What is Critical illness benefit or CI

Often called a benefit, as we have done here, due mainly to the fact that it can be added to pretty much any life insurance plan on the market, but it is a plan in itself. It can be written as a completely standalone contract. That said it is rarely used on that basis.

This is due mainly to the fact that CI is much more expensive that life insurance and once you have it as a benefit in the plan it does represent the majority of the cost. So if you arranged it as a standalone contract you would find that adding the death benefit to the contract would have very little effect to the overall premium.

Critical illness cover is designed to pay out the sum assured in the event the life assured suffers a critical illness as defined in the policy terms and conditions.

In very simple generic terms most critical illness plans cover for conditions such as heart attacks, stroke, cancer, major organ transplant, kidney failure, blindness, total deafness and so on. There can be a great deal of conditions covered but the theme is always the same they cover the dread diseases the conditions that you can get that will be life changing but may not and in a lot of cases do not kill you.

It is for this reason that critical illness cover is about you can suffer these conditions and it can have a totally devastating effect on your financial situation. CI is designed to ensure that that effect is minimised as much as possible.

For example on a mortgage, you have CI on your life cover covering your debt you may suffer a heart attack. Regardless of what the out come is ie. you might fully recover, the plan is designed to pay out the money to redeem the mortgage. Meaning the life assured can get on with the more important business of recuperating and not having another heart attack due to the financial stress that having the heart attack in the first place can impose.

All in all a very effective and much needed cover. Whether it is for a mortgage or to just protect the family in the event the worst was to happen.

You should always were affordable ensure that any debts have cover against CI and if there is any money spare over and above this need obviously look at further cover to protect the family.