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Manulife Synergy is a 3-in-1 product that combines life, disability, and critical illness insurance in a single policy.
Why buy it instead of 3 standalone products?
Well, the main benefit of Manulife Synergy is that you get 3 types of insurance protection in an easy to manage and affordable package.
It’s unique in that there are no other combination product like this in the Canadian marketplace.
This is a review of Manulife Synergy.
Why buy insurance to cover these 3 things?
The 3 main risks to your financial plan are dying prematurely, becoming disabled, and getting a critical illness.
If either of those things happened to you, chances are you and your family will suffer financially.
Premature death does the most damage to your family financially since it will lose the potential income you would’ve earned until retirement.
The next highest impact to your finances is becoming disabled and not being able to work. While having an emergency fund can get you through a short-term disability, a long-term disability will be devastating financially.
Lastly, a critical illness can also derail your financial plans. Although the impact shouldn’t be as dire as premature death or disability, just imagine the financial stress a major illness like cancer would cause.
What is your risk?
So you understand the impact that premature death, disability, and critical illness can have on your financial plan.
But what is the likelihood that one or more of them will occur to you? Higher than you think, unfortunately.
Manulife has a handy calculator that you can use to calculate your risk.
As you can see below, a 35-year-old non-smoking couple has a:
- 40% chance of a disability before age 65
- 40% chance of a critical illness before age 65
- 10% chance of dying before age 65
- 64% chance of 1 of the 3 things happening to either of them
That’s right, there’s almost a 2 in 3 chance that you or your partner will suffer from one of these afflictions before the age of 65.
With the risk this high, I think you’ll agree with me when I say that it’s prudent to look into insuring this risk.
How does Manulife Synergy work?
Synergy provides life, disability, and critical illness insurance coverage until age 65. You can choose between the term-10 or term-65 option. Here are the differences:
Term-10: Low initial cost, premium increases every 10 years.
Term-65: Level cost to age 65.
You can buy Synergy if you’re between 18-50. The minimum amount you can buy is $100,000 and the maximum is $500,000.
The amount you buy creates a pool of money that all 3 types of insurance share. This means that if you make a critical illness claim, the amount available for a life and disability claim is reduced.
A critical illness claim pays out 25% of the coverage amount. A disability claim pays out 0.5% of the coverage amount per month (after a 90- day waiting period) while you’re disabled. The life insurance claim pays out 100% of the remaining amount in the pool.
Let’s look at an example:
- Mary buys $400,000 of Synergy. 5 years later, she makes a disability claim for 10 months. She gets $2,000/month for a total of $20,000. This reduces her pool to $380,000.
- Another 5 years later, she gets cancer and makes a claim for $100,000. Now her pool is reduced to $280,000.
- She passes away in 10 years. Her beneficiary gets $280,000 in death benefit.
To make a claim for disability benefits, you must not be able to work in your regular occupation because of illness or injury. Premiums are waived while you’re disabled.
As for critical illness, there are 24 covered illnesses in Synergy. These include:
- Aortic surgery
- Aplastic anemia
- Bacterial meningitis
- Benign brain tumour
- Blindness
- Cancer (life-threatening)
- Coma
- Coronary artery bypass surgery
- Deafness
- Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease
- Heart attack
- Heart valve replacement or repair
- Kidney failure
- Loss of limbs
- Loss of speech
- Major organ failure (on waiting list)
- Major organ transplant
- Motor neuron disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Occupational HIV infection
- Paralysis
- Parkinson’s disease and specified atypical parkinsonian disorders
- Severe burns
- Stroke
In addition to the 25% claim for these critical illnesses, you get 6.25% as an early intervention benefit for these less serious conditions:
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) Rai stage 0
- Coronary angioplasty
- Ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast
- Papillary or follicular thyroid cancer stage T1
- Stage A (T1a or T1b) prostate cancer
- Stage 1 malignant melanoma
You also get 10% up to a maximum of $10,000 as a recovery benefit. This gives you faster access to benefits to help deal with the early stages of treatment before the main critical illness claim is approved.
You also get Health Service Navigator as a built-in benefit. It’s an integrated health information and online resource centre with access to information about the Canadian health care system and a second medical opinion service. You can access it regardless of whether or not you’ve made a critical illness claim.
Lastly, if you haven’t made a critical illness claim by expiry, you can buy permanent life insurance without providing any medical evidence. This could be useful if you have developed poor health over the years and can’t qualify for insurance at standard rates at age 65.
Manulife Synergy quotes
Manulife Synergy is an affordable option for life, disability, and critical illness insurance.
With rent or mortgage payments, credit card bills, saving for retirement and other expenses, money is tight. That’s why it’s especially important to have a product that fits into your budget.
Just how much will Synergy cost? Below is a table of monthly premiums for term-10 for the first 10 years:
| Age | Male non-smoker | Male smoker | Female non-smoker | Female smoker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $90.41 | $122.08 | $110.41 | $161.66 |
| 30 | $94.16 | $139.16 | $121.66 | $172.49 |
| 35 | $110.83 | $193.74 | $159.58 | $232.08 |
| 40 | $139.16 | $246.24 | $211.66 | $301.24 |
| 45 | $221.66 | $383.74 | $256.24 | $431.66 |
| 50 | $334.99 | $649.16 | $347.91 | $625.83 |
The premium increases every 10 years until age 65. So if you bought it when you were 35, the premium will increase when you’re 45 and 55.
Here is a table of monthly premiums for term-65:
| Age | Male non-smoker | Male smoker | Female non-smoker | Female smoker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $152.49 | $271.66 | $184.58 | $301.66 |
| 30 | $172.08 | $315.41 | $205.83 | $347.08 |
| 35 | $206.66 | $387.08 | $245.41 | $418.74 |
| 40 | $251.66 | $497.49 | $298.83 | $523.74 |
| 45 | $311.66 | $676.24 | $344.99 | $632.49 |
| 50 | $404.16 | $860.41 | $408.74 | $830.41 |
While term-10 is more affordable than term-65 in the first 10 years, it quickly becomes more expensive in the next and subsequent 10 years.
So if you’re thinking about buying Synergy, try to think long term. How long will you keep the coverage for? If it’s 10 years, then stick to term-10. If it’s longer, term-65 is the way to go.
Why not buy 3 standalone policies?
Because of the shared pool of benefits, Manulife Synergy is a very affordable product. Compared to buying 3 standalone policies for life, disability, and critical illness insurance, Synergy can save you over $100/month.
The savings are amplified if you work in a high risk occupation. That’s because standalone disability insurance is much more expensive for workers in high risk jobs.
The counterargument to this is that a standalone disability insurance policy provides better coverage. For example with Synergy, there’s a 24-month benefit limit for disabilities caused by psychiatric and neck or back conditions. Most standalone disability insurance policies don’t have these exclusions.
Instead of choosing between Synergy and standalone insurance, you can do both. Synergy forms the foundation of your insurance plan.
Let’s say you buy $500,000 of Synergy coverage but need $1,000,000 of life insurance. In this case, you can top up your coverage with a $500,000 standalone term policy.
Now It's Your Turn
Now that you know more about Manulife Synergy, what are your thoughts?
Do you want the affordability and uniqueness of this product? Or do you prefer the customizability of 3 standalone policies?
Do you think term-10 or term-65 is a better fit?
We would be happy to do a needs analysis for you to fit you with the right policy. And since you can’t get a Synergy quote from the quotation tool, please contact us at info@briansoinsurance.com or 604-928-1628 for a customized quote.
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.
