Life insurance expert advice

[Miajayne91]

Hello 😊

I'm looking for advice in regards to life insurance, I'm wanting to get critical life cover, I've just done a quote on money supermarket and have been reading the fine print.

There's a lot of generic wording and nothing seems to be clear cut, it says things like "if there is a known cure" to the illness you have they won't pay out. Or the illness "has to be terminal and you have been told you have less than 12 months to live".

Basically I've found a lump in my breast and neck and have been unwell for nearly a year. I'm scared if it is something and I need to have time off work that I won't get a payout, if it turns out I am ill but it's treatable. Or they would class chemotherapy for example as a "known cure".

I was wondering if there were any solicitors or people that work in insurance, that have any knowledge of what companies are best to go with, or any advice of how they work and if they do try and catch out any little answer you might not know the answer to.

Can citizens advice help with this?

Any answers appreciated x

Critical Illness Cover and Terminal Illness Cover are two different things. CI pays out on diagnosis of a specific list of conditions such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, MS, MND etc. It is more expensive than pure life insurance.

Terminal Illness Cover is a free add on to a pure life insurance policy ie one that covers your death during the policy term. It is essentially an accelerated death payment, where you have received a terminal diagnosis and your prognosis is less than 12 months, your policy will pay out "early" rather than needing to wait until you have died.

You should see a protection IFA for advice but the fact that you are experiencing symptoms and presumably having investigations for the lumps you have found will most likely mean no one will give you any cover right now. You will need to disclose this on the application and it would most likely be postponed until you have had investigations.

Unfortunately OP because you have already discovered this lump you will find that all life insurance, critical illness & income protection policies will now not cover you for this. It’s still worth taking out a policy for any future issues but it’s too late now for you to get a pay out for this one.