If you consider the stats on Disability, (1 in 4 people will become disabled before retirement), and you are in an occupation that doesn't qualify for Disability Cover, then Functional Impairment Cover must be a very serious consideration for you.
The rules on Disability Cover are very strict and a claim is only valid if you are permanently disabled and cannot do your own job, in which case you get paid 100% of the benefit amount. With Functional Impairment Cover there are conditions under which you could get full or partial payouts even if you are still able to do your job.
It is for this reason that some people opt to have both Disability and Functional Impairment Cover, but with Triarc you don’t have to. Your Triarc Disability Cover policy has a layer of Functional Impairment Cover built in. Read more under Disability Cover.
Functional Impairment Cover looks at the extent to which your ability to do normal daily activities has been impacted on by an injury or disease. The policy rules are then applied to determine the percentage payout you will receive.
Normal daily activities include things like walking, washing, eating, etc and doesn’t mean that you cannot work and earn an income.
Because Functional Impairment Cover pays a percentage of your benefit amount based on the severity of your impairment, you could claim more than once on the same policy should you become further impaired by another injury or disease.
The policy therefor stays in force until the benefit amount had been exhausted.
As with Disability Cover, a "rule of thumb" is to aim for Functional Impairment Cover equal to 10 times your annual salary plus current debt.
The actual calculation is quite a bit more complicated and take a few other variables into consideration, but you don’t have to worry about this, our call center agent will assist you every step of the way!
There may be good reasons to opt for a premium pattern with Functional Impairment Cover but you should consider this very carefully. Discuss this with your Triarc Agent to make sure you understand the pros and cons and impact on your Life Insurance portfolio.
A premium pattern allows you to pay a reduced premium initially for the same benefit, but an increased premium later on due to the fact that the premium is increased annually by the premium pattern percentage.
You will most likely want to keep your Functional Impairment Cover until retirement so make sure you don't end up in a situation where the premium becomes too expensive in later years because of an aggressive premium pattern.
You will have to decide between Core or Comprehensive Functional Impairment Cover.
The Core Functional Impairment Cover option always pays 100% of the benefit amount, but has very strict criteria before you will be eligible for a claim. (keeping in mind that you may be eligible to claim even if you are still able to do your job)
The Comprehensive Functional Impairment Cover option also pays 100% of the benefit amount using the strict criteria or you could be eligible for a 50% payment with slightly relaxed criteria.
A premium guarantee on your Functional Impairment Cover policy means that your premium cannot be increased during that time. (over and above the premium pattern and benefit growth you chose).
If you opt out of a premium guarantee you are likely to get a cheaper quote, but your premium may increase annually based on the risk experience of the insurer.
Functional Impairment Cover can be taken as a standalone policy if that is all you need or you could combine it with Life Cover to capitalize on some of the advantages of doing that.
When you combine policies, your first consideration is whether to "accelerate" the benefits from the different policies or not.
The main advantage of accelerating benefits is that it makes it more affordable to have different types of cover. (example Life and Disability or Life and Functional impairment as appose to only Life Cover)
The main disadvantage is that if you claim on your Functional Impairment Cover policy, your Life Cover is reduced by the same amount.
If this happens you could find yourself in a situation where you have very little or no Life Cover available to help your family or loved ones when you are no longer around.