Aviva paid out £513m on claims in 2014, an increase on the 2013 figure of £505m as it released its annual claims statistics.
The insurer paid 99% of life insurance claims and 93% of both critical illness (CI) and income protection (IP) claims in 2014.
The average age of a CI claimant for Aviva was 48, for women it was 46 and for men 49.
Across all Aviva's protection products 14,805 customers had claims paid in 2014 at a rate of around £1.4m per day or about £1000 per minute.
Aviva paid £340m to life insurance customers either on death or diagnosis of a terminal illness, almost £161m to CI customers and over £12m to IP customers.
For CI claims the average sum paid was £73,120.
For life insurance 99% of claims were paid out, and 93% of critical illness claims were paid out, for critical illness 1% were declined for non-disclosure and 6% for not meeting conditions.
The most common cause of Ci claims was cancer, which accounted for 65% of claims, followed by heart attack which accounted for 12%, stroke (7%) multiple sclerosis (4%) and total permanent disability (3%).
Louise Colley, protection director at Aviva says: "Our latest figures are reassuring for all families who have protection products with us.
"No one ever wants to claim against this type of policy, but knowing that we are committed to paying claims wherever possible provides families with the reassurance and comfort they need if the worst does happen.
"Almost 40,000 families have benefitted from payments in the last three years, with payments totalling more than £1.5 billion.
"Our commitment to our customers is simple, and remains the same as always, we will continue to enhance our protection products whilst making the claims process as quick and straightforward as possible."
