Best life insurance provider

Clare says

Unlike traditional critical illness plans, Vitality’s ‘Serious Illness Cover’ plan pays out based on the impact that a condition has on your lifestyle. Conditions are categorised by their severity level, and based on this, you’ll receive between 5% and 100% of your total cover amount if your claim is successful.

Because of this different approach, Vitality is able to cover more conditions than traditional critical illness plans, which means you are more likely to receive a payout, and, even better, you don’t have to wait until your condition is critical to claim.

Vitality’s serious illness protection covers 114 different conditions as standard – far more than any other provider in our list. And, if you choose to upgrade your cover, you can be insured for up to 174 conditions.

What’s more, with this plan, you can claim more than once. That’s something no other provider offers. What you receive will depend on the severity of your diagnosis. You can even roll over any unused cover once the policy has reached its end date, until you’ve reached your plan total claimable amount of £3,000,000. Any amount that’s left unclaimed at the end of the policy term is available for you to convert into later life cover that pays out a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, dementia or Parkinson’s. You just need to continue to pay your premiums. That’s a big difference with other policies and a really helpful option.

• Percent of critical illness claims paid: 92.5%
• Total number of illnesses covered: 114 (with the option to add another 60)
• Maximum age when policy starts: 59 years for inflation-linked cover
• 64 years for level or decreasing cover
• Number of days you must survive after a diagnosis to receive payout: 14
• Available as a stand-alone policy? No.

Clare says

This is the fifth year in a row that Scottish Widows has paid out more than 98% of claims – an excellent rate that provides some assurance your eligible claim won’t be unfairly denied.

Scottish Widows critical illness policies include cover for 38 conditions or operations which pay out at the full rate.A successful claim for one of these diagnoses will result in the cover ending after payout. In addition, Scottish Widows also covers 19 other conditions, for which customers can receive 25% of the total cover amount (to a maximum of £30,000). The policy remains active after one of these additional payments.

The number of conditions covered is relatively low compared to some other providers. But they are affordable for most scenarios, and there are a huge range of benefits you get with a Scottish Widows policy.

With Scottish Widows Protect Personal Protection (its name for critical illness cover), comes a range of practical and emotional support services at no extra cost. You and your family can use these services from the day your policy starts. And you don’t have to make a claim to use them.

Scottish Widows work with Macmillan Cancer Support to help customers who are diagnosed with cancer. If you are receiving support from a Macmillan Cancer Nurse Specialist, Scottish Widows may be able to settle your life or critical illness claim quicker by working directly with them, and, if you have been diagnosed with cancer, they may be able to pay up to £3000 upfront while your Critical Illness claim is being processed.
There are other benefits to insuring through Scottish Widows. Their package of care services also includes access to RedArc and Clinic in a Pocket™ remote GP and prescription delivery services. RedArc are a team of personal nurses who can help provide support for physical or mental illness, bereavement, trauma, disability, and support on discharge from hospital. They can also provide a face-to-face second medical opinion from UK-based specialists, or a course of therapy such as counselling, complementary or occupational therapy.

Scottish Widows is one of just a few providers to include children’s cover free of charge. It is also one of the few providers whose definition of a child includes not just your own biological child, adopted child or step-child, but also any child who lives with you and is dependent on you, or who you are legal guardian for. Death of a child results in a higher payout with Scottish Widows (£10,000) than you’ll find elsewhere, and children need only live for 10 days after diagnosis for a claim to be accepted.

Another benefit of a Scottish Widows policy is that if you’re diagnosed with one of the illnesses you are covered for by your policy, you only need to survive for 10 days after the diagnosis to be eligible for a claim. That’s a shorter period of time than top competitors in this list.

• Percent of critical illness claims paid: 93%
• Total number of illnesses covered: 38 (with an additional 19 conditions covered for a partial payout)
• Maximum age when policy starts: 64
• Maximum coverage: £3 million
• Number of days you must survive after a diagnosis to receive payout: 10 days
• Available as a stand-alone policy? Yes

Clare says

Guardian offers low-cost policies, on either combined life and critical illness, or stand-alone critical illness cover, with some nice additional guarantees and benefits. For example, if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness, most life insurance policies will only pay out when a doctor confirms you have less than 12 months to live. With Guardian’s premier life insurance product, Life Protection, you’ll receive a payout as soon as you’re diagnosed with any of the following: incurable stage 4 cancer, motor neurone disease, CJD, or Parkinson-plus syndromes, even if you’re expected to live for longer than 12 months.

The Premium Waiver offer is also outstanding: If you become too ill to work, Guardian will waive your premiums until you return to work. They’ll also pay your premiums for up to 6 months if you’re made redundant or take maternity or paternity leave, as long as your policy has been in force for a year. Most other providers offer it, but it’s an optional extra that you need to pay more for. With Guardian, it’s included as standard. If you’re planning to have a child, then the offer of a premium waiver for 6 months, for no extra charge, could make this product a great option for you.

A dual payments offer also means that couples get a discount on joint policies, and, even better, if one of you dies or is diagnosed with a critical illness, the other is still protected. That’s not always the case with other providers.

And one other thing I like about Guardian, they show loyalty to existing customers rather than just focusing their attention on new customers. Most providers only apply better terms and conditions to new policies. However, if Guardian upgrade their critical illness definitions, existing customers also benefit from the improvements.

Guardian offers stand-alone critical illness cover, as well as combined with life insurance plans, as a single or joint policy.

You can choose from four types of policy: decreasing, level, or increasing cover, or family income benefit, which pays a regular payout for the rest of the policy’s lifetime instead of a lump sum.

• Percent of critical illness claims paid: 92%
• Total number of illnesses covered: 72
• (plus a partial payout for an additional 30 conditions/procedures)
• Maximum age when policy starts: 64
• Maximum coverage: £3 million
• Number of days you must survive after a diagnosis to receive payout: 14 days
• Available as a stand-alone policy? Yes

Clare says

Typically, LV= doesn’t come out as the cheapest provider when getting quotes, coming in as a slightly more expensive option in many of our test scenarios. However, there are benefits that come with an LV= policy that could be important to you. For example, on nine conditions, they’ll pay an additional 50% of your cover, (up to a maximum of £200,000 on top of your cover) if the diagnosis is the result of an accident.

As is standard for this kind of policy, you can only claim once for a full payout and then the policy is closed. However, LV= will allow you to keep your policy open if you make a claim for yourself for a less serious illness. They’ll pay a maximum of £30,000 for one of these less serious conditions, and you can continue to pay your premiums to keep the policy active and available for a full claim at a later date.

Children’s cover isn’t free, but it can be added for an additional cost, either at the time you take the policy out, or at a later date (useful if you don’t yet have children but they come along in the future). A payment of 50% of the cover from the main policy (up to a maximum of £35,000) will be made if you claim for a child, and the policy remains open until they reach their 23rd birthday – that’s older than most other providers allow. LV= doesn’t require a 14-day survival period to claim for a child, although this does apply to the adults named on the policy.

• Percent of critical illness claims paid: 85%
• Total number of illnesses covered: 39
• Maximum age when policy starts: 64
• Number of days you must survive after a diagnosis to receive payout: 14
• Available as a stand-alone policy? No.

Clare says

Just 32 conditions isn’t the widest coverage in this life, although, for an additional payment, you can have coverage of two additional diagnoses: Less advanced cancer of the breast, and; less advanced cancer of the prostate, for which you’d receive £25,000 or 25% of your total cover (whichever is lower). Each person covered by the policy can claim for one of these additional conditions once, without the policy needing to be terminated.

Aviva also has a lower than average maximum age for opening a policy with them – 59 – and a lower maximum payout limit (£500,000) than some other brands. However, children’s cover is included for free and covers all current biological, adopted or stepchildren, and any future children you may have. They also pay children’s life cover, which is £5,000 in the event your child dies, and this is included for no extra cost in your plan. One difference I’ve noticed with Aviva’s children’s cover, however, and that of competitors, is that where others provide cover from birth, Aviva will only cover children from 30 days old, limiting what conditions and injuries are covered.

• Percent of critical illness claims paid: 92.5%
• Total number of illnesses covered: 34
• Maximum age when policy starts: 59
• Number of days you must survive after a diagnosis to receive payout: 21
• Available as a stand-alone policy? No.