Article on:
Critical Illness Life Insurance Cover
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 | What is Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover ?

Critical Illness Life Insurance ~ Key Features
- Designed to pay out on diagnosis, claim & survival of specified Critical serious illnesses
- Common Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover includes cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, MS, kidney failure
- Plans terms vary & may cover between 25-150 different types of benefits
- Can be in sole or joint names
- Benefits are currently paid out tax free on claim
- Designed to pay out as a lump sum or income on diagnosis of dread disease
- Usually has no surrender cash in value at any time.
- Medical evidence may be required and a medical examination for those with health issues
- Premiums may be guaranteed or reviewable
- Waiver of Premium (where the Insurer waives/protects & covers your premiums after a deferred period of 4/8/13/26 weeks due to sickness or accident)
- Also known as dread disease insurance, dread disease policy, dread disease cover, serious illness cover, critical cover, illness insurance, illness protection, critical illness protection, critical ilness protection, critical illness life insurance cover, critical life insurance, critical life cover, life critical illness insurance cover
Each Critical Ilness policy is designed for covering particular illnesses & some more than others; you may wish to carefully examine the policy wording before committing to one policy or indeed consider replacing a policy or just seek professional advice. The rules changed in April 2007 re Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover terms designed to help simplify matters.
Critical Illness Insurance Comparison Tables

Note that some multi-plan policies and income protection policies have a Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover option which you can add onto the plan.
Mortgage or Family 'Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover'
Critical Illness Life Insurance Cover as mentioned will pay out a lump sum upon diagnosis of a specified serious illness. You decide the number of years the policy will be in force and the level of cover you require at the outset.
The critical illness policy can be set up on a single or joint life basis or can be added to either Level Term or Mortgage Life insurance.
If a specified critical illness is diagnosed during the term of your policy then the sum insured is paid out. If you have not suffered any serious illness at the end of the term then the critical illness insurance policy ceases and nothing is paid out as this product [ if it is a term plan ] has no cash in value at any time.
If you are intending on replacing an existing critical illness life insurance policy, it is strongly recommended you talk to an adviser first as you cannot necessarily determine wether one plan is better than another, for example, by one just having more serious illness definitions than another. Note do not cancel any current arrangements until any new policy is in force.
How much do Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover do I need ?

When thinking about Critical Illness Life Insurance Cover, you should try to estimate what your loss of income will be and what money you will need to compensate for the loss of earning power which the serious illness deprives you of.
It is hard to think about but investigating roughly how much it would cost to make alterations to your home to accommodate you, should you be unable for example to use your stairs, may suprise you. Sufficient benefit to pay off the balance of your mortgage would provide enormous peace of mind should you become unable to earn and therefore continue to make mortgage repayments.
Many advisers recommend Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover at 1/2 annual salary plus full mortgage repayment.
Critical Illness Life Assurance Cover payments are made by premium either monthly or annually and the premium which you can afford will dictate the level of benefit you will receive should you succumb to a covered illness.
What does Reviewable & Guaranteed Quotes mean ?
NOTE - You may have seen terms reviewable & guaranteed on quotes & as such a wide difference in prices. The premium if "guaranteed" means [guaranteed never to increase, so is not therefore reviewable]. Or alternatively the cheaper option is "reviewable" [which usually means a possible premium increase annually or after say first 5 years - when it may then increase at each insurers review]. This may in time however work out far more expensive than guaranteed cover due to the premiums costs increasing at each review.
Often it is strangely cheaper to also include & underwrite Life Insurance with your Critical Illness Life Plan rather than have just stand alone CriticalIllness insurance. Indeed some insurers only charge reviewable premiums for this stand alone cover rather than guaranteed premiums. Therefore if you want the guaranteed premium option, you may wish to consider your choices.
Underwriting & Health Issues
Premiums are also influenced by your general health, smoker status at the time of taking out the policy as well as factors such as whether you height and weight is in proportion.
You are unlikely to be able to get cover for an illness which you have suffered since birth, and you will find premiums are higher if you have a history of particular illnesses in your family. This means you must disclose all relevant facts.
There are always exclusions on Critical Illness Life Insurance Cover plans however and it is likely that if you have previous medical conditions you may not be entitled to full coverage.
Always read the policy carefully ~ Are the Terms acceptable to you?



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