critical illness can I claim? help

drewsville

we had CI insurance for years up to 2010, in 2001 my husband got a rare cancer, he had an operation and recovered, at the time I was advised that I could not claim as he recovered v quickly. I cancelled the policy in 2010 due to financial concerns it cost £351 per month, I have recently tried to take out life insurance BUT I can't get cover!! so can I claim from the CI insurance. I feel that we are being penalised for not being able to claim, but now blocked from life cover. Can anyone advise

ACG

Your not being penalised, you probably can get cover - you will just need to speak to a mortgage or financial advisor to do some research for you.

Do you have your documents from the insurance policy? If not speak to the insurer and ask them to send them to you. Specifically you want the Cancer definition.

Once you have it, go and have a chat with your GP and see if your husband meets the criteria. If he does then put a claim in.

Alternatively put a claim in anyway.

I dont think they can refuse a claim because of how quickly he got over it, but i may be wrong.

dunstonh

Mainstream providers may not be interested in providing cover but specialist providers exist to deal with high risk cases. Any local IFA or independent mortgage adviser should be able to discuss it with you. Dont expect it to be cheap though. If mainstream providers are saying no instead of increasing price then that indicates high risk. High risk costs money.

so can I claim from the CI insurance.

Difficult one. You typically need to make a claim within 120 days (although within the year is usually ok). There are cases where claims have been accepted a couple of years later but you are talking over a decade.

CI cover pays out on diagnosis. Not recovery period. The minute the diagnosis is agreed, the payout comes (subject usually to living a month or thereabouts). I had a client back in the 90s that had a very mild stroke. He didnt even realise it and it had no impact on him other than a warning shot to change lifestyle and they paid out.

Who was it that advised that you could not claim? Was this a CI policy or a PHI policy (income protection). The latter is dependent on time off work and impact of recovery.