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Tool — 2026 Ontario

What would an illness actually cost you?

Two estimates. A critical illness lump sum to bridge the first stretch after a diagnosis, and a monthly disability figure for the long tail after that. Both compare against what you already have.

Living-benefits inputs and results

Your household

Housing, food, transport, childcare, insurance, minimum debt payments. What would still have to be paid if nobody went to work next month.

Critical illness

Treatment and recovery, plus the elimination period before any disability benefit starts paying. Ninety to a hundred and eighty days of nothing is common.

Drugs not covered by OHIP or your plan, travel to treatment, home modifications, private nursing, and a spouse cutting their hours to provide care.

Disability

Who pays the premium decides whether the benefit is taxed, and that changes what it is worth by thousands a year. Your benefits booklet says which.

The figure from the booklet, not your estimate. A plan described as replacing two thirds of income almost always stops at a fixed monthly ceiling.

This is a rounded illustration, not an entitlement estimate. Eligibility and the actual amount depend on your CPP record and Service Canada’s decision. Some group plans offset CPP disability benefits.

Critical illness shortfall

$0 Estimated lump sum you may need beyond existing critical illness coverage. A policy pays only when its covered-condition definition, survival period and other terms are met
Already covered Shortfall
Living costs over the bridge period$0
Costs the diagnosis creates$0
Debt cleared$0
Estimated need$0
Less coverage in force$0

Disability shortfall

$0 Estimated monthly gap between what your household must spend and what would actually arrive, after tax, while you cannot work
Monthly essential costs$0
Less group LTD$0
Less individual coverage$0
Less CPP disability$0
Monthly shortfall$0
If it ran five years$0

This is an estimate, not advice and not a quote. It uses published 2026 figures and simplifies heavily. Nothing you enter leaves your browser — there is no server, no account, and nothing is stored or sent. Your actual position depends on income, expenses, workplace benefits, CPP eligibility, policy definitions, exclusions, waiting periods and tax circumstances. Coverage remains subject to application, underwriting and the issued policy.

Why the two numbers behave differently

A lump sum runs out. A monthly benefit does not.

Critical illness pays once. It is the right tool for the shock — the months of treatment, the costs that arrive all at once, the mortgage you want gone so the household stops bleeding. Then it is spent.

Disability pays every month for as long as the disability lasts, up to the benefit period. It is the right tool for the possibility that you never go back to the job you had. The five-year figure above exists to make that difference concrete: a shortfall that looks manageable monthly becomes a number no lump sum was ever going to cover.

Most people who need one need both, in different amounts. Which one to buy first is usually decided by budget, and that is a real conversation rather than a formula.

Start with a conversation.

Thirty minutes, no charge, no product pitch. Bring whatever you have — a will, a policy, a shoebox of paper, or nothing at all. You will leave knowing what is missing and what it takes to fix.

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