Value Added Benefits of Life Insurance

Imagine finding out you have cancer, a brain tumour or Multiple Sclerosis.

Your world is falling apart, but who do you turn to?

Friends and family will be supportive, but they won’t have a clue about how you’re feeling or how to help you cope.

You can visit Dr Google and scare yourself with the half-assed advice you’ll find on a forum.

Or you can access the value-added benefits available for free on your life insurance, mortgage or income protection policy.

Apart from Paying Out on Death, What Else Does Life Insurance Do?

All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

It’s a shame that most people don’t know about the additional benefits of a life insurance policy, so in this article, I’m going to lift the veil and show you how life insurance can help you in ways you never thought possible.

It could save your life:

From a colleague in the UK:

Recently, I was told of a case where a woman with young children had been told to clear her diary for the next six months because she was going to go through gruelling cancer treatment (30 rounds of chemotherapy, after already having two surgeries and 16 biopsies). In her words, “I ceased to function”. On the way to her first chemotherapy appointment, Best Doctors‘ clinical director personally rang her and told her that they had retested her pathology results and she didn’t in fact have cancer, and shouldn’t under any circumstance have the treatment. Their expert second medical opinion service had identified that she had an autoimmune condition, not cancer.

You see, life insurance isn’t all about the monetary payout – of course, that’s the most important part, but there are so many more good things on offer that you probably aren’t aware of.

Are you ready?

What are the Value-added Benefits of Life Insurance?

Recently, more and more life insurance providers offer free additional services such as

Digital GPs
Second Medical Opinions
Mental Health Support
Bereavement Counselling
Physiotherapy
Get Fit Programme

Why have they introduced these benefits?

Let’s not kid ourselves – the main reason is to differentiate themselves from their competitors so they can win more business.

But there is a powerful secondary benefit – building trust in life insurance.

The chances of you using one of these services are far greater than making a claim.

It’s fairly typical for a client to say the support they received from the insurer was even more valuable than the payout itself.

Insurers value word of mouth like this, so they love customers sharing stories about their experiences with a service like Best Doctors.

Think about your car insurance.

Thankfully, I’ve never been in an accident.

But I used the breakdown assist service – several times!

I once locked myself and my 10-year-old daughter out of the car on Inch Beach, in Co. Kerry, during a surfing session.

There we were, freezing, in wetsuits, Chloe trying to hold it together, waiting for the breakdown assist guy to come and rescue us.

Thankfully, he could.

Out of gratitude, that car insurer has me as a customer for life.

Can Your Whole Family Use These Services?

These services are available to you and your family for free at any time.

When it comes to life insurance, a common objection is:

I don’t get anything from my life insurance if I don’t die

You can all of these services while you’re above ground.

The monetary payout of a life insurance policy will help protect your family financially.

Simultaneously, the softer benefits (a friendly listening ear, practical information, and much-needed support for you and your family) will help protect them emotionally.

Let’s look at each provider’s benefits, starting with the market leader, Aviva!

Aviva | Aviva Care

Aviva Care, powered by Teladoc Health, offers comprehensive health and well-being services for Aviva customers and their families.

These services include:

Digital GP for online medical consultations
Best Doctors for second medical opinions from world-renowned specialists
Family Care for mental health support through counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Bereavement Support for confidential counselling.

Royal London | Helping Hand Benefit

Royal London’s Helping Hand is a support service with new protection policies bought through a broker.

It provides personal support from a dedicated nurse from RedArc, helping individuals and families cope with serious illness, chronic conditions, bereavement, and disabilities.

The service offers emotional support, practical advice, and access to specialist therapies, all at no extra cost.

Helping Hand is available from the start of the policy and extends to the policyholder’s partner and children.

RedArc nurses are always available; there’s no ticking clock that limits how long you can access them or how many times you can contact them.

You can just ring them for a chat if you’re feeling down.

New Ireland | Better Health

BetterHealth from New Ireland is available to Life Choice policyholders and their immediate families and offers various online healthcare services.

Online Doctor consultation with an Irish registered doctor.

Mental Health Counselling from a psychologist.

Online Physiotherapy consultation from qualified Irish registered physiotherapists.

Get Fit Programme includes personalised nutritional recommendations and an exercise plan designed by a team of nutritional experts.

Irish Life | Life Care

Let’s move on to the final provider, who offers access to value-added services.

NurseCare

Irish Life’s NurseCare provides policyholders access to qualified nurses for non-emergency medical advice 24/7, 365 days a year.

ClaimsCare

Irish Life’s ClaimsCare provides support to customers during the claims process.

It includes a dedicated claims assessor to guide you through the process, assistance with paperwork, and access to additional services like counselling, physiotherapy, and complementary therapies.

These can help manage serious illness or bereavement’s emotional and practical challenges.

What’s the best way to access all of these packages?

It’s simple – don’t buy all of your cover from the same insurer.

Let’s say you need mortgage protection, life insurance to protect your family, serious illness cover to provide a buffer against short-term serious illness, and income protection to protect you in the case of long-term inability to work.

Approach PTSB, EBS or AIB, and they can only sell you Irish Life policies – it may seem handy at the time, but you’re missing out on loads of good stuff.

However, if you’re clever and use a broker, you could choose various insurers’ policies and get ALL the value-added benefits.

Mortgage protection—Royal London: You’ll get dual life, convertible cover, and access to Helping Hand.
Life insurance and serious illness cover—New Ireland for Better Health benefits
Income protection—Aviva: You’ll get the best income protection and access to the Best Doctors and Family Care.

Anything you should be wary of?

Yes, the big caveat is that third parties offer these value-added services and may withdraw them in the future.

Are pre-existing conditions covered?

Yes, absolutely!

As soon as your policy is in place, you can access those benefits for you, partner/spouse, your children and your parents (Aviva and Irish Life)

Over to you:

I’ve probably made choosing an insurer even more difficult now. You were about to pull the trigger on one policy, but now you’re in two minds.

Good

Buying life insurance is an important decision, so you should consider all eventualities.

It shouldn’t be as easy as choosing which socks to wear.

In an ideal world, we’d all be able to pick and choose the most suitable insurer, but this old world we live in isn’t perfect, and most of us aren’t in perfect health.

If you have a health condition, your premiums are going to be higher than normal, so the best company for you will be the one that can

offer you cover
offer you cover at an affordable premium

If this provider doesn’t offer value-added benefits, don’t worry too much; you’re covered, and that’s the main thing.

Right, that’s enough from me; I’m here to help you choose the right insurer based on your health, so if you have a pre-existing condition and would like some advice, please complete this short questionnaire, and I’ll be right back.

Alternatively, if you’re in good health and would like me to make a personalised recommendation, I have a questionnaire for that, too – click here to begin.

Or if you want a chat to go through your options, you can schedule a call back here.

So many options 😅

Thanks for reading

Nick

Editor’s Note | We first published this blog in 2018 and have updated it regularly since.