If I purchase Life or Critical Illness coverage during a ‘Guaranteed Acceptance Period’, how will my coverage be affected?

This Guaranteed Acceptance Period does not impact the Critical Illness or Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage in any way.

However, if Life insurance is purchased during this open enrolment period, coverage during the first two years will only provide a benefit payment if the insured dies as a result of an accident - death from ‘natural causes’ will not result in a payment of the death benefit (though all premiums paid will be returned with interest). After this 2-year period, the life insurance coverage applies to death by natural causes as well.

Why buy it during this period then?

The short answer: You can obtain affordable Life Insurance or Critical illness coverage quickly, without answering a long list of questions about your health, and for which you might not normally even be eligible. 

For example, if you have ever been diagnosed with cancer or diabetes, our regular underwriting guidelines state that you would not be eligible to purchase Goose Life insurance coverage. During the Guaranteed Acceptance period however, you can buy Life or Critical illness coverage and a 2-year countdown begins. Again, in the case of Life coverage, during the first 2 years, the policy can still provide a benefit payment to a beneficiary if the individual dies as a result of any accident (say, a car accident), but death by ‘natural' or 'non-accidental' causes (such as a heart attack or from disease) will not result in a benefit payment during this time period.

After this 2-year period, the regular coverage under the policy applies as normal, and you have life insurance coverage you would not otherwise have had.

Why is Goose offering coverage on a Guaranteed Acceptance basis? 

We’re excited to now be able to offer this incredibly important coverage to our Goose members and we want to make it available to as many people as possible in this introductory launch phase. The Guaranteed Acceptance Period allows more people to purchase insurance that they may not ordinarily qualify for. 

Here's the hard truth: In order to ensure that insurance companies take in more than they pay out, each insurer has underwriting guidelines that help to ensure that individuals who pose an unacceptably higher risk of eventually needing to receive a claim benefit are not provided insurance. This is why most insurers won’t offer home insurance on a 60 year old house without any updates to the roof, electrical, plumbing or heating systems - the statistics show that it’s pretty likely they will experience a fire or water damage in the near future.

However, when insurance companies are eager to get new business, sometimes they will relax their underwriting rules to make it easier for people to buy their policies. Instead of being declined, a person may then be able to get insurance coverage they would previously not have been able to obtain.

The Benefit Summary, with a detailed description of coverages and exclusions, can be found here: https://www.gooseinsurance.com/en/benefits-summary