Critical Illness Insurance Product Guide

According to recent statistics from Bupa, in the UK, '1 in every 4 people will suffer from a critical illness between the ages of 30 and 60.'

Critical Illness Insurance, also known as Critical Illness Cover, is designed to pay a tax free lump sum in the event that you are diagnosed with a defined Critical Illness.

The diagnosis of a Critical Illness can be life changing in all respects, least of all financially. When you are first diagnosed with a Critical Illness the last thing you need to be worrying about is your finances, but what would happen to your mortgage and bill payments?

With a payout from your Critical Illness Cover you could pay off your mortgage, removing the major liability, or choose to put some of your payout towards specialist private care. Whatever you choose to use the pay out for, it will be a weight off your mind when you need some relief most of all.

Like Life Insurance, Critical Illness comes in two main flavours:

• Level Term Critical Illness Insurance: With a level cover the amount you choose to protect is guaranteed to remain the same throughout the policy. It won't reduce over time and if you need to claim on the policy, it will pay out the full level of cover. This type of cover is often used to protect interest only mortgages or loans, or for family protection.



• Decreasing Critical Illness Insurance/Mortgage Critical Illness Insurance: With decreasing or mortgage critical illness insurance, the amount of cover you choose will decrease over time throughout the full term of the policy. This is most suited to Capital and Repayment mortgages, this is not suitable for interest only mortgages.

One of the most important aspects to consider when choosing critical illness insurance is exactly what each policy includes. Each insurance company will offer different Critical Illness definitions with some policies offering more than others. In any case the definitions cover extremely serious conditions such as serious heart attacks, strokes, advanced cancers and major organ transplants. Companies such as Bupa and AXA offer more comprehensive cover than some other companies and also include free childrens cover as an added incentive.

Critical illness cover can be obtained either as a singular package to cover just critical illness' or as part of a Life and Critical Illness Insurance package, to cover against death as well. In a lot of cases the addition of Life cover to package does not cost that much more and in some cases can even help to reduce the cost of your critical illness insurance.

It is important to note that Critical Illness Cover is not the same as terminal illness. Terminal illness is an option included with all Life Insurance packages and allows the policy holder to make a claim if they are diagnosed with an illness from which they will die within the next 12 months. Unfortunately a number of unscrumpulous organisations are trying to sell terminal illness as critical illness and two are simply not the same thing!

2 Minute Quote offers you the opportunity to get free and instant Critical Illness Insurance quotes and also offers you the chance to speak direct with one of our fully qualified advisors who will be able to discuss Critical Illness with you further. Please feel free to contact us for more help.