- Critical illness insurance
- Income protection
- Mortgage payment protection
Critical illness insurance and life insurance or critical illness cover and life insurance is an insurance product that will provide financial assistance, in the form of a tax-free lump sum, to the policyholder in the event that they are diagnosed with one of the conditions listed within the plan details. Critical illness insurance and life insurance was founded by Dr Marius Barnard in South Africa in 1983 and was originally known as the ‘dread disease insurance’. It covered just four conditions; heart attack, cancer, stroke and coronary artery by-pass surgery. Today, there are a large number of different insurance companies that offer what is now known as critical illness insurance/cover. In addition to the increase in providers there are now a large number of various conditions covered; these vary from provider to provider. All insurance companies offering life and critical illness insurance will cover the seven core illness which include; heart attack, cancer, stroke, coronary artery bypass, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis and major organ transplant. Additional illnesses will vary from insurer to insurer and will be detailed in their policy documents.
Critical illness and life insurance – Critical illness insurance and life insurance – Critical illness cover and life insurance
Generally, you will pay a monthly premium for the duration of the time that you are covered for i.e. the term of the critical illness cover. The size of your insurance premium will depend upon a number of different factors namely; your age, sex, health, certain history of family health, occupation, leisure pursuits, smoking status, type of cover and period of time it is required over. Therefore, no one type of critical illness and life insurance will necessarily be the same price for everyone. Also, it should be noted that as with any insurance plan should you not be able to maintain the monthly premiums the policy will lapse and effectively you are taken off cover.
When deciding whether you require critical illness and life insurance or not it is worth asking yourself the question – how would you and your family/dependants cope should you suffer a critical illness and be unable to work? If you consider that you require some financial protection being put in place it is important to ensure that any cover will fit within your budget. It could be argued that a little amount of affordable critical illness cover is better than none at all.