Life Insurance/Critical Illness

Nick1975

Can anybodybody suggest a good company? For the critical illness cover I am looking for the company which covers the most illnesses, and I am also considering whole of life insurance plus indexed insurance to take account of inflation. What are the best companies? Thanks

OshayAway

Nick1975 wrote: »

Can anybodybody suggest a good company? For the critical illness cover I am looking for the company which covers the most illnesses, and I am also considering whole of life insurance plus indexed insurance to take account of inflation. What are the best companies? Thanks

I know this is going to sound like a cop-out but you really are best off speaking to a whole of market protection insurance specialist who can back-up their research and make an advised recommendation.

There are several factors that should be considered including the quality...not just quantity... of critical illnesses covered. Also, many now include partial payment free benefits for several conditions and many, not all, load the indexation premium by a factor higher than the sum assured increase.

Annisele

OshayAway's answer is a cop-out - but I think he's also right.

Whole of life can be quite a complicated product with many different options, and it's hard to suggest a company without knowing what you need. It's also hard to talk about too specifically without straying into giving advice - which isn't allowed on this forum.

In addition, there aren't that many people with a whole of life need (though there are certainly some). Even if you do have a WOL need, there's a reasonable chance that you have a combination of other needs, some of which might be best served by term assurance.

In short: it's going to be very hard to DIY unless you're already very sure about what you want/need.

ACG

The company that covers the most critical illnesses is Pru Protect - with over 100 (most offer 30-40). But i wouldnt touch that with a barge pole.

Most companies offer similar products with minor differences - Axa, Aviva, Bupa, Friends Provident, L&G, LV= are some of the better companies. But what you are asking is far from run of the mill.

If you see an advisor, you always have a claim for compensation should it be the wrong advice. If you mess this up now, when it comes to making a claim are you really going to be in a position to argue it out with life offices? If you go to an advisor, they can take some of the stress of this from you.

Have you also looked into trusts? This could be something that helps you to avoid paying IHT.

This could quite easily be one of the best or worst decisions of your life, for the sake of a few pound a month or £200-300 fee, you can make sure its done properly.

Just my opinion anyway - but if you are adament about doing it yourself, i would look at the companies i listed as examples of some of the better ones. (The service at aviva is poor but their prices are quite good at the minute).

kevin_c_3

Hello. I'm a protection expert and ex-IFA. My own cover is with PruProtect as it is one of the best policies available so I am very interested in the barge pole comment above.

stephenni1971

Like any product there are advantages and disadvantages to the Pru offering and whether or not it is used/recommended depends on the needs of the client.

While the list of conditions covered is admittedly very large, the actual chance of qualifying for a claim under many is incredibly small, so while it may look impressive people should remember that roughly 3/4 of all CIC claims are for the big 3 of cancer, heart attack and stroke.

In addition as the payment is severity based, it is possible to have a claim which may entitle you to only a %age of the sum assured. ie: £100,000 cover, cancer claim £25,000 payout. Of course a benefit is that the unclaimed sum remains available for a future payout however for this reason Pru is in my opinion unsuitable for mortgage cover, which would account for a high proportion of CIC policies.

Is it a reasonable product with some advantages over traditional CIC policies - absolutely.

Does it live up to the hype that some would promote as the best cover possible - I have my doubts.

OshayAway

I agree with stephenni, IMO the negatives of Pruprotect's severity based serious illness cover outweigh the plus points.

If you look at an independent critical illness comparison guide, on a 'level playing field' there are providers that cover as many or more critical illnesses (not total illnesses like "loss of use of use of more than one third of the tongue"...no, I'm not making that up!... which takes pru's number to 100 or 150+ if you pay extra). However, of these more serious illnesses, the vast majority only pay out a percentage on the pruprotect plan. So for the illnesses / conditions that are most likely to affect you most seriously, you could end up with a much lower payout than a traditional critical illness policy.

It does appeal to some though.

kingstreet

It's horses for courses, surely?

If you have a client who likes the idea of severity-based cover with the opportunity to claim smaller amounts earlier in the process, you consider it.

Clients having a specific need for a specific lump sum, like mortgage repayment, may not find it particularly attractive.

Hammers are good for knocking in nails. Screwdrivers are perfect for tightening screws.

dunstonh

kevin_c wrote: »

Hello. I'm a protection expert and ex-IFA. My own cover is with PruProtect as it is one of the best policies available so I am very interested in the barge pole comment above.

Pru caused a lot of bad faith by failing to honour protection agreements a few years back for applications in progress. So, whilst their product is good. There are concerns over their honesty and fair play.

kingstreet

dunstonh wrote: »

Pru caused a lot of bad faith by failing to honour protection agreements a few years back for applications in progress. So, whilst their product is good. There are concerns over their honesty and fair play.

Blimey. That takes me back a bit. 2003 when I was setting up on my own.

I promised myself I'd never use them again after having to replace 26 applications and so far, I haven't.

ACG

kevin_c wrote: »

Hello. I'm a protection expert and ex-IFA. My own cover is with PruProtect as it is one of the best policies available so I am very interested in the barge pole comment above.

I work for one of the big life offices.
Part of my job is to convert advisors to use our product over another, whilst most contracts we have some better points and they have some better points - your arguing over stupid little things such as ABI+ for 3rd degree burns or something Pru Protect is shocking.

I went through their list of conditions, whilst i cant remember the exact terminology, im sure it said - loss of hand, loss of handS, loss of foot, loss of FEET, loss of limb - Surely they could have put all of these into 1 or 2 (ie loss of limb, loss of limbs), to me if a company is prepared to use slimey tactics to make their contract look better, it cant be that good to begin with.

I also believe their customer services or some head office part is based in south africa. Whilst this isnt a bad thing as such, i would prefer to speak to someone in the UK.

Then you also have the whole partial payment - you either have a condition or you dont, if you need the money to make changes to your home and your relying on it, only to find out your actually getting 25% its not much use.

As someone else has mentioned 90%+ is paid out on Cancer, Heart Attack, Childrens Critical Illness and 2 others, the chances of you actually making a claim are quite slim.

Sorry, i just really dont like their contract. Its one of the few i would never touch.