Do You Need Total and Permanent Disability Insurance if You Have Trauma Cover?
[social_share]There are so many different insurance options out there that sometimes they can get confusing. For example, you might assume health insurance will cover all medical expenses and neglect trauma insurance because of that (when trauma cover is also designed to cover other expenses so you can focus on recovery). The same kind of confusion can come between trauma cover and total and permanent disability insurance. Do you really need both?
The short answer is “yes.” While both trauma cover and total and permanent disability insurance policies might cover similar situations (such as loss of limbs), they aren’t really designed to do the same things.
Why Total and Permanent Disability Insurance is Different
The key difference between trauma cover and total and permanent disability insurance is that trauma cover is designed to help you cover bills while you recover. With total and permanent disability insurance however, the condition is known to be permanent — you won’t recover, and it’s a challenge you’ll have to face throughout the rest of your life.
Let’s go back to the loss of limbs example. That can be covered by trauma cover, which might help you pay for physical therapy or home modifications while you adapt to a new lifestyle. However, if you can never go back to your line of work you might need longer term support than trauma cover can offer. That’s where total and permanent disability insurance comes in.
That insurance policy can offer you either a lump sum payment or instalment payments as long as you’re disabled (meaning up to the rest of your life). If your total and permanent disability insurance is an add-on to your life insurance policy, the payout will be deducted from your later death benefit. If you have a standalone trauma cover policy, you might be able to get this insurance as an add-on to that instead, letting the two policies work together whether you have a temporary or permanent condition.
TPD Insurance is Life Insurance for the Living
Normally no one sees a payout from your life insurance policy until you’ve passed away. Total and permanent disability insurance works in a similar way (and sometimes in conjunction with your life insurance policy) to act almost like life insurance while you’re still alive instead.
You can use it to pay off debts so your family won’t have to deal with the obligation down the road. You can use it to pay monthly bills (especially if you were the primary or sole provider for your family). You can use it to cover medical expenses so your partner doesn’t have to take on an extra job to try to pay for your care. You can use it in any number of ways — the key is using it to make your (and your family’s) life as comfortable and as close to normal as possible despite your condition.
Forget about health insurance or trauma cover. Total and permanent disability insurance might seem very similar on the surface, but having those other policies shouldn’t stop you from getting this coverage. To be truly financially stable, you need to be prepared for all of the situations they cover, from minor illnesses to major ones to permanent disabilities you won’t recover from. Total and permanent disability insurance is one part of that puzzle, and an essential one at that.
