Critical illness insurance has become one of the most rapidly growing forms of insurance available today. According to tiscali.money, critical illness insurance may have over 1 million of policies sold in the UK in the year 2002. This type of insurance was developed as medical improvements enabled people to survive a critical illness that could not have been treated long ago.
Most people gamble with the fact that they may not fall prey to a critical illness. This fact stays as a bitter truth which reveals that someone is more probable to fall critically ill than to die before the age of 65. However statistics do confirm this fact. 1 out of 17 women may suffer from a heart attack before reaching the age of 65. Similarly, 1 out of 7 women may contract cancer. Also, 1 out of 27 women could be diagnosed with stroke and 1 out of 5 women is more likely to suffer from any one of these critical illnesses.
Moreover, men may have a higher risk of getting a critical illness such as heart attack. The reason is that most men may have started working longer hours thus leading to a stressful environment and lifestyle. Here are some figures concerning diseases among men. 1 out of every 11 men may contract cancer before reaching the age of 65. Similarly, 1 out of 7 men is more likely to suffer from heart attack. Furthermore, 1 out of 27 men may be diagnosed with stroke and finally 1 out of 4 men could have suffered any one of these diseases.
Critical illness insurance may pay you out a tax free lump sum when you are diagnosed with a critical illness met by your insurance’s policy definitions. For lump sums to be obtained hassle free, you should read your critical illness policy documents with much attention to know exactly the range of diseases covered before you sign the agreement. Let’s have a look at some recent statistics. According to tiscali.money, 80 percent of men and women aged between 40 to 45 may survive a critical illness such as heart attack. Out of these around 50 percent may still be alive ten years later.
Additionally, around two fifths of patients diagnosed with a critical illness such as cancer may be aged between 35 to 54. The encouraging fact is that all of them may survive three years after diagnosis or treatment. Also, around 350,000 people could have been disabled at any one time due to stroke. Almost 70 percent of victims who suffered this critical illness may survive for one year.
Critical illness insurance may protect you as well as your family in a variety of ways. Should you happen to contract a critical illness such as heart attack in the future, critical illness insurance may award you a tax free lump sum. This money can be used to pay your mortgage, alleviate financial pressures due to loss of income and hence cover at least part of debts that may remain. Thus your family could continue living the way they always did.
If you are going to start a family it can be an advantage to buy a critical illness insurance. By doing so, you may already have secured the financial position of your entire family from any mishap that may happen to you in the future.
If you manage a small business you'll dread the possibility of a member of your team being be taken seriously ill or dieing. Apart from the personal upset, your business would be hit hard. Sales or production could take a dive, key skills could be lost and the general pace of the business could fall. All this costs the business money.
Insurance is available to offset those financial risks, risks that can be especially serious for smaller businesses. After all in smaller businesses other employees can't be moved across to fill the gap - there's simply no one spare. So the problem remains until the person either returns to work or is replaced.
If the person is off sick with a serious illness such as a stroke or a heart attack you simply don't know when, or if, they'll return to work. It could be a month, six months even a year or more. Management is then caught in a cleft stick. Do you take on a temporary employee, contract out or recruit a permanent employee? Or are you forced to tread water and wait for matters resolve themselves? That's risky. And how much will all this cost the business in terms of extra overheads, lost sales and profit?
Keyman Insurance has traditionally absorbed these very real financial risks but nine out of ten small businesses still don't carry that insurance. It's either because they haven't addressed the problem or they've found Keyman Insurance to be too costly.
A Simon Briault, a spokesperson for the Federation of Small Businesses said, "In an ideal world, small firms would be insured against everything, but reality demands the businesses prioritise threats and occasionally take risks".
But there is a cheaper alternative. It's called Group Critical Illness Insurance. And it's about half the price of normal Keyman Insurance!
With Group Critical Illness Insurance, the management decides which employees to insure and how much to insure them for. The business then pays the premiums and receives any lump sum payout. A claim can be made as soon as any of the insured employees are diagnosed with any critical illness which is scheduled within the insurance policy. As you would expect heart attacks, strokes and cancer are the biggest three biggest reasons for a claim but the full list of insured critical illnesses is much longer. For example, kidney failure, meningitis, paralysis and even blindness.
The important point to realise is that to make a claim, the insured employee must survive at least 28 days after their critical illness is diagnosed. (Some insurance companies have now reduced this to 14 days so please check before you buy.) Therefore, if the employee were to die before the end of the survival period, any claim would be invalid. In that context, it's not as comprehensive as full Keyman Insurance - but at around half the price of there has to be some compromise!
Simon Burgess, the MD of British Insurance says: "Group Critical Illness Insurance is a real alternative to full Keyman Insurance - and at around half the cost, it's great value for money. If managers find Keyman Insurance too expensive there's little excuse for not covering the biggest part of the risk with Group Critical Illness Insurance. Don't pay the price for apathy".
Both Mike Armstrong & Michael Challiner are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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