Participating policy
A participating policy is an insurance contract where you 'participate' in the profits of the insurance investment, which means that you may receive dividends. These profits are not guaranteed.
Pay-out
This is a sum of money we pay to a beneficiary. For example, this could be a cash pay-out to cover hospital expenses, which means you can focus on treatment and recovery without financial worries. A compassionate death pay-out will help your family cope with the immediate expenses associated with your death, for example funeral costs. This is paid to your family before the claims process completes. A 'max critical illness pay-out' is the maximum amount of money you can be paid if you were to have a serious illness such as cancer or heart disease.
Permanent partial disability vs. Permanent total disability
The term 'disabilities' can be classified as temporary or permanent, and as partial or total, depending on circumstances.
Temporary disabilities means that you are either unable to work full-time (this is called 'temporary partial disability') or unable to work at all for a period of time (this is referred to as 'temporary total disability'). In either of these situations, you are expecting to make a full recovery and return to work as normal at a later stage.
In the case of a permanent disability, you would never be able to work in the same capacity as before you were ill and/or injured. A permanent disability would prevent you from being able to work full-time for the rest of your life (this is called 'permanent partial disability'), whereas a total permanent disability means that the you will never work again.
It is important for you to understand which of these 4 types of disabilities are covered by your policy, so be sure to read and understand the terms and conditions.
Policy loan
A life insurance policy loan is just a loan from the insurer in which the cash value of your policy is used as collateral. It is important that you keep up the payments on your loan so that we do not need to reduce the final pay-out.
Policy year
This is the 12-month period starting from the day on which the policy was first taken out.
Policyholder
A policyholder (also known as 'policy owner') is the person in whose name the insurance policy is held.
So, if you buy an insurance policy under your own name, you’re the policyholder. As the policyholder, you can sometimes add more people to your policy. These would become additional 'people insured' under the policy.
Pre-existing condition
This is a health condition (either physical or mental) that is diagnosed before you take out a policy with us. It is important that you declare these conditions, so that we can confirm whether we can cover them. If you do not declare these conditions upfront, your policy may become invalid.
Premium
This is the cost of your insurance policy, usually paid on a monthly basis.
Premium paying period
This is the total number of periods (eg. years) that a policyholder will need to pay premiums. It will vary depending on the type of policy you choose.
Premium rate
This is the amount of money you need to spend for your policy. This may vary from year to year, depending on the level of cover and your risk profile. Premium rates can be fixed, we call these 'level premiums'.