New York Life, a US mutual life insurer, has introduced Chronic Care Rider for its whole life product line to enable policyholders to address the financial demands of customers suffering with chronic illness.
The life insurer said that the new rider has been developed to meet the growing consumers demand to use their whole life policies to help fund potential chronic care needs.
According to an estimate, even in ten Americans over the age of 65 become cognitively impaired or unable to complete at least two activities of daily living over their lifetimes.
New York Life senior vice president Craig DeSanto said, "With this feature, there is even more value to the policyholder in the form of additional protection for their family in the case of a chronic illness."
With a premium that is guaranteed to stay level, the Chronic Care Rider is a flexible, low-cost addition to a whole life insurance policy.
Once the insured is certified as permanently chronically ill, the individual does not need to submit receipts or a care plan for claim reimbursement, and policyholders can decide how their monthly claim payments are spent.
If the funds are not spent for chronic care, it will remain intact as life insurance benefits for nominees or as cash value that can help supplement retirement income, as their life insurance needs decrease.