Summary
The important facts you should mull over when deciding on critical illness cover and the rangeof companies proffering thisstyle of policy.
Your mortgage lender may propose several financial products including critical illness cover. However, as they are not experts in this market, you will probably find a better deal elsewhere.
The level of insurance cover on offer is just as important as the premium when seekingcritical illness cover. The policies from Alliance and Leicester and Nationwide are very restricted according to a senior adviser at Money Supermarket, a telephone and online life assurance broker. Legal and General covers only seven critical illnesses, with Scottish Equitable covering just 10, whereas the market leader, Aviva, covers 38.
Parkinsons, Aids, loss of speech, deafness, blindness and diabetes are some of the conditions not covered by some of the big insurers. The advisersays that it does not warrant consideringa policy, which insures less than 25 illnesses.
An umbrella term built into all policies is ‘total and permanent disabilities’, this term means you are insured for any illness, which stops you working ever again.
You neeed to be aware of the lanuage as some policies cover ‘any occupation’ whereas others only insure your ‘own’ occupation. You will not receive a settlement under a ‘any occupation’ policy unless you are totally incapable of carryingout a job, however menial. Therefore The adviserrecommends you sign up for a ‘own’ occupation policy.
There are many companies as well as Swiss Life who offer comprehensive cover including Scottish Provident, Scandia, Zurich life, Friends Provident, Scottish Equitable, Liverpool Victoria, Norwich Union, Legal and General and Zurich Life.
For many years life cover has been promoted by a mortgage company. This has resulted in critical illness cover never being considered by many people. There are 4 times as many claims on critical illness policies compared to life insurance, when the client has taken out both kinds of insurance.
Life insurance cover is extremely important, particulary if you have family, as they will welcome the lump sum settlement on your death. On the other hand critical illness cover should be the priority if you have debts to settle, particularly a home owner loan. The senior adviserbelieves critical illness to be more important as it covers the cost of your house and food, even if you are incapacitated and unable to work.
The monthly payments will be larger if you are a heavy drinker or smoker and will also be more expensive if you are older. A decreasing term policy, which is aimed at people only wanting to insure the cost of their home owner loan, is the cheapest.
One of Savill’s customers, a 27 year old non-smoker, who wanted100,000 pounds cover from a critical illness, long term policy, was given a price of £15-50 per month, which rose to 24 pounds 30 pence for smokers. However a Directorfrom Money Supermarket recommended a policy, which gave both life protection and critical illness cover for 16 pounds 60 pence a month, so it could be worth paying a bit higher premium.
Tags: Alliance And Leicester, Aviva, Critical Illness Cover, Critical Illnesses, Friends Provident, Important Facts, Lanuage, Life Assurance, Life Friends, Liverpool Victoria, Money Supermarket, Mortgage Company, Mortgage Lender, Norwich Union, Scandia, Scottish Equitable, Scottish Provident, Swiss Life, Umbrella Term, Zurich Life









