Sun Retirement Health Assist

Taking care of the realities of aging

Sun Retirement Health Assist helps you strengthen your retirement planning against the risk of significant costs for personal care and assistance as you age. This simple product allows you to share this risk with insurance.  

The coverage is designed to provide protection after age 65 (or after 5 years if you purchase after age 60). If you become dependent after this period, your costs for the first 1 or 2 years will be your responsibility. If you continue to be dependent beyond that time, the benefits from your Sun Retirement Health Assist will help you and your family continue to fund your care.

The type of care you choose and where you receive it is your decision:

  • Your personal residence
  • A retirement home
  • A long term care facility

Plan details:

How to qualify for benefits

There are 3 ways to qualify for the benefit. Benefits are paid if you reside in Canada or the United States. You may travel outside these countries for a maximum of 8 weeks at a time and continue to receive benefits.

In order to qualify for benefits, you must require:

You’re considered to have deteriorated mental ability if you need continual supervision by another person for protection from threats to your physical health and safety as the result of deterioration in or a loss of:

  • Short- or long-term memory
  • Orientation as it relates to people, place and time
  • Reasoning, or
  • Judgment, as it relates to safety awareness

Deteriorated mental ability must result from an organic brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease, irreversible dementia or brain injury.

  • Bathing means washing yourself with or without the aid of assistive devices in a bathtub or shower, including getting in and out of the bathtub or shower, or by sponge bath. Bathing doesn’t include the ability to reach and wash the back or feet.
  • Dressing means putting on, taking off, fastening and unfastening, with or without the aid of assistive devices: clothing, and medically necessary braces or artificial limbs. You’re not dependent for dressing if reasonable alterations to or changes in the clothing you usually wear would let you dress yourself without substantial physical assistance.
  • Toileting means getting to and from and on and off the toilet, with or without the aid of assistive devices, and performing associated personal hygiene.
  • Transferring means moving into or out of a bed, chair or wheelchair, with or without the aid of assistive devices.
  • Continence means the ability to control both bladder and bowel functions, or maintain a reasonable level of personal hygiene (including caring for catheter or colostomy bag) when not able to control bowel or bladder functions.
  • Feeding means the ability to get food into your body, with or without the aid of assistive devices, through your mouth, or by feeding tube. Feeding does not include cooking or preparing a meal.

What is an assistive device?

Assistive devices are aids that can be used to improve your functioning. If using an assistive device allows you to perform an activity of daily living safely and completely, you’re not dependent for that activity. Assistive devices include: adjustable beds, buttonhooks, canes, crutches, grab bars, handheld showerheads, bath brushes, seat lifts, transfer benches, walkers and wheelchairs.

Stand-by assistance means another person must always be within arm’s reach so you can safely and completely perform the activities of bathing and transferring.

If you require stand-by assistance for only one of bathing or transferring, we consider you dependent when you also require substantial physical assistance to perform one of the other activities of daily living.

Age requirements

You must be between the age of 45 and 71 years old to consider this plan.

Benefit amounts

  • Minimum weekly benefit: $125
  • Maximum weekly benefit: $2,300

Benefit period

The benefit period is the length of time we may pay a claim once you’re dependent, as defined in the policy. The benefit period for Sun Retirement Health Assist is unlimited.

You may claim for benefits after the coverage effective date. The coverage effective date is the later of:

  • 5 consecutive policy years from the policy date, or
  • The policy anniversary immediately following your 65th birthday

Waiting period

It starts on the date you are first considered dependent. The waiting period is the length of time you must be continuously dependent before the coverage effective date and before a claim will be paid. Choose between:

  • 365 days (1 year)
  • 730 days (2 years)

Added protection

The following features are included at no extra cost:

If you die prior to the coverage effective date we will return all premiums you paid for your Sun Retirement Health Assist to your estate or named beneficiary.

The weekly benefit amount will increase by 3% each policy anniversary while benefits are payable.

When we approve a claim for benefits, we waive premiums for the policy.

Additional services

The following service is included at no extra cost:

With a long term care insurance policy from Sun Life, you can make use of the valuable resources provided through LifestageCare.™ This national, bilingual service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, provides you with access to unbiased information about local, qualified healthcare and personal care providers that meets your individual and family care needs, at every stage of life.1

More on LifestageCare

1LifestageCare is currently available to new and existing long term care insurance policy owners of Sun Life. It’s not a guaranteed feature of the product and may be withdrawn at any time.

TM LifestageCare is a trademark of Sykes Assistance Services Corporation.

Optional benefit

The following benefit can be added to enhance your plan at an additional cost:

If the optional Return of premium on death benefit is included on the policy and you die, we will pay the returnable premium amount to the beneficiary named in writing. If no beneficiary is named, the returnable premium amount will be paid to the policy owner, or their estate.

Paying your premiums

Payment period

Pay for the lifetime of the policy (until the policy anniversary following your 100th birthday).

Premium guarantee

Premiums won’t change for the first 5 years from the policy issue date. After that, we may increase or decrease the premium on a policy anniversary. If we do make a change, we’ll give advance notice of the change. The new premium will be guaranteed for at least another 5 policy years.

Sample policies

As you read through these sample policies, please keep in mind that not all sections you see will apply to every policy. Your policy can have sections that are somewhat different from those that you've read here, depending on the options you choose. When we issue your policy, it governs the legal relationship between you and Sun Life.

  Sun Retirement Health Assist - lifetime pay optional ROPD

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