Zurich has amended its critical illness (CI) plans and produced a multi-media pack to help advisers promote the benefits of the product's cover.
The provider has made the changes to its Level Protection and Decreasing Mortgage cover CI plans, including increasing the number of ABI + definitions offered from six to ten and incorporating the ABI Statement of Best Practice.
It has also extended geographical limits from 23 to 43 counties and added all changes in the children's conditions.
Zurich said the Statement of Best Practice definitions were being added to key features documents and terms and conditions to initiate the changes needed to meet the December 2012 deadline.
The ‘It's always the right time to make a critical decision' guide is accompanied by a real case study and is split in to four sections to help advisers identify and develop new business opportunities.
It includes advice on identifying the right clients, helping customers to make a critical decision, including ways of getting them to think about the consequences of no cover and handling customer questions and objections.
The DVD case study tells the story of a young man diagnosed with cancer who claimed a lump sum on his critical illness policy which helped him cope with the impact of his illness.
Phil Brown, head of protection and underwriting at Zurich UK Life, said: "We have developed this guide to support advisers in getting their customers to understand the benefits of critical illness cover.
"The total life protection gap in the UK stands at around £2.3 trillion, which means that should the worst happen, individuals and their families risk being unable to cover their household finances or worse still losing their home."
The multi-media pack can be downloaded from Zurich's website.
