In the second of a series of articles exploring the finer points of critical illness protection, CIExpert's Alan Lakey discusses existing plans.
Neither prostate cancer nor heart disease has an identifiable impact on the 25-34 age group, but for non-smokers aged over 55, the older plans show over 15% more likely to result in a successful claim than the current versions, even with more conditions included.
For females the difference is minimal, although in both of the above comparisons there is a slight advantage to the older plans. For smokers the benefits of older plans are marked, particularly for males, where Aviva’s January 2000 plan is almost 25% more effective than its current equivalent.
The effect of the superior cancer definition is such that even relatively poor plans like Pearl’s 1998 offering, which covered only seven conditions, shows only marginally less effective for older men than many current plans, although females are clearly better served today.
Alan Lakey is director of CIExpert Ltd
Table 1: Long-term plans offered:
Table 2: Plans for non-smokers:
Table 3: Plans for smokers:
