ABR and CV-19

It's been a while since we've discussed Accelerated Benefits Riders (ABRs), which have been pretty much ubiquitous in life insurance policies for quite some time. To recap, these riders "enable the policyholder to "access" the face amount as a living benefit." There are some policy and tax implications, but the general idea is sound, and has proven quite beneficial to, for example, cancer or AIDS patients, as well as others.

Which is nice, Henry, but why bring that up now?

Well, because I got an interesting email from a carrier [full disclosure: I can't recall ever actually writing a case with them, but we do get their emails, so maybe?] with this very relevant (and helpful!) message:

"An important message from our Medical Director

An Accelerated Benefit Rider (ABR) provides the potential to receive a partial or full accelerated life insurance benefit if the Insured contracts the coronavirus [or is diagnosed with COVID-19] and experiences all of the following:

1. Hospitalization;

2. Inability to complete certain activities of daily living for a period of 90 days (under the Chronic Illness Rider) or irreversible damage to an organ (lungs, liver, kidneys, or heart) secondary to the severity of the disease (under the Critical Illness Rider); and

3. Significant decrease in life expectancy.
While some Insureds may fall into this category after a severe infection, it is relatively uncommon. Contracting the coronavirus and experiencing symptoms will not necessarily result in an ABR payment."

Hunh. I hadn't made that connection, so I ran it by my field guy for our primary carrier (FoIB Major B), who noted that it "might be a good reminder that most policies have the benefit available." Which is true, and which is the point of this post.

So, if you have a policy which includes this rider (as many - perhaps most - do) and you've been diagnosed with CV-19 (and suffering from it), seems like a good idea to pull out that policy (or those policies) and check it out.

You may be entitled to compensation.