Online Lifge Assurance Cover

Critical Illness Cover (CIC) provides you the total amount insured, which is free from tax, if you are identified with a life-threatening disease which renders you incapable of working.

Insurers are discovering that while life assurance claims are falling, they are having to finance more and more claims on CIC plans.  The consequence of this is that the cost of CIC is becoming a higher cost than life insurance.  If the number of CIC claims decrease then inevitably the cost of payments will reduce too.

The cost of Direct Line and Swiss Life’s CIC has increased by about 20 and 25 per cent respectively.  But the likes of Norwich Union and Scottish Equitable far outstrip them in the price rise race with increases of up to 50%.  Other life insurance underwriters are endeavouring to charge more for CIC as well as the industry believes over the definition of ‘life-threatening disease’ and medical science makes big steps in the management and control of highlighted conditions.

The ABI has identified plans for prostate cancer and heart problems, for example.  If these ailments are uncovered early on they are not then considered to be ‘life-threatening’, at least for some people.  Another example is diabetes.  At the moment BUPA is the only insurance organisation which still allows this condition on its register of critical medical issues covered.

A CIC scheme usually is for an agreed term, for example co-terminus with the length of time on a home borrowing requirement, and there is no difference in the premiums.  The fees are costly for this cover. Insurers are now seeking to provide reviewable schemes where both the health conditions covered and the charges paid are reviewed every 5 years, which should be cheaper.

Ray Mottershead, senior director of the independent financial adviser division of Tesco, states that more individuals will highlight the reviewable policies as they become better value than the guaranteed cover.

Bradford & Bingley continues to provide a guaranteed CIC but has put its charges up for that.  It has announced a reviewable cover option as an alternative.  Aviva and Lloyds have ceased to provide guaranteed CICs.

Ray Morton, Protection director at Aviva, says, “The reviewable regular payment will be typically [around] fifteen % lower than the guaranteed scheme.”

An existing guaranteed CIC plan cannot be altered to redefine any ailments which are now defined as ‘life-threatening’ but which may not be in that category in the future.  So if you have this type of policy already and are ok to pay the financial amounts you don’t have to be concerned.
If you are thinking to take out critical illness cover get ready to pay less for a reviewable scheme.  But if you want the extra lack of worry a guaranteed plan provides, take it while there are still some available, and do not forget you’ll have to pay more.

Summary:
5 years ago when David Elliot was informed that he had cancer of the brain, life was would never be the same but after a traumatic operation his recovery has been very good. Still David lives with the worry that the tumour could strike again at any time during the next 5 to 10 years. He will also have to take tablets to lessen his epilepsy for life.

Mr Elliot, who is now forty one, believes he is the most “blessed man alive” to have come through it. However he can no longer aquire life insurance.

Mr Elliot and his partner have a two-year-old son, Jason, and a year ago they moved from Sussex to Smallwood in Cheshire. The family remortgaged £80,000 pounds with the Woolwich but David was unable to cover the debt with a life insurance policy in his name.
“The Nation Wide’s underwriters would not give me the best life assurance. Jane has critical illness and life insurance cover for the total mortgage,” he says.

The probability of getting life assurance are very doubtful if an application is put forward in the first 5 years of having been told that you have a dangerous form of cancer or having had a heart attack. Should the patient be lucky enough to make a full recovery within a given period, typically up to three to five years, insurers will consider covering them again but will place a “loading” on to the monthly payment. In many situations this may be as large as 8 times the price that others pay.

During the first 3 years following an operation, someboby in Mr Elliot’s position would be declined life insurance. Following this period, life insurance cover should be obtainable “though at a very costly premium”.

The life insurance company which underwrites for high-risk people (those who practice dangerous sports or with serious medical problems is the Insurance Centre Special Risks. It professes to have a accomplishment rate of seventy five per cent when placing its customers with insurance companies. Special Risks Bureau (SRB) declared that it would be at least another year before they would be able to contemplate an application from Mr Elliot.

Payments would inevitably be exorbitant because of his epilepsy and compared to the general population there would still be an increased mortality risk. Unless an insurance cover purposely excluded cancers, Mr Elliot would certainly be refused any critical illness cover.
Thus as a result of professional financial advice, the Elliot family has saved up six months’ emergency money, to all intents and purposes a self-insurance policy.

And there is some good news for David. The Post Office, his previous mortgage provider, has allowed him to maintain fifty-five thounds pounds of life life insurance cover from an existing policy – albeit at a price of fifty pound a month. This is called a Guaranteed Insurability Option and means the insurers will allow the insured up to 1/2 of the initial amount assured without underwriting.

It is not just critical medical conditions that can have an effect on  life insurance.Edward Jennings, media and marketing manager of Manchester sports Club had his initial application declined because of a minor skin irritation. Various trips to doctors and endless telephone calls to Legal and General they in the end sorted things out. Mr Harris’s suggestion to anybody in the same situation is to make an application first and back it with a full medical history.