Product Review – John Hancock Vitality Program
John Hancock has teamed up with Vitality to introduce a new innovative life insurance program in the U.S. that integrates wellness rewards with life insurance coverage. The Vitality Program from John Hancock offers policyholders the opportunity to earn rewards for travel, entertainment, shopping and fitness as well as the opportunity to reduce premiums by simply living a healthy lifestyle. If you’re looking for more out of your life insurance coverage, John Hancock’s Vitality Program could be a good fit for you. Here’s how it works.
How Does the John Hancock Vitality Program Work?
Once you become a policyholder, you will take an online Vitality Health Review to determine your Vitality Age. Your Vitality Age is an indicator of your overall health compared to your actual age. Your Vitality age could be higher or lower than your actual age. You can check your vitality age here.
Once you have received your Vitality Age, you will receive personalized health goals that you can monitor online. You will be eligible for a free health check from one of the program’s affiliated partners, Walgreens or Quest Diagnostics. Your results will be automatically recorded allowing you to easily earn Vitality Points. You will also receive a free Fitbit to track your progress more easily. You will start to accumulate Vitality Points over the course of the year for completing various health related activities ranging from daily exercise to getting an annual health screening. Each year, you will earn Vitality Status based on the number of points you accumulate. You can earn Bronze Status – 0 points, Silver Status – 3,500 points, Gold Status – 7,000 Points and Platinum Status – 10,000 points. The more points you earn, the greater the rewards and premium savings available.
How Do You Earn Points?
There are many different ways to earn points. Here are some examples of how you can earn points as well as point values for each:
Light Workout (5,000 to 9,999 steps per day) 10 Points Daily
Glucose Check – Reading of <100mg/dl 1000 Points (once per year)
Cholesterol Check – Reading of <200mg/dl 1000 Points (once per year)
Blood Pressure Check – Reading of ≤ 120/80 1000 Points (once per year)
Body Mass Index (BMI) Check – BMI of 18.5-24.9 1000 Points (once per year)
Non Tobacco User 1000 Points (once per year)
Annual Flu Shot 400 Points (once per year)
Dental Screening 200 Points (once per year)
Online Nutrition Courses 75 Points Each (Six per year)
These are just a handful of the many ways you can accumulate points in the program. In fact, simply living a healthy lifestyle and keeping your weight, glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure levels within a normal range and refraining from tobacco use will pretty much get you to Gold Status.
What Rewards are Available ?
Saving money on your premiums is just one potential reward offered by the Vitality Program from John Hancock.
- Free FitBit Device to track your progress.
- A 15% discount on electronic gift cards from Vitality to purchase qualifying outdoor gear from REI.
- A free health check from one of the program’s affiliated partners, Walgreens or Quest Diagnostics. Your results will be automatically recorded allowing you to easily earn Vitality Points.
- Gift cards from retailers such as Starbucks, Amazon, Whole Foods and more.
- As part of John Hancock’s HealthyFood™ Benefit, you can save 10% on your healthy food choices – up to $50 a month at thousands of stores nationwide, including at Walmart and 70 major grocery chains in the NutriSavings™ network
If your policy has a face amount of $2,000,000 or more, you will also be eligible for other rewards such as:
- Half price hotel stays at any Hyatt hotel worldwide. The higher your status, the more nights you can purchase each year.
- Cruise rewards of 20% to 50% off, depending on your Vitality Status, from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises and more.
As you can see, there are many rewards options available to you depending on how active you are in the program.
How Much is Coverage with Vitality?
John Hancock’s Vitality Program is an optional feature on its participating products. We analyzed the cost of adding Vitality to John Hancock’s level premium term product versus opting for the company’s traditional level term coverage. We used the rates for a 45 year old male who qualified for “preferred best” health rating and was in need of $1,000,000 of coverage for 20 years. If he simply wanted to purchase John Hancock’s traditional level premium term product without adding the Vitality feature, he would pay guaranteed level premiums of $1,123 per year for 20 years. If he chose to add the Vitality feature, his first annual premium would start at $1,021, but could fluctuate based on his annual status level.
How Your Status Affects Premiums
The program works best if you are willing to proactively participate throughout the life of your policy. For instance, if you maintain Bronze or Silver Status, you can expect your premiums to increase slightly each year. Bronze Status will result in a larger annual increase than Silver. Your premiums can never increase more than what is specified in the policy contract. If you maintain Gold Status annually your premiums will stay level. Achieving Platinum Status will lower your premiums. In fact, if you are able to maintain Platinum Status annually for the full duration of your policy, you will see a decrease in your premiums every year. If you already live a healthy lifestyle or if you are looking for incentive to do so, this program could be a good fit for you.
How Status Affects Premiums in the Example Case Above
In the case of our 45 year old male applicant above, we stated that his premiums would initially start at $1,021 if he chose to utilize the Vitality feature on his term coverage. Here’s how his premiums would be affected by each status level, assuming that he maintained the same status level throughout the policy.
Client Maintains Bronze Status – Premiums increase annually until reaching a high of $1,388 in year 20
Client Maintains Silver Status – Premiums increase annually until reaching high of $1,262 in year 20
Client Maintains Gold Status – Premiums would remain level at $1,021
Client Maintains Platinum Status – Premiums decrease annually until reaching low of $964 in year 20
As you can see, in order for the client to reap the benefits of adding Vitality to the policy versus opting for the traditional level premium term policy, it would be in his best interest to maintain at least Gold Status.
Potential Drawbacks to the Vitality Program
There are a few of potential drawbacks to the Vitality Program. The first is that certain information about your health will be collected by Vitality and John Hancock. Some people might view this as a privacy issue. You can pick and choose which information you want to make available to the company once you’re in the program, but blocking too much information could hinder your ability to earn points.
Another potential drawback is that if you choose not to actively participate in the program, your premiums increase. This is the case for policyholders who maintain Bronze or Silver Status. With traditional guaranteed level premium term products, maintaining a healthy lifestyle won’t matter once you’ve locked in your rate.
One other potential drawback is that the program is new. In the insurance industry, we have seen various products and programs come and go. There is no guarantee that this will be successful, which is probably why John Hancock has chosen to add it to only two of its products so far. It should also be noted that the program has not been approved in all states yet. With that said, this program has been successful in other parts of the world and there’s probably a good chance it will gain traction here in the U.S.
What Life Insurance Products are Eligible?
Currently, John Hancock offers the Vitality Program on its 10, 15 and 20 year term products and its Protection Universal Life product as well. John Hancock offers a very generous conversion feature that allows term policyholders the opportunity to convert coverage to any of its permanent products. This is a valuable feature that most companies in the industry do not offer.
Our Review of John Hancock’s Vitality Program
One of the main issues consumers have with most traditional term life insurance is that it only provides a benefit if you pass away. John Hancock’s Vitality Program is different in that it not only provides valuable protection for your loved ones if you pass away, but it also allows you to accumulate rewards and lower your premium by simply living a healthy lifestyle. For those of you looking for a unique opportunity to get more out of your term and permanent life insurance coverage, this could be an excellent option for you. If you are interested in this program and would like to learn more, give us a call at 888-687-9444 or email us at info@archstoneagency.com.
About Us
Archstone Insurance Services, LLC is an independent agency that shops over 40 of the top life insurance carriers to provide huge savings on life insurance coverage for our clients. We are happy to answer any questions you might have about any of the insurance products we offer, your planning needs or your existing coverage. Feel free to call us directly at (888) 687-9444 or email us at info@archstoneagency.com.
