The Serious Illness Supplement Benefit is an endorsement to your disability policy that pays an additional 50% of your monthly benefit if your total disability was solely due to cancer, stroke, or heart attack. This added benefit is payable for up to 12 months during the life of your policy. 

You do not need to apply for this benefit. The Serious Illness Supplement Benefit endorsement is added to your policy if you do not have any health concerns at the time of your application. There is no added cost for this benefit, you just need to be healthy in the eyes of the underwriters at the time you apply. This is another reason why you should apply for individual disability insurance while you are young and healthy.

More Benefits Were They Are Needed The Most

Of all of the possible things that can disable you, about 90% of possible causes will arise from illness and the rest from accidents. Some of these sicknesses are due to cancer, stroke, or heart attack. New cases of cancer amount to about 454 out of 100,000 people.¹ Stroke is the leading cause of serious long-term disability ² and every year, about 805,000 Americans have a heart attack.³

Some of these serious illnesses happened to people who are already retired. However, the rest are still working and are very much dependent on their income to raise children, maintain a standard of living, and accumulate wealth for retirement. The cumulative effects of cancer, stroke, or a heart attack can really cripple you financially.

The Serious Illness Supplement Benefit endorsement is a unique feature found in Guardian’s Provider Choice⁴ disability insurance policy.

 National Cancer Institute

 CDC Stroke Facts 

https://professional.heart.org/-/media/PHD-Files-2/Science-News/2/2023-Heart-and-Stroke-Stat-Update/2023-Statistics-At-A-Glance-final_1_17_23.pdf

Individual disability insurance policy Forms 18ID, 18UD and 18GI underwritten and issued by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, Pittsfield, MA, a wholly-owned stock subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Product provisions and availability may vary by state. In New York: These policies provide disability insurance only. They do not provide basic hospital, basic medical, or major medical insurance as defined by the New York State Insurance Department. For policy form 18ID, the expected benefit ratio is 50%. For policy forms 18UD, 18GI, 18UD-F, an 18GI-F, the expected benefit ratio is 60%. The expected benefit ratio is the portion of future premiums that the company expects to return as benefits when averaged over all people with these policy forms.

This material contains the current opinions of the author but not necessarily those of Guardian or its subsidiaries and such opinions are subject to change without notice.