This policy will pay out a lump sum following the diagnosis of a serious illness or in the event of becoming permanently and totally incapacitated.
Such serious illness would include coronary heart disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, kidney failure, and vary from policy to policy.
The lump sum payment can be used to repay the mortgage, to pay for special treatment, convalescence, or to provide you with specific additional resources to cope with your disability.
Critical illness is more expensive than life assurance cover, but should be considered at the same time. Normally we would recommend that an individual has critical illness cover of at least 50% of that payable under any life assurance policy.
The term of any critical illness policy should be:
- For at least the length of your mortgage
- Until your children can provide for themselves
- Until any savings or capital are sufficient for your future needs.
You may well have significant life assurance cover to provide for your dependants in the event of death, but little or nothing to provide for your family in the event of surviving a critical illness or accident.