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What is critical illness cover?
What would life be like if you were diagnosed with a serious illness? Things could change very suddenly.
You’d get your family together and tell them what was going on. Before long, you’d start spending time in hospital for treatment. You may also need to take some time off.
It’s hard to know what the financial impact of all this would be for you and the people who depend on you.
Critical illness cover provides a financial cushion should you suffer a serious illness, such as cancer, heart attack or stroke.
If you are diagnosed with any of the conditions listed in your policy, we will pay you the lump sum you selected when you took it out (unless you have since changed this amount).
In most cases, it’ll be a one-off payment for you to use how you wish: to cover your mortgage or rent, to meet living expenses, or even to pay for that round-the-world trip you’d always wanted to take.
Critical illness cover is only available with Zurich as part of a life insurance and critical illness policy.
Key features of a life insurance and critical illness policy
- Pays a lump sum if you die, become terminally ill, or are diagnosed with a critical illness
- Spend the sum on anything you like such as medical and everyday expenses
- We’ll pay you if you are diagnosed with any one of 40 conditions
- Add up to £25,000 cover for your children
- Choose a single policy or cover you and a partner on a joint policy
- We’ll also pay out a lump sum of up to £25,000 for one of two additional payment conditions (breast or prostate cancer), and your original policy will still be intact.
Add cover for your children
It’s hard enough knowing what life would be like for you with a critical illness, so it is extremely difficult to imagine your child falling seriously ill.
Did you know that you can add your children to your life insurance and critical illness policy at any time?
It means if your child is diagnosed with one of the same 40 conditions you are covered for, we’ll pay out up to £25,000.
They’ll be covered from 30 days old until their 22nd birthday and, from the moment they are 16, they can take out a policy of their own up to £25,000 free of underwriting.
So you can have peace of mind the whole family is financially protected.
Here’s why so many people choose Zurich life insurance and critical illness
Optional extras and benefits
We offer a handful of optional extras and automatic benefits if you have a Zurich life and critical illness policy…
Multi-fracture cover
Add multi-fracture cover for a small fixed cost each month and we’ll pay a lump sum of up to £6,000 if you break a bone, dislocate a joint, rupture your Achilles tendon or tear a knee ligament. Available on both a life cover and a life cover and critical illness policy.
Separation benefit
Automatically included. If you have a joint policy and you separate or divorce, you can cancel this policy and start individual policies for one or both of you, without giving us any more medical details.
Making changes to your policy
Automatically included. If something changes in your life, like buying a bigger home or having a baby, you may be able to increase your cover without giving us any more details about your health or activities. Bear in mind though that increased cover will result in increased premiums.
Want to protect your income?
So life cover provides a financial cushion if you die, critical illness does the same if you suffer a severe illness, but what if you can’t work due to illness or injury? How will you replace your income?
Income protection provides a regular income to partially replace your earnings if you can't work because of illness or injury. Because of the need to ensure that such cover is appropriate for your circumstances, you can only buy income protection with Zurich through a financial adviser. You may have to pay for their advice.
If you are interested in income protection cover, please speak to your financial adviser. If you don’t have an adviser, you can find one at Unbiased.co.uk