What other benefits can be added to a Critical Illness policy?

Life cover is a must. Then consider Waiver of Premium and Indexation.

STEP 1 of 2
Type of cover
Life Insurance       Mortgage Life Insurance
 
Cover Level (£)

Number of years
Do you want:  
Critical illness cover
Family income benefit
 

Hot Topics

Why do I need critical illness cover?
1 in 5 men suffer a critical illness before their normal retirement age. 1 in 6 women suffer a critical illness before their normal retirement age.
Are future children included on a Critical Illness policy?
All natural, step and legally adopted children are insured under a Critical Illness policy so long as they are aged between 1 and 18 years (although some companies only consider children from aged 3).
What level of critical illness cover could your children get?
Insurance companies normally impose a maximum limit on any claim under the policy’s provisions for children. Sometimes the limit will be lower of a percentage of your own sum assured (e.g. 25% or 50%) or a set amount (typically £15,000 or £20,000).
What information do you need to provide to apply for a Critical Illness policy?
The Application form will ask questions regarding your height, weight, age, sex, current state of health, occupation, hobbies etc.
Are You Allowed To Continue Working After A Critical Illness Claim?
Once an Insurance company has paid your claim it has no interest how you live your life or what you go on to do.
Life cover
How’s this for a benefit? It is probable that if you combine Life and Critical Illness insurance into one policy it will be cheaper than buying Critical Illness alone! This is because the insurance companies can apply various internal company tax allowances to their pricing of combined policies but these allowances are not available for stand-alone Critical Illness policies. It doesn’t always work out cheaper but for most people it is.

And there’s another big advantage for buying a combined policy. With these policies the insured sum will be paid out on a claim for either death or critical illness (not both). The original reason these combined policies were designed is that a critical illness could be diagnosed and the individual dies before the policy’s “survival period” is completed (for a Critical Illness claim to be valid you need to survive for a set number of days following diagnosis. This survival period is normally 28 days but some insurance companies have reduced the survival period to 14 days). If you died within the survival period any claim would, therefore, be invalid. However, if you also had Life Insurance cover the claim would be valid under the conditions of the Life cover.

Waiver of Premium
With “Waiver of Premium” your insurance company pays your monthly premium for you if you are sick or have had an accident.

This option is will only available at the time of application and if you are under 55 and in full time employment. It cannot be added to any existing policy you may have.

Indexation
Indexation should be added if you want your sum insured to increase in line with inflation. It thereby protects the purchasing power of the sum you have insured for.

Each year your insurer works out how much your cover needs to increase by and then they automatically adjust your policy. Your monthly premium will also increase in proportion to the increase in your sum insured. (Please note: you don’t need Indexation if you are using this policy to protect a mortgage.)

Frequently Asked Questions related to the above topic.
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