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Did you know that one-in-three Canadians will become disabled for at least 90 days before reaching age 65? Although some disabilities only last a few months, many last for several years. How will you pay your bills if your income stops for a few years?
That’s where long-term disability insurance comes in. A disability policy provides valuable coverage to help you cope with the financial costs of an injury or illness. It pays a monthly benefit so you can continue making mortgage payments, saving for retirement, and keeping your household finances healthy.
One of the providers of long-term disability benefits is Manulife Insurance. What type of disability plans does it offer? How do its insurance policies stack up against the competition? This review tells you all you need to know about Manulife disability insurance.
About Manulife Insurance
Manulife Financial is the largest life insurance company in Canada. Founded in 1887 as The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, Manulife Financial is now a multinational insurer with operations in North America, Asia, and Europe.
As an example of its size and reach, Manulife Financial employs over 38,000 employees, has $1.4 trillion of assets under management, and serves over 33 million customers.
Besides disability insurance, Manulife also offers:
- Life insurance, including term and whole life
- Critical illness insurance
- Health and dental insurance
- Travel insurance
- Mortgage insurance
- Segregated funds
- Payout annuities
It’s also active in the group insurance and retirement market. In fact, many Canadians are covered for long-term and short-term disability insurance via Manulife group benefits offered by their employer.
Key facts about Manulife Financial
AM Best Rating: A+
Head office: 200 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 1E5
Website: https://www.manulife.ca/
Contact phone number: 416-926-3000
What Disability Insurance Plans Does Manulife Offer?
Manulife offers several disability insurance products that protect your income if you are unable to perform the duties of your occupation due to an injury or illness.
Proguard Series
The Proguard Series is the best disability insurance policy you can buy from Manulife Insurance. Targeted at high-income earners, it’s most suitable for professionals, executives, and recent grads with significant earning potentials.
- Pros:
- Value-added benefits built-in such as the Automatic Coverage Enhancements which increases your monthly benefit by 5% every year.
- As a non-cancellable contract, Manulife cannot reduce your disability benefits, cancel your coverage, or increase your premiums.
- Choose the higher payout between partial and residual disability benefits during the first year of a claim.
- Cons:
- Higher cost because of so many built-in benefits.
- Coverage is not available for occupation classes A and B.
- Strict underwriting guidelines may result in exclusions, ratings, and declines.
Venture Series
With the Venture Series, Manulife offers a more affordable disability insurance plan geared towards new business owners, permanent part-time workers, farm owners, and other non-standard occupational situations.
- Pros:
- A more affordable and flexible policy with many options available as riders instead of built-in.
- Accessible to many more occupation classes ranging from 4A to B.
- The grad advantage program gives a 15% discount for recent grads and students in select professions like doctors, engineers, and dentists.
- Cons:
- Benefits may be 'integrated' with other sources of disability coverage like Workers' Compensation, CPP, or no-fault automobile insurance. This means your disability benefits may be reduced.
- Many high-risk or stressful occupations and jobs with unstable earnings will not qualify for disability benefits. For example, authors, actors, air traffic controllers, taxi drivers, longshoremen, and artists are all disqualified from this product.
Personal Accident Disability Insurance
A simplified issue injury-only plan that provides disability benefits if you are unable to perform your job because of an accident. While the base coverage only covers accidents, sickness coverage can be added on for an extra cost.
- Pros:
- As a simplified issue policy, you only have to answer two eligibility questions to qualify for coverage. Ideal for people with health issues.
- There are no totally uninsurable occupations, meaning even seniors or unemployed individuals qualify for coverage.
- An issue age from 5 to 80 means the young and elderly can qualify for disability insurance under this plan.
- Cons:
- Unlike the Proguard and Venture Series, this product offers guaranteed renewable coverage. This means while Manulife Insurance can't cancel your policy or amend your coverage, it can increase your premiums.
- Manulife charges much higher premiums to account for the fact that it is simplified issue, meaning people with medical issues will qualify for coverage.
- With a maximum monthly benefit of $6,000, high income earners won't adequately replace their earnings.
Here is a table comparing the products side by side:
Proguard Series | Ventures Series | Personal Accident | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Target market | Value-added income replacement coverage for professionals and executives | A guaranteed plan at a more affordable cost | Simplified issued accident coverage for non-working individuals and uninsurable occupations | |
Covers | Injury or illness | Injury only with illness add-on | ||
Definition of disability | Regular occupation for entire benefit period | Regular occupation for five years (can be extended to the entire benefit period) | Regular occupation | |
Age eligibility | 18-60 | 5-80 | ||
Occupation classes | 4S, 4A, 3A, 2A | 4S, 4A, 3A, 2A, A, B | None | |
Occupation class upgrades | Yes | N/A | ||
Waiting periods | 30, 60, 90, 120, or 730 days | 1, 30 or 120 days | ||
Benefit periods | Two, five years, to age 65 | |||
Minimum coverage | $500 | $300 | ||
Maximum coverage | $30,000 | $6,000 | ||
Medical exam required | Yes, above a certain age and amount | No | ||
Premium guarantee | Guaranteed level rates to age 65 | Not guaranteed | ||
Expiry | None | Age 90 | ||
Riders | Own occupation, premium refund, health protection, additional insurance, Pensionguard, cost of living adjustments | Own occupation, premium refund, health protection, additional insurance, Pensionguard, cost of living adjustments, residual and partial disability | Accidental death and dismemberment, premium refund, sickness hospitalization, non-occupational loss of income, strain and sprain | |
Disability insurance products for businesses
Besides personal disability insurance products, Manulife Insurance also has a suite of products for small business owners. These include:
Business overhead expense: Small business owners have many fixed expenses that continue even if they become disabled. With ExpenseComp, Manulife covers your business expenses during a disability for up to 24 months.
Buy-sell disability insurance: For small business owners with partners, Buy-Sell Plus allows one partner to purchase the shares of a disabled partner.
How Much Does Manulife Disability Insurance Cost?
Due to the varying benefits provided, the three disability insurance products differ in the premiums you have to pay. A number of factors also affect the cost, including your age, gender, smoking status, occupation, and plan design.
For example, smokers pay around 50% more than non-smokers, while those in a less hazardous occupation pay less than people working a high-risk job.
The table below shows the monthly premiums for the Proguard Series. It assumes a low risk occupation in the 4A class, 90 day waiting period, age 65 benefit period, and $5,000 in monthly benefits.
Age | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
25 | $78 | $131 |
30 | $86 | $158 |
35 | $106 | $190 |
40 | $130 | $212 |
45 | $162 | $243 |
50 | $217 | $283 |
55 | $285 | $339 |
Verdict: Our Manulife Disability Insurance Review
Since you can’t buy the Proguard or Venture Series anymore, this review is for current owners of inforce policies. These products are among the best in Canada, with only policies from RBC Insurance and Canada Life being able to match the coverage offered by Manulife.
Here are some of the pros and cons of Manulife disability insurance for current owners to consider.
- Pros:
- The Automatic Coverage Enhancement increases your disability benefits every year by 3% or 5% without medical evidence of insurability.
- The Future Care Option lets you convert your disability insurance policy to a long-term care policy upon retirement.
- Own occupation rider is available even for occupation class 3A that have been upgraded to 4A.
- While other insurance companies classify dentists as occupation class 3A, Manulife is the only one to give them a better occupation class of 4A.
- At $30,000/month, Manulife has the highest maximum long-term disability benefits you can buy.
- The grad advantage program allows recent grads and students to buy coverage without a history of earned income.
- Cons:
- Proguard and Venture Series have been discontinued, leaving the Personal Accident Disability Insurance as the only insurance product you can buy.
- The cost of living adjustment rider maxes out at 5% which may not be enough if the consumer price index exceeds this rate.
- Upgrading occupation classes is more difficult than other with other insurance companies because of more restrictive income and experience requirements.
- Can Manulife maintain its service standard for administrating long-term disability claims for the Proguard and Venture Series now that it's longer selling them? This remains to be seen.
How Do You Sign Up For Manulife Disability Insurance?
While other insurers have electronic applications for their disability insurance products, you still need apply for Manulife disability insurance with a paper application. However, because Personal Accident Disability Insurance is simplified issue, the application form is streamlined. Instead of dozens of pages on the form, you only need to complete a relatively short 12-page form.
As mentioned, you only need to answer ‘no’ to two eligibility questions to qualify for coverage. One of them asks if you are currently collecting disability benefits while the other asks if an injury or medical condition currently restricts your movement or your ability to perform your normal occupation.
Once you apply, it should only take a few days for Manulife to review your application and issue the policy.
Need A Manulife Disability Insurance Quote?
While the two most popular disability insurance products—Proguard Series and Ventures Series—are no longer available, the Personal Accident Disability Insurance is a compelling product if you have health problems.
Unfortunately, if you want the benefits of the Proguard or Venture Series, Manulife Insurance won’t be able to offer it to you. As an insurance broker, we work with other insurers that provide similar coverage to those products.
Let us help you find the right disability insurance plan and protect your family from a long-term disability claim. Contact us at info@briansoinsurance.com or 604-928-1628 for a consultation today.
Get Your Disability Insurance Quote Now
While we make every effort to keep our site updated, please be aware that timely information on this page, such as quote estimates, or pertinent details about companies, may only be accurate as of its last edit day. Brian So Insurance and its representatives do not give legal or tax advice. Please consult your own legal or tax adviser. This post is a brief summary for indicative purposes only. It does not include all terms, conditions, limitations, exclusions, and other provisions of the policies described, some of which may be material to the policy selection. Please refer to the actual policy documents for complete details which can be provided upon request. In case of any discrepancy, the language in the actual policy documents will prevail. A.M. Best financial strength ratings displayed are not a warranty of a company’s financial strength and ability to meet its obligations to policyholders.
