Accelerated Life Insurance Benefit

Elm55,

A year ago, I was checking to see if my life insurance policy had any terminal illness clause. I found that I could receive up to 50% payout if my doctor signed off that I had less than 1 year to live based on my diagnosis and current health status. The remaining 50% benefit would be paid out upon my death. In talking to my life insurance agent, it seemed like was a very easy process if my doctor completed the paperwork.

I did mention this to my doctor at the time as a discussion point and he said he had completed that paperwork previously for other patients when their health was in serious decline and were expected, in his opinion, to meet the "less than 1 year" criteria. I'm not at that point right now, but now I know that option is available. I know I would have to be extremely sick with a very poor prognosis before my doctor would consider signing the paperwork. Just having Stage IV breast cancer does not meet the criteria for my life insurance benefit payout, as so far I've lived 3 1/2 years with this diagnosis and am looking to extend that time as long as possible!

So, in general, life insurance policies are written differently and each person should research their policy to determine their policy's available benefits.

Yeah,

I had the same question. I spoke to my insurance and they said if I had less than a year they would payout a certain amount with the balance going to my beneficiary. I haven't had the conversation with my doctor since its only been a year since my dx and I am doing pretty well. It sure would be nice to take my family on a nice long vacation before I get to sick to enjoy it!

Ronnie