Critical Illness Insurance

At the event I recently attended, I heard from a woman who I will refer to as Rachelle. Over 10 years ago, Rachelle received devastating news that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer while she was 5 months pregnant.

Let’s let that sink in. Not only was she concerned about her own health, but she was growing a baby and until that news had been experiencing a healthy otherwise uneventful pregnancy. The good news is that she is a cancer survivor and has a healthy 10-year-old son.

The reason I am sharing this with you today, is because I want to make sure that you have the knowledge to ensure your family is protected. I know we all think, “It won’t happen to me”. But unfortunately, I have multiple friends who were diagnosed with cancer in their 30’s and early 40’s and have seen the financial strain this puts on a family.

What surprised me in Rachelle’s story, is how she spent her critical insurance proceeds. In addition to the funds spent on a nanny, she spent over $10,000 on medication that was not covered by her provincial healthcare and over $8,000 on wigs. I never would have considered these expenses. She was fortunate that she lived in a large city and didn’t have to travel for treatment or travel out of country for experimental treatments.

Because she had critical illness insurance, she didn’t have to withdraw from her investments that were intended to be for retirement, in fact she was still able to keep contributing to her retirement savings. The critical insurance proceeds allowed her family to focus on what truly mattered, Rachelle and her son’s health.

When meeting with clients and discussing critical illness insurance I sometimes get the response of:

“I don’t need that”

“I can self insure”

“I would rather put my money towards investments”

And depending on the client’s personal situation, that might be true.

But many people don’t have significant investments outside of their RRSPs. Critical illness insurance can be extremely cost effective through term policies or if you have the excess cashflow you can invest in a permanent policies with a return of premium feature. If you never make a claim you get your money back.

Reach out if you want to chat about your situation.