Critical Illness Plan Comparisons

[0b1kanobee]

I have three companies which offer critical illness plans or at least I know one of them does (Assurity).
1) Assurity
2) GTL
3) Washington National

Unfortunately I don't know a whole lot about them. Assurity seems relatively easy to understand. Is anybody familiar with the others I mentioned and how they stack up?

While on a life appointment, the prospect told me she had health insurance through work but it wasn't the greatest. She picked the plan with the least amount of muscle (for lack of a better word).

I've searched through some other threads but between the Rabbi shilling his deal (something about an $800,000 website no offense to Rabbi BTW) and others just going off on a tangent or being old threads, I can't find anything of real value.

This is not m area of expertise and I don't know any agents who are any more knowledgeable here locally than I am on CI.

From what I gathered she's looking for a lump sum payout like Assurity offers and a daily confinement or hospital benefit like GTL (if I understand their plan correctly). Not sure about Washington National. I've read them over but haven't studied any of them in depth. She's looking for something this week.

Looking for some ideas for her and future prospects I guess.

 

[5starfinancialhealth]

Ive worked a lot with CI policies. The best carrier to offer them through is with Mutual Of Omaha. Basically how it work's is very similar to a disability policy.

If you have a critical Illness such as a heart attack, stroke, cancer...etc it will pay out the policy amount selected. How I market them is as a deductible protection on catastrophic plan's.

If anything catastrophic happen's 5 out of 10 times it will be from a critical illness and the other half would be from something like a car accident or something. When its a critical illness, the client can use the payout and apply that towards the deductible.

 

[0b1kanobee]

Ive worked a lot with CI policies. The best carrier to offer them through is with Mutual Of Omaha. Basically how it work's is very similar to a disability policy.

If you have a critical Illness such as a heart attack, stroke, cancer...etc it will pay out the policy amount selected. How I market them is as a deductible protection on catastrophic plan's.

If anything catastrophic happen's 5 out of 10 times it will be from a critical illness and the other half would be from something like a car accident or something. When its a critical illness, the client can use the payout and apply that towards the deductible.

Have you ever compared it with any of the ones I mentioned? I do have MOO in my bag.
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I just ran an Assurity quote vs. a MOO and the premium is neck and neck. From what I can see, the benefits are the same but I haven't put either under a microscope so I'm not sure of any differences yet.

Anybody know what if any differences there are between them?

 

[AllenChicago]

The last time I wrote a Mutual of Omaha Critical Ilness policy we had to SWAB the applicants mouth and then call MOO for the telephone interview, give the phone to the applicant and then leave the room until the interview concluded...about 20 minutes! All this for a 60% commission.

This was in 2002. Hopefully, MOO is a bit more streamlined now.

Assurity sent out a nice graphic last week comparing their 3 Critical Illness plans against whom they feel is their primary competition.

Here's a link to a page that contains a link to a full-page PDF brochure:
Why Assurity's CI?

Good luck OB1!

-Allen

 

[sdmillar]

Standard Life has a very good CI plan that has lump sum payout and the option of adding a monthly payment to cover mortgage up to $1500 per month. The monthly benefit payment does not HAVE to go to cover a mortgage, just an additional sum of money available if unable to work while recovering from a critical illness.

When I checked their rates they seemed to be quite a bit better than Assurity.

Feel free to contact me with questions.

 

[Newby]

Have you ever compared it with any of the ones I mentioned? I do have MOO in my bag.
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I just ran an Assurity quote vs. a MOO and the premium is neck and neck. From what I can see, the benefits are the same but I haven't put either under a microscope so I'm not sure of any differences yet.

Anybody know what if any differences there are between them?

If everything else is equal I would go with Assurity simply because they won't try to direct mail market products to your client after you bring them to them.

 

[leenow65]

Standard Life and Accident has the best rates on most cases. We also sell Assurity, United American, MOO, Am. General. You should look hard at what illnesses are covered in each plan and the cost when discussing with clients. Some only cover 5 and some cover as many as 18 conditions. Let me know if you need more information.

 

[HealthGuy]

GTL's stripped down critical illness the cancer, heart attack, and stroke only policy - the CHS policy is a good policy. Only two questions for eligibility, no MIB or medical records, good pricing, regeneration benefit if cancer comes back, covers sking cancer and cancer in situ with lump sum payout an excellent policy! And no, I don't work for them!

 

[Full Throttle]

This is a product I have a tough time getting behind. Selling it as a high medical deductible gap product doesn't sit well for me since it will not pay in most cases when someone hits their deductible. If it's me, I would rather put the premiums in my HSA.

From a pure income protection standpoint, I would rather have a comprehensive DI policy (policies I have written have paid out in many instances that would not be covered by a critical illness or accident plan). I understand the concept, cash up front, but the people who need that cash can rarely afford proper medical, life, disability, and fund their retirement and still have money left over for critical illness. JMO.

That being said, I sold my first one last week. A client had it through a group plan that had poor policy language and she wanted to keep it. I said fine, but let's at least do it more effectively.

 

[0b1kanobee]

This is a product I have a tough time getting behind. Selling it as a high medical deductible gap product doesn't sit well for me since it will not pay in most cases when someone hits their deductible. If it's me, I would rather put the premiums in my HSA.

From a pure income protection standpoint, I would rather have a comprehensive DI policy (policies I have written have paid out in many instances that would not be covered by a critical illness or accident plan). I understand the concept, cash up front, but the people who need that cash can rarely afford proper medical, life, disability, and fund their retirement and still have money left over for critical illness. JMO.

That being said, I sold my first one last week. A client had it through a group plan that had poor policy language and she wanted to keep it. I said fine, but let's at least do it more effectively.

75% of the people I deal with (unless it is an annuity or retirement plan) just don't want to take the time to sit down and really get into what's best for them. They are willing to spend some time but not enough to really really be educated and informed the way I would prefer them to be.

I can't fire 75% of my prospects who are ready to buy. They aren't time wasters or tire kickers they just don't want to take the time to really analyze what the 'BEST' plan for them is and quit frankly sometimes just when you think you have the absolute 'best' plan, in a matter of months something better comes along or you spend so much time trying to do the absolute 'BEST' thing and then they are no longer interested.

It's like that saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink".

My new approach going forward with these type of prospects in a lot of cases is going to be GET THEM SOMETHING. It may not be the best BUT I can usually come back to the table with the 'BEST' later if I think it's that big of an issue and I'm losing sleep over it.

I do the best I can to offer as many options as I can. I know a lot of agents who only represent two or three companies and often ONE for each category (CI, DI, life, annuity, ect.).

My point is, you can't always tell your client what they can't or can't do or necessarily what you would do.

I remember sitting with one couple on my second meeting and they had expressed interest in having a pool put in. I told them there really wasn't enough money in their portfolio for a pool let alone the upkeep. Well they had called their current adviser where they had their money and he told them that was nonsense and to go ahead and have a pool put in. They fired me.