One company has taken advisor and consumer complaints and created a new critical illness product.
Advisors will be casting an envious eye south of the border at Trustmark Insurance Company after they designed a new product that will “revolutionize” the way critical illness insurance is viewed.
"It was time to build a product that consumers can use throughout their lifetime, and not just when they are seriously ill," said Julie Pohjola, Assistant Vice President, Product Management, Trustmark. "And that's a very different way of thinking about Critical Illness insurance."
The new patent-pending product designed after extensive consumer research “will revolutionize the way consumers, brokers and employers view critical illness insurance.”
"This was developed 100 per cent from consumer feedback, and contains product features that have never before been introduced in the critical illness insurance marketplace," said Dan Johnson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Trustmark. "We learned from our research that essentially the products of today were not meeting the needs of consumers. It was an eye-opening experience, and we knew we had to make some big changes."
The Critical LifeEvents product features:
• Allow more benefits for early identification and early stage diagnosis, as this is typically how many illnesses are diagnosed due to preventive measures and medical advancement
• Pay multiple benefits as a disease progresses (i.e. for the full stage of illness from early identification through early-stage and late-stage diagnoses)
• Help eliminate consumer confusion over what triggers a benefit and how they are paid, including offering a replenishing annual benefit and eliminating separation periods between illnesses
• Offer benefits aside from those available solely when a policyholder gets sick to enable consumers to use their policy even when they are healthy, such as:
• Caregiver benefits, which include the resources of a second opinion service
• More preventive benefits to encourage policyholders to stay healthy
• Waive premiums during a critical illness without requiring a disability
• Deliver protection from other conditions not typically covered in a policy today, such as complications of diabetes and central nervous infections
• Offer a benefit when a policyholder is struggling to meet two or more activities of daily living (ADLs) because of a critical illness
• Offer more affordable options for conditions most likely to occur such as heart attack, cancer and stroke
Critical LifeEvents is currently ready for proposals, with effective dates beginning in the first quarter of 2016.
"It was time to build a product that consumers can use throughout their lifetime, and not just when they are seriously ill," said Julie Pohjola, Assistant Vice President, Product Management, Trustmark. "And that's a very different way of thinking about Critical Illness insurance."
The new patent-pending product designed after extensive consumer research “will revolutionize the way consumers, brokers and employers view critical illness insurance.”
"This was developed 100 per cent from consumer feedback, and contains product features that have never before been introduced in the critical illness insurance marketplace," said Dan Johnson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Trustmark. "We learned from our research that essentially the products of today were not meeting the needs of consumers. It was an eye-opening experience, and we knew we had to make some big changes."
The Critical LifeEvents product features:
• Allow more benefits for early identification and early stage diagnosis, as this is typically how many illnesses are diagnosed due to preventive measures and medical advancement
• Pay multiple benefits as a disease progresses (i.e. for the full stage of illness from early identification through early-stage and late-stage diagnoses)
• Help eliminate consumer confusion over what triggers a benefit and how they are paid, including offering a replenishing annual benefit and eliminating separation periods between illnesses
• Offer benefits aside from those available solely when a policyholder gets sick to enable consumers to use their policy even when they are healthy, such as:
• Caregiver benefits, which include the resources of a second opinion service
• More preventive benefits to encourage policyholders to stay healthy
• Waive premiums during a critical illness without requiring a disability
• Deliver protection from other conditions not typically covered in a policy today, such as complications of diabetes and central nervous infections
• Offer a benefit when a policyholder is struggling to meet two or more activities of daily living (ADLs) because of a critical illness
• Offer more affordable options for conditions most likely to occur such as heart attack, cancer and stroke
Critical LifeEvents is currently ready for proposals, with effective dates beginning in the first quarter of 2016.
