this benefit can be used to cover anything from a family trip to end-of-life expenses.
In short, life insurance with living benefit riders can help your family prepare not just for an unexpected death, but also serious illness through a means that allows you to use your benefits during your lifetime. It’s a daunting scenario to consider, but if it does happen, financial relief is possible.
Set up time to meet with me, and we’ll create a personalized insurance plan that matches your needs. Thank you!
Cash value growth is gradual and may take time to accumulate. Loans and withdrawals will reduce the policy’s cash value and death benefit, may result in a taxable event, and could cause the policy to lapse if not properly managed. Policy loans accrue interest. These riders are only available at the time of life insurance policy issue.
The Chronic Illness Rider and Terminal Illness Rider provide life insurance benefits that give policyholders the option to accelerate some or all of the death benefit in the event that they meet the criteria for a qualifying event described in the certificate. Chronic illness must be recertified every 12 months by a medical professional to continue to receive benefits. The chronic illness armor rider and the terminal illness rider are not long-term care insurance and are not meant to replace long-term care coverage. The Terminal Illness Rider is automatically added to all permanent policies over $50,000 at no additional cost. There is an additional premium for the Chronic Illness Rider.
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