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
 

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What could Critical Illness cover be used for?
Anything you want. Medical expenses, repaying the mortgage, making your home easier to live in, school fees, general living expenses, but to name a few.
How long should you insure for?
20 to 25 years is most common but it really depends on how much you can afford and your personal circumstances.
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).
Will you need a medical if you apply for a critical illness policy?
In order to correctly assess the risk they are being asked to accept an insurance company may require further information from your GP or request that you undergo a medical. In most cases these medicals only take five or ten minutes.
What happens if your condition deteriorates after making a claim on your Critical Illness policy?
As far as your insurance is concerned, it makes no difference. Your policy has already paid out and your ex- insurer has no further interest in your health.
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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