Life Cover provides financial security for your dependents in the event of your death. You can insure yourself for a specified amount and a specified term. The life insurance can either decrease over the specified term (decreasing life insurance), this usually runs alongside a repayment mortgage or a reducing debt. Alternatively it can remain level over the specified term meaning you know exactly the amount of life insurance that will be paid to your dependents in the event of your death.

Critical Illness insurance provides you and your dependants with protection should a serious illness or incapacity affect your ability to work and cause you financial hardship.

Life and critical illness insurance combines the two policies above, which means that you are covered for either death or the diagnosis of a critical illness (whichever occurred first).

But what is a Critical Illness?

Critical illness cover is defined by the ABI (the Association of British Insurers) as cover which pays out on a diagnosis of a listed critical illness. The list of illnesses must include cancer, heart attack and stroke.

Each critical illness provider covers different critical illness conditions and sometimes even the definitions within these listed conditions are different per critical illness provider. This is why it is essential to seek independent financial advice for any life and critical illness insurance cover you might be considering.

To try to give people a better understanding of a critical illness, we have listed the critical illness conditions generally covered – please note, not every insurance provider of critical illness will offer cover for all of these critical illness conditions:

Alheimer`s Disease Aorta Graft Surgery Aplastic Anaemia Bacterial Meningitis Benign Brain Tumour Blindness Cancer Cardiomyopathy Chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis Coma Coronary Angioplasty Coronary Artery by-pass Grafts Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD) Deafness Dementia Heart Attack Heart Valve Replacement or Repair HIV Infection Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

Liver Failure Loss of Hands or Feet Loss of Independence Loss of speech Major Organ Transplant Motor Neurone Disease Multiple Sclerosis Open Heart Surgery Paralysis of the limbs Parkinson’s Disease Progressive Supra-nuclear palsy Respiratory Failure Stroke Systemic Lupus Erythematosis (SLE) Terminal Illness Third Degree Burns Traumatic Head Injury Kidney Failure

Not particularly pleasant reading, however, it does highlight just how many critical illness insurance conditions can be covered. Each insurance company has certain criteria that need to be met at the underwriting stage of the life and critical illness insurance application and they will look at any pre-existing conditions you or your immediate family may have. Based on this, and your general health they will either accept the life and critical illness application on standard terms (which means you get the policy for the amount that was quoted), your premium is increased by a percentage (this is called “loading”) and usually reflects the level of risk to the insurance company to cover you for all the critical illness conditions, you could be excluded from certain critical illness conditions meaning the policy wouldn’t pay out for that particular exclusion and finally you might be declined altogether.

How can I talk to you about my Life and Critical Illness Insurance needs?

By simply completing your details below, one of our advisers will be able to contact you and discuss your requirements. We are happy to make a full recommendation to you based on what you would like to be covered for and how much you are willing to budget (or pay) for your life and critical illness insurance policy. Alternatively you can contact us on 01274 516900 and talk to us directly. We look forward to speaking to you soon.