What are optional benefits?

Optional benefits are enhancements or add-ons to your insurance policy for additional cost.

Some optional benefits bump up the maximum amount you can receive for certain benefits that come “standard” with your policy. For example, the standard income replacement benefit pays 70% of your gross pre-accident income, up to a maximum of $400/week, but you can pay extra to increase that to anywhere from $600 to $1000/week. You can also increase the amount you have available for medical and rehab benefits. Standard benefits are $1 million for a catastrophic injury, $50,000 for a non-catastrophic serious injury and $3,500 for a minor injury.  You can bump those ceilings up to $2 million for a catastrophic injury or anywhere from $100,000 to 1.1 million for a non-catastrophic serious injury.

You can also opt to add extra policies that standard benefits don’t offer. Examples are housekeeping benefits (to pay someone to do your house work if you can’t) and caregiver benefits (to pay someone to care for your dependents (if you were their primary caregiver before your injury).

Whether you purchase your insurance directly from a company or deal with a broker, they have to explain optional benefits to you and offer you the opportunity to purchase them.

It’s the law.