Similar to other disability insurance products, Canada Life Disability Insurance, Lifestyle Protection, provides insurance coverage in the form of regular monthly payments, should you become disabled and not be able to perform your job duties either temporarily or permanently. In some cases, you might be able to perform a part of your duties – in this case you may qualify for either residual disability or partial disability benefits.
We have put together useful information about Canada Life Disability Insurance, Lifestyle Protection, based on existing policies (note that this data can change without notice).
Contact us to get access to the most updated disability insurance information.
When selling disability insurance products, insurance companies look very carefully at your job and the likelihood of you being injured while doing your job. Some jobs are more dangerous than others, so insurers divide all possible occupations into insurance classes and often insure just a subset of them. An overview below shows what insurance classes this particular insurance product covers. Don’t worry! If your occupation class is not covered, you still can qualify either for disability insurance products from other providers or for simplified issue disability insurance or guaranteed issue disability insurance products. Check the overview below to find out more.
| Class | Job description | Covered by this product |
|---|---|---|
| Class 4A | Specific professions listed in the schedule and select business executives / white collar employees (with limited sales duties) who qualify. | ✔ covered |
| Class 3A | Most “white collar” workers (office, clerical or light sales work); no manual duties. | ✔ covered |
| Class 2A | Skilled specialized workers who do not qualify for 3A. Duties are limited to sales, supervision and providing services. Farm owners (with minimum 20% ownership) are Class 2A Venture Series. | ✔ covered |
| Class A | Skilled manual workers in the lighter trades and industries and some unskilled workers where duties are light and working conditions are favourable. To qualify, there must be no hazards from heat, chemicals, explosives, or heavy equipment/machinery. Does not include occupations where job stability may be a concern (e.g., fitness and beauty industries). | ✔ covered |
| Class B | All remaining insurable occupations, mainly those requiring heavy physical exertion such as unskilled or manual labourers, drivers of vehicles and jobs with significant accident risk. Also includes some occupations with light duties but where job stability may be of some concern (e.g. fitness and beauty industries.). | ✔ covered |
| Uninsurable occupations | Some occupations are uninsurable due to unusual physical hazards (e.g., workers handling explosives) or because of a high degree of job instability (e.g., actors, writers, taxi drivers, etc.). | not covered(You can apply for a guaranteed issue, product) |
Canada Life is one of the few providers offering life time benefits – accident and graded sickness (an additional rider). It pprovides you with an income for life by paying a monthly benefit from age 65 for life while you remain totally disabled.
Total disability must begin before age 65. If you become totally disabled due to injury before age 65 or sickness before age 55, 100% of your monthly benefit will be payable for life while you remain totally disabled. If you become totally disabled after age 55 due to sickness, 100% of your monthly benefit will be payable until age 65. After age 65, your monthly benefit will be reduced based on your age at the time total disability began, and reduces by 10% each year from age 55.
Example: if you become disabled at age 56 due to sickness, you will receive 100% of the monthly benefit until age 65 and then 90% for life while you remain totally disabled.
The full disability benefits depend on your income e.g. for a pre-tax annual income of $30,000 your maximum monthly benefit could be around $1,850 representing ~74% of your income.
For a pre-tax income of $110,000, your benefit can be around $5,500 (~60% of your income).
Please note these numbers are approximate and can be different for your particular situation.
It is also important to know that disability benefits are typically not stackable meaning that if you qualify for another disability benefit e.g. under your group coverage, your individual disability benefit will be reduced accordingly.
In case of Partial Disability (based on time able to work) you receive 50% of your monthly benefit for the first 24 months and 25% for the remainder.
