Life, Critical & Serious Illness
Life Protection
Life Insurance will pay out a lump sum (or annual benefit if family income benefit has been chosen) in the event of the death of the life assured or if diagnosed with a terminal illness.
This could be used to replace lost future income, pay off the outstanding mortgage or help with the funeral costs.
At a difficult time, it can ease money worries and help prevent financial hardship for those left behind.
Life Cover offers the following options:
- Level term cover – The insurance provider will pay a fixed lump sum if you die within the policy contract.
- Mortgage protection term cover – As the name suggests, the cover decreases in line with your repayment mortgage should you die within the policy contract.
- Joint Cover – the provider will cover you and your partner but will only pay out on the first person who dies.
- Whole of Life – the policy is guaranteed to remain in force for your entire lifetime provided the premiums are paid. For term assurance contracts, when the term of the contract ends, there is no refund of premiums.
But that’s not all. Some Life Cover insurers offer even more benefits:
- Accidental death benefit
- Free cover
- Indexation
- Replacement cover
- Total permanent disability
Critical Illness cover can also be included into these contracts
Critical And Serious Illness Protection
A critical illness can strike at any time. The good news is that with medical advances, people are more likely to survive critical illnesses, however they are still likely to take prolonged periods off work for treatment and recovery, and may suffer both emotionally and financially.
Critical Illness Cover is designed to help protect you and your family from the financial hardship that a serious illness or injury can cause. If you suffer or undergo one of a number of specified illnesses or operations and survive for a period after diagnosis, the insurer will pay a tax free lump sum (or annual benefit if your client has chosen our family income benefit option).
Critical Illness Cover can include a comprehensive list of conditions and operations, including full and additional payments. The primary purpose is to provide quality protection by only including conditions that make our cover meaningful to you. Critical Illness cover usually pays out after 28 days of diagnosis.
We also offer Critical Illness with Life Cover, which means the insurer will pay a tax-free lump sum if the person covered dies, suffers or undergoes one of the specified illnesses or operations.
Conditions covered
A full list of conditions is available after our initial consultation. Insurers are regularly adding covered conditions and there are variations between insurers, understanding what conditions are covered is key to getting the right policy for you.
Additional benefits available
Even though some conditions are less serious than others, they can have a huge impact on your everyday life. Many critical illness insurers cover includes additional payments, which are paid if you suffer any of the specified illnesses below.
Some insurers now offer a part payment scheme, these typically include the following.
If you claim on an additional benefit, you will receive a lump sum payment equivalent to 25% of their main benefit, up to £25,000. In most circumstances additional payments are paid in addition to the main benefit, meaning you can still make further claims at a later date.
- Cerebral arteriovenous malformation – with surgical repair
- Cerebral aneurysm – with surgical repair
- Coronary angioplasty – of specified severity
- Crohn’s disease – treated with surgical intestinal resection
- Less advanced cancers – of named sites and specified severity
- Non-malignant pituitary adenoma – with specified treatment
- Removal of one or more lobe(s) of the lungs – for disease or trauma
- Severe hearing loss – permanent and irreversible
- Significant visual loss – permanent and irreversible
When you make a critical illness cover claim, you will be assessed as to whether you qualify for a main condition or an additional payment condition.
If you claim relates to a main condition, once the benefit is paid, your cover will end and no further benefit will be paid.
The core options for Critical Illness Cover are:
- Level term cover – The insurance provider will pay a fixed lump sum if you die within the policy contract.
- Mortgage protection term cover – The insurance provider will pay a percentage of your mortgage should you die within the policy contract. The payout will decrease in line with your mortgage.
- Child cover benefit – If you are a parent, it’s likely you’ll do all you can for your child, and having some financial support during tough times could really help. If your child is diagnosed with one of the conditions covered, the policy pays out a lump sum payment to provide financial support at a difficult time.