Speak with an experienced advisor! 877-800-0450Sometimes when you purchase life insurance, it’s easy to become a bargain hunter or only pay attention to the monthly price tag for the coverage. In theory, this is okay. There is a better way of getting things done, however. Benefits that many individuals aren’t even aware of are options that you can tailor into your life insurance policies.
In this article, our goal is to help educate you on those benefits and take a plunge into Foresters Financial Life Insurance Company. You see, when choosing a life insurance company, it’s important to consider the purchase from multiple angles.
Sure, price does matter, and we get that. However, some of these top life insurance companies offer more robust coverage that could substantially alleviate financial strain for you and your family in the future. Foresters Life Insurance Company happens to be one of those companies.
More on Foresters Life Insurance Company
Foresters Financial has deep roots embedded in the life insurance industry. They began back in 1834, and they were initially founded in England. Back in the day, they were even referred to the Ancient Order of Foresters (AOF) and became Independent in 1874 here in the United States.
Foresters is currently a Fraternal Group which offers memberships to policyholders and investors that help reduce the cost for things such as legal assistance, free financial helplines and emergency assistance programs such as loans and scholarships for orphaned children.
Of course, to reap any of these benefits, you need to a member of Foresters. It’s not free service.
Currently, Foresters Life Insurance focuses primarily on a batch of mixed investment products geared towards savings and retirement and of course, offers a wide range of life insurance coverage. Currently, Foresters is in full operation in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Headquartered out of Toronto and Ontario Canada and with a main office on Wall Street in New York, Foresters markets its financial products and insurance using independent life insurance agents and independent life insurance agencies such as ourselves.
Nothing wrong with this by any means. In fact, it’s what we recommend.
Foresters Financial Strength
Over the years Foresters has accumulated quite the reputation among consumers and independent agents who market their products. As of December 2017, Foresters rest on the shoulders of 17.7 billion in total assets. 2 billion of this is considered surplus.
Consider the surplus the piggy bank. It’s designed to allow a company leeway and wiggle room never to fear becoming insolvent. Going insolvent in the life insurance industry is actually very rare if you were not aware. Having a 2-billion-dollar surplus only helps this cause.
Foresters Financial now operates with 45.1 billion dollars under management and is holding down “A” ratings from AM Best which is a major credit rating agency worldwide in the insurance industry.
According to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) Foresters is rated an A+ with only a total of 6 complaints filed in the last 6 years with 4 of them being fully resolved.
Foresters currently has over 3.1 million policyholders and continues to make strides towards focusing products to the consumer that provide more than just a death benefit.
Foresters Life Insurance Products Offered
Currently, Foresters Financial offers 4 different variations of life insurance and has a few other products in the insurance industry you can purchase. Currently Foresters is offering the following.
• Term Life Insurance
• Universal Life Insurance
• Whole Life Insurance
• Variable Universal Life Insurance
With term insurance, you have three options to choose from. Here’s a quick look at them.
• Level Premium Term (Exam Required or No-Exam Required)
• Life First Level Term
• Prepared Accidental Death Term
These policies offer the options of choosing a term that’s either 10 years, 20 years or 30 years unless you opt to use the Life First Product. This product also has a 25-year option.
All the options above can also be purchased without requiring a medical exam. Coverage amounts will be limited for these policies, and currently, the maximum on the no-exam term coverage sits at 400,000.00.
Now, let’s move onto what we really wanted to discuss in this article. Living benefits. Foresters offers some of the best living benefits in the industry, and it would be foolish not to consider adding these to your life insurance policy.
Living Benefits with Foresters Financial
Foresters Financial offers living benefits in the same format that most companies do. If of course living benefits are offered at all. Not every company has adopted this additional perk within its policies which is what makes it really stand out to us.
Foresters offers accelerated benefit riders also known as (ABR’s). They offer ABR’s in the form of Chronic, Critical and Terminal Illness. These benefits are built into the term life insurance products at no additional cost.
That’s right. 100% free.
Nothing additional, no games and no gimmicks. Only added benefits for you and your family in the event something terrible happens.
The idea behind living benefits is to leverage the life insurance policy to provide benefits not only when you die but also while you are alive. Here’s how you can access and take advantage of living benefits with Foresters.
Chronic Illness
To qualify under the chronic illness portion of your living benefits, you will need to be diagnosed by a physician as unable to perform 2 of 6 daily living activities permanently. Or you can qualify due to severe cognitive impairment.
When you qualify for these benefits, you will be able to accelerate up to 24% of your death benefit or face value of the life insurance policy. Let’s make this easier to understand.
Let’s say you had a policy that had a face value of death benefit of 400,000.00. If you were diagnosed by a physician as permanently not being able to perform eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring or continence, you would qualify for the chronic illness living benefits built into your life insurance policy.
At this point, you would be able to take 24% of the face value of your policy in cash while living.
400,000 x .24 = 96,000.00
That’s 96,000 in cash you could have to help pay for the cost of the care if this unforeseen circumstance did arise.
Critical Illness
Like other life insurance companies offering living benefits, Foresters Life Insurance also offers critical illness. This would be categorized as having one of the following occur.
• Life-Threatening Cancer
• Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
• Stroke
• Advanced Alzheimer’s (Before Age 75)
• End Stage Renal Failure
• Major Organ Failure
• ALS
Once you are diagnosed with one of the following conditions listed above, you would be eligible to make a claim for up to 95% of your face value. Foresters does place a maximum on the coverage that can be elected under the Critical Illness category at 500,000.00 total in benefits. A nice positive, however, is that you can make multiple claims over the life of the insurance policy.
Let’s assume you had a policy again in the face amount or death benefit amount of 400,000.00.
Once one of these unfortunate health conditions did occur, you would be able to take the following.
400,000.00 x .95%= 380,000.00
That’s 380,000.00 in cash benefits to help pay for the cost of care and costly medical bills during a time of heavy financial strain.
For no extra cost being built into the policy, this is surely a benefit I would not pass up. We never know when it’s going to be us that one of these horrible health conditions decides to strike.
Terminal Illness
With Foresters, terminal illness is classified as being diagnosed by a licensed member of the medical profession as having 12 months to live or less. When this does occur, you will once again be allowed to accelerate up to 95% of your death benefits or face value of the life insurance policy.
Refer to the previous example to view the math again to see how this works in your favor.
Why Would I Want These Living Benefits?
I would say the better question would be, why wouldn’t you want these living benefits? First, they have no additional cost in the policy itself. Secondly, if you think that these health conditions can’t happen to you than you are sadly mistaken.
In fact, in over 117 million people in the United States suffered from a chronic illness in 2018. A heart attack occurs roughly every 20 seconds in the United States, and over 1.5 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year.
This isn’t diving deep into the numbers either. Adding in 7.1 million people will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s by 2025 and every 40 seconds someone has a stroke in the United States should be eye-opening enough to consider life insurance that includes these living benefits.
Many people are hesitant about benefits like this, and we understand. It’s our job to help educate you that these can make a world of difference for your financial forecast. Unfortunately, we live in an unhealthy country where fast food and bad habits lurk around every corner.
Believing that these benefits will never be used is 100% false. We think that there is a strong likelihood that they will be used by most of the policyholders who currently have them built into their policies.
What’s the Minimum Coverage with Foresters for Living Benefits?
Foresters does place a minimum on the life insurance that must be purchased or in force to include living benefits. Currently, the minimum issue amount for the coverage sits at 50,000.00.
What If I’m A Substandard Rating or Higher Premium, Do I Still Qualify for Living Benefits?
Yes, with Foresters you can qualify for living benefits for Terminal illness benefits whether you are a standard rate class or substandard. However, if you are trying to make a claim against chronic and critical illness riders, you must be a standard rate class or better.
Will Any Fees Be Associated with Living Benefits with Foresters?
Like we stated before, no additional cost is built into the life insurance policy. This merely just means that your rates are not inflated monthly to have these benefits built into the policy. However, when you make a claim against your ABR’s, Foresters will issue a 300.00 administrative charge. This is a one-time fee. Not an ongoing expense within the policy.
Do I Get to Keep My Death Benefit as Well?
No, unfortunately, Foresters and other life insurance companies who offer living benefits at no additional cost built into the policy aren’t in the business of giving multiple free perks.
Whatever living benefits or claims you make against your life insurance policy while living will ultimately be subtracted from your face amount or ending death benefit.
It’s essential only to use living benefits in times of dire financial need and when the death benefit doesn’t carry as much significance as it may have in the past when you initially started the life insurance policy.
This happens very often where you take a policy out in your 30-40’s to protect a mortgage, the kids and the spouse. After some time passes, the need for protection isn’t quite as strong and all the sudden you are older and have a higher chance of health issues.
This makes you a perfect candidate to use and take advantage of living benefits down the road and in the later years of the policy.
How Would I Get Started with Foresters Life Insurance?
If you think you are someone who needs and now believes in the power of life insurance with living benefits, we recommend you get started by filling out the instant quote form here on this page.
This won’t only show and display rates for Foresters Financial but will allow you to compare prices with other excellent life insurance companies that also offer living benefits such as the following.
· American National Life Insurance
· Phoenix Life Insurance Company
Once you enter in your information, you will be able to get a good ballpark rate of where you may land, and you can select your desired coverage amount. If this method isn’t for you, we recommend you giving us a call.
We specialize in living benefits and can help you quickly and professionally with no hassle.
It’s free, and it’s what we do so take advantage of it.
To Sum Things Up. Foresters Is A Fantastic Option for Robust Coverage. Living or Dead
At the end of the day, you always have several companies you can choose from. Even if you are searching for life insurance with living benefits. We also just suggested a few others to you up above.
You need to find the policy that makes the most sense for you and fits in nicely with your current budget. Your best bet and only path you should take to get this done would be working with an Independent Life Insurance Agency like us. We don’t just represent Foresters Life Insurance.
We represent nearly everyone, and our job is to get you the coverage that you want, need and can afford. In the end, nothing else really matters. We just believe firmly that Foresters Life Insurance happens to be one of those great companies that you need to consider along the way.
