Personal Protection
Critical Illness Protection |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Critical Illness Cover is well known but few people realise that every critical illness policy is different. Taking the most suitable one for you is paramount. 
In its simplest form, critical illness insurance pays a benefit to you or a chosen party if you are diagnosed with one of a list of pre-defined illnesses. This can be extremely beneficial as the conditions defined tend to be those which would be expected to cause significant time out of work. In particular, insuring your debts such as a mortgage against critical illness is normally highly recommended. However, no two critical illness policies are created equal! They differ significantly, from the basics such as which conditions are covered and how many, to more complex issues such as the severity of each condition or additional benefits like cover for your children. |
 |
| We strongly believe that these differences between policies and the effect that any personal or family health problems will have on your ultimate acceptance make choosing a critical illness plan based on price alone ill advised. If you request quotes from us we will send you not just indicative prices but also some information on the types of policies available and how this may affect you. And when we take your details online you can enter a description of any health issues you or your family may have which could affect your policy later on - we'll speak to the insurers in advance for you. | |
 |
|
What are the alternatives? Income Protection This is a very difficult decision - obviously in an ideal world most of us would like to be covered for both critical illness and income protection separately. However both Critical Illness insurance and Income Protection tend to take up large proportions of our available budgets when we consider protecting ourselves and so we can be forced to choose between them. In some ways income protection may be preferable to critical illness cover. In particular, an income protection policy will normally pay an income if you are unable to work due to ANY sickness or injury, whereas a critical illness policy will only pay if you are diagnosed with a condition on a predefined list. If the condition is not on the list then no benefit will be paid at all! On the other hand a critical illness policy will normally pay a lump sum to settle a debt, which may be of significantly greater value than the benefit from an income protection policy. One important consideration is the amount of income you will be able to cover - normally it's only possible to cover 60-65% of your gross income with income protection insurance. If this is enough to cover all of your essential outgoings then income protection may be more suitable than critical illness if you're forced to choose between the two. If you find yourself in this position we'd strongly recommend taking financial advice. Click here to contact us. |
|
| Income Protection |
Critical Illness |
|
| What benefit does it pay? |
A monthly income. This is usually no more than 60% of your normal income. |
A lump sum. This could be used to pay off your mortgage or support you and your family. |
| When does it pay? |
If you are unable to work due to accident or sickness. |
If you are diagnosed with one of a list of pre-defined conditions. |
| Advantages |
There's no list of conditions – any accident or sickness which sees you out of work will normally result in a benefit being paid. Normally these policies will pay out until the end of the policy if you remain off work, i.e. until retirement. |
A lump sum is paid which can be very significant. It could pay off your mortgage or support you or your family. |
| Disadvantages |
You may not be able to insure yourself for enough to cover all your outgoings. |
If you are diagnosed with an illness which is not on the list, even if this causes you significant loss, there will normally be no benefit paid. |
| Get an Income Protection Comparison | Get a Critical Illness Protection Comparison |
| Serious Illness Cover A relatively new arrival to the UK protection market, serious illness cover is similar to critical illness cover but a lot longer list of illnesses are covered. Some, like crtitical illness cover, result in a complete payment (for instance the value of the mortgage) but some more minor conditions may result in a partial payment. If you receive a partial payment the policy would then remain in place and pay out the rest of the benefit if another condition were diagnosed later. Because more conditions are covered, serious illness cover tends to be more expensive than critical illness cover. There are variations on this cover and options which can be added or removed. Like all personal protection products we'd strongly recommend you seek professional financial advice before taking serious illness cover. |
Next Steps If you like to talk about this proposition, do feel free to contact us.
Or you can message us from this website by clicking here. |
|
Content copyright 2012 Whitchurch IFA Ltd. All rights reserved.
Private Limited Company Registered in England and Wales number 7859123
All images are either bespoke, provided by GoDaddy image library or modified works
released under Creative Commons License without restriction. For specifics please contact us.
Proud supporters of the Noah's Ark Appeal - official charity of the Children's Hospital for Wales.
Click the logo to the right to help!
To learn about our data protection, confidentiality and IT security policies click here.
The content of this website is intended for private individuals and introducers in the United Kingdom only. It is intended to provide generic information only and constitutes neither financial advice nor an offer to provide financial advice. We strongly recommend that all parties seek professional financial advice before taking out, funding, amending, crystalising, taking income from or cancelling any financial policy, product, instrument, contract or commitment. If you would like to seek advice on any of the aspects mentioned on this website from us please click here to contact us.
If you wish to register a complaint, please write to us at 70 The Philog, Cardiff CF14 1EB or telephone 02920009479. A summary of our internal complaints handling procedures for the reasonable and prompt handling of complaints is available on request and if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4 567.
Whitchurch IFA Ltd is not responsible for the content of external websites linked from this site.
