Manulife Vitality is an innovative approach to term life insurance, allowing you to save on your premiums and earn handsome vitality active rewards for staying in shape.

In this post, we will discuss the finer details of this one-of-a-kind insurance policy, and show you how you can earn the maximum discount year after year with a Manulife Vitality program.

What is Manulife Vitality?

Manulife Vitality is a term life insurance product. But what sets it apart from other insurance products is that it gives policyholders a chance to save on their premiums and earn vitality active rewards by making healthy lifestyle choices. Every healthy choice you make, such as getting an annual flu shot, exercising regularly, and regular dental screenings, earns you vitality points. These vitality points, in turn, help you reduce the insurance cost and win vitality active rewards, such as Amazon.ca gifts, a freeApple watch, and more.

You can add the Manulife Vitality program to any of the following products:

• 10 year term life insurance (the maximum renewable age is 80)

• 20 year term life insurance (the maximum renewable age is 80)

• Term to age 65 life insurance

• Term to age 100 life insurance

To get the Manulife Vitality program, you will have to start a new Manulife policy and pay an extra $2.00 a month. You cannot add it to a current plan. Currently, it is available on coverage amounts ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.

The Manulife Vitality program has most of the standard features of traditional term life insurance. For instance, your death benefit does not change, and you can renew the policy at the end of its term without taking a medical exam. Also, if your insurance needs change down the line, you can convert your policy into permanent coverage without submitting proof of good health.

What makes the Manulife Vitality program unique is the opportunity it offers to policyholders to save on their monthly insurance premiums and earn attractive rewards, all the while improving their health.

At this point, you may be wondering: But what is in it for Manulife? How do they benefit from my staying healthy?

Simply put, healthier people tend to make fewer claims, which in turn translates into more profit for Manulife also know as the manufacturers life insurance company.  

How does Manulife Vitality work?

When you buy a new term plan, you have the option of signing up for the Manulife Vitality program by paying $2/month extra. In return, Manulife will give you a 10% discount for the first policy year and a chance to lower your subsequent annual premiums. Plus, you receive a wearable device at no extra cost (more on this later).

All policyholders who enroll into the Manulife Vitality program automatically start at the Gold Vitality status, which comes with a 10% discount. From here onward, the amount of discount you earn in a year will depend on the number of vitality points you are able to collect. The more vitality points you accumulate, the greater the discount. Apart from the Gold Vitality status, there is Platinum, Silver, and Bronze status. To earn the highest possible discount, you must amass enough vitality points to win the Platinum Vitality status.

Here is a quick summary of the number of points you must collect in a year to achieve different Manulife Vitality statuses.

• Platinum Vitality status = 10,000 vitality points

• Gold Vitality status = 7,000 vitality points

• Silver Vitality status = 3,500 vitality points

• Bronze Vitality status = 0 vitality points

At the start of each policy year, your Vitality status will automatically rest to the Bronze status. So, you start each year afresh and must accumulate points to qualify for a discounted premium rate.

The program gives policyholders a certain degree of control regarding how much premium they are paying a year since the reduction in premium is based on the activities they do in that year. Manulife vitality group, however, do have a cap on how low and how high your annual premiums can go. The program awards points for things such as for being active, taking an annual flu shot, not smoking, and getting a medical check-up.

If you do not collect any points in a year, you receive the Bronze status. Consequently, your annual premium will be the same as what you would have paid if you had never enrolled into the program. The maximum discount you can earn depends on your insurance policy and premiums.

Here is an example to show how the Manulife Vitality program works. Let’s say you purchase a 20-year term plan with a death benefit of $500,000, and your annual premium is $60. You enrolled in the Manulife Vitality program by paying $2/month extra.

• You start the first year at Gold, which comes with a 10% discount. So, your annual premium for the first policy year is reduced to $540.

• At the start of the second policy year, your status will be reset to Bronze. Now it is up to you how much of the available discount you want to collect. The more points you amass, the greater the discount and vitality active rewards.

• If you do not collect any points in the second year, Manulife will charge you an annual premium of $600 — same as what you would have paid had you not enrolled.

• To collect the maximum discount on offer, you must earn 10,000 points (Platinum status). The maximum discount you can get depends on your policy and annual premium

• Again, when the third-year kicks in, you start at Bronze and must work your way up.

Long story short, you do not lose anything if you do not collect any points, but you can gain much by earning the Platinum status each year.

It is important to note that a Manulife Vitality program has no impact whatsoever on your coverage or its conditions. Continuing with the above example, let’s say that you pass on while your policy was in force. The $500,000 death benefit will be issued to your family the same, regardless of whether you had opted for the Vitality program or not.

What are Manulife Vitality active rewards?

Manulife vitality group gifts you a wearable device — Apple Watch or Garmin Wearable — for free when you sign up for its Vitality program. It allows you to track your heart rate, calories burned, and steps, on the basis of which you earn points when you workout. For example, a light, low-impact workout of more than 5,000 steps but less than10,000 steps will bump up your tally by 10 points. A moderate workout — 10,000 to 14,999 steps — will earn you 20 points. To earn points, connect the wearable device to the Manulife Vitality app.

You receive Garmin Vivofit4 absolutely free, while the Apple Watch (Series 3) is available for $0 initial fee. If you collect 500 points a month for 24 months through Advanced orStandard workouts, you will not have to pay any monthly installment. But if you cannot, there will be a monthly installment. How much? That will depend on the number of vitality points you amass in a month.  

What are some other active rewards?

• GoodLife Fitness: You get up to 55% off on your yearly gym membership

• Exam One: You qualify for a free health check per year

• Hotels.com: With a Platinum Status, you receive a 50% discount for any two nights in a year. Gold and Silver statuses will get you a 25% and 15% off, respectively

How to Collect Points

You can collect more than 18,000 vitality points in a year. To hit the Platinum status, however, you only need 10,000.

How to hit Platinum?

At a first glance, amassing 10,000 points can seem like a lot of effort, but that is not the case. There are many easy ways to earn the Platinum Vitality status, perhaps the easiest one being the following:

• Annual free health checks can earn you 4,500 points if you have optimal BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose readings

• Say no tobacco and you can notch up 1,000 points

• Complete the annual vitality health review at the start of every policy year to collect 750 points

• Completing the various online courses and weekly check-ins will increase your overall tally by 1740 points

• The program lets you carry-forward10% of the last year’s points. So, if you had collected 10,000 points the previous year, you would get 1,000 points

• Now only 1,000 points are left to achieve Platinum. You can easily collect that many by working out regularly

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How to sign-up Manulife Vitality?

When you apply for a term life plan, you can tick the Manulife Vitality program option. After you have been awarded the policy and you have accepted it, you will need to sign up online for the Vitality program and set up an account.

After signing up, pick the smart watch you want for tracking physical activity. The Garmin Vivofit comes free while the Apple Watch is available for $0 initial payment. (You may have to monthly installments for the next 24 months depending on how many points you collect through Advanced or Standard workouts).

Conclusion

If you are healthy and physically active — and have every intention of staying that way —and are looking for term life insurance of $500,000 or more, a Manulife Vitality program is worth considering. You will not lose anything by signing up but can considerably cut down your annual insurance bill and earn handsome rewards for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

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