Life Insurance: Accerlated Death Benefit

I hate when I misspell things and I cannot edit the title! Accelerated, accelerated, accelerated. See, I can spell.

My MO and I were talking about this yesterday. I asked him how this works. I had already checked with my policy holder(s) and both of my policies allow for an accelerated death benefit claim. One policy is 6 payable if I have less than six months to live and the other is if payable if I have less than one year to live. I asked my MO if there is a set of criteria that is used to make that determination and he said no, he just makes a factual dictation about my case. I am on my second line of defense and have had progression, I haven't had scans yet to see if this treatment is working. He told me to get the paperwork and he would do the rest.

Has anyone had experience in claiming an accelerated death benefit? I am interested in stories successful or otherwise. I haven't seen this discussed much. I wonder if it is common place. I sure would like to use some of that money for my care and for a little fun while I am still doing well.