Which is the best critical illness insurance?

Looking for the cheapest critical illness insurance, do not know where to start, we listen to your needs and present the right policy for you whether it be for an individual policy or group policy. Without critical illness insurance in place how quickly would this affect your family or families of your employees if they suffered a critical illness, take the worry away and avoid spirally debts and adverse credit, one thing to note is all critical illness are not included in the cheapest policy, a man may have the cheapest critical illness policy, but it may not cover prostate cancer. This is where we come in to get the right policy for you at possibly the cheapest cost.

What is critical illness cover?

Critical illness cover is designed to pay a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a specific critical illness which is covered by your policy.

Being diagnosed with a critical illness can have a severe and lasting impact on your finances as you may need to take time off work for treatment and recovery. A critical illness policy can help to minimise the financial burden on both you and your family and allow you to focus on your recovery. It may even allow you the time to downsize, relocate or change occupation.

How does critical illness cover work?

When taking out critical illness cover, you need to work out how much cover you will need and how long for. It is important to work out what sum of money you and your family would need to live comfortably if you were to get ill and be unable to work. This can include things like covering the rent or mortgage, household bills and possibly medical treatment, we take away this worry by working out what level of cover you need.

What critical illnesses are covered?

The type of cover you will get will depend on the insurer and some offer to cover more illnesses than others, so it is really important that you understand the cover you are getting and that it is right for you. Certain illnesses are covered as standard by insurers, and these are as follows:

• Heart attack
• Parkinson’s
• Alzheimer’s
• Organ failure
• Cancer
• Stroke
• Multiple Sclerosis

A critical illness policy will usually only offer protection when your diagnosed illness reaches a certain threshold of severity. As an example, not all types of cancers will be covered. This is why it is vital that you understand what level of cover you are getting and what is and isn’t covered by your policy, some pay out may also pay on severity.

Do I need critical illness cover?

There are some state benefits available should you become ill for the long term. However, you can only claim around £100 per week at best so this is unlikely to be sufficient to maintain your standard of living.

Many employers do offer their employees sick pay, but very few cover long term illness or health issues. Having the right critical illness cover for you in place can provide you with financial stability and peace of mind over the long term.

Unless you have enough savings to cover your outgoings for a sustained period of time if you become critically ill, then it is likely that you could benefit from critical illness cover.

How much does critical illness cover cost?

If you apply for critical illness cover, you’ll have to provide details of your medical history so that the insurer can work out how much they need to charge you for the cover.

If you are fit and healthy and have no pre-existing health conditions, then it’s fairly quick and easy to find out how much the cover will cost. The price you pay is individual to your circumstances and is dependant on many factors such as your health, age, lifestyle and how much cover you require.

Can anyone get critical illness cover?

Most people will be able to get critical illness cover, even if you have suffered an illness previously. A pre-existing condition may mean that you have exclusions applied to your policy or it will likely be more expensive. You must tell the truth about your health during the application process as if the insurer later finds out that you were not honest, your policy may become void.

Things to consider before taking critical illness cover

There are many important things to consider before taking out critical illness cover such as:

• How much cover you need; writing down all of your monthly outgoings is a good place to start as well as looking at how long your savings could sustain your standard of living for.
• The amount of the premium versus your budget; if you have an amount of cover in mind, you may wish to get an idea of how much it would cost each month to provide your desired level of cover. Alternatively, you could look at how much you are willing to spend each month on the premiums and let this be the deciding factor on how much cover you get.
• Critical illnesses included; although there are usually some illnesses covered as standard by most insurers, there are many that can be added or some insurers that provide enhanced lists of covered illnesses.

Woodward Financials were awarded best wealth management firm in 2021 and again in 2022 and have a team of advisers ready to help you answer these questions and guide you through the right critical illness policy for you, we can tell you what you need, which insurance is best for you and put it all in place as quickly as possible.

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