Life Assurance & Protection

Critical Illness Cover pays out your chosen amount of cover if you’re diagnosed with one of the conditions covered during the policy term such as heart attack, stroke and some forms of cancer.  Critical Illness Cover can commonly be added to life insurance policies.

This type of term assurance policy is designed specifically for use in conjunction with repayment of a loan. As the amount of the loan reduces, so does the level of cover under the decreasing term policy. Although the level of cover reduces over time, premiums remain constant. The most common use of this type of life assurance is to accompany a repayment mortgage (known as mortgage protection assurance).

This is a form of decreasing term assurance, with the death benefit being paid as an income from the date of death to the end of the policy term. The longer the life assured survives, the fewer the number of years that the insurer will have to pay the income benefit.  Family Income Benefit can be arranged on a joint or single life basis.

This product is similar to level term assurance except that the sum paid out will increase over the term of the policy, either by a fixed amount per year or in line with inflation. This means that the benefit paid out can keep its real value.

Long-term care is the situation whereby a person is unable to look after himself or herself. This means that help is needed from another person to care for them.

It is frequently associated with the inability of a person to undertake certain “Activities of Daily Living”,

These include: –

• Feeding; the ability to eat when food has been prepared and served.
• Mobility; the ability to move from room to room in a home.
• Dressing; the ability to put on and take off clothes.
• Toileting; the ability to get on and off the toilet or commode unaided.
• Washing; the ability to keep clean.
• Continence; bowel and bladder control to maintain personal hygiene.

The need for care may also mean that a person could need disability aids such as a wheel chair or special equipment to assist in getting in and out of the bath or up and down the stairs.

The concept of Long Term Care (LTC) is to pay out regular income (or in rare cases a lump sum) to either an individual or an officially recognised provider of care, once the insured is unable to perform a specified number of ADL’s (activities of daily living).

The inability of a person to care for himself or herself is measured by the policyholder´s inability to perform some of the “Activities of Daily Living”. Payments under the policy will usually be made after the policyholder has become unable to perform a set number of “Activities of Daily Living” for three months or more and the disability is not expected to improve.

The best (and most expensive) long term care plans will normally pay full benefits when the policyholder is unable to perform two or more “Activities of Daily Living” for three months and looks likely to continue to have to cope with that level of disability. However, as with private medical insurance, budget plans offering cheaper premiums are likely to set the test for benefit payments somewhat higher. Typically, the policyholder must be unable to perform three “Activities of Daily Living” for three months before payments begin, or he must have suffered mental cognitive impairment.

A Mortgage Protection Plan is a Decreasing Term Assurance contract, which provides cover for you in the event of death during a specified policy term. As the amount of the loan reduces, so does the level of cover under the decreasing term policy. Although the level of cover reduces over time, premiums remain constant.

Permanent Health Insurance (PHI), also known as “Income Protection Insurance (IPI)” is designed to replace a substantial portion of lost income for an individual who is unable to work, due to illness or accident, for more than a specified period of time.

The benefits are tax-free and once they have started to be paid, they will continue until the life assured returns to work, dies, or until the expiry date of the policy (typically retirement age).

Term assurance pays a lump sum on the death of the life assured, if death occurs within the term of the policy. If the life assured survives to the end of the policy term, the policy lapses without any maturity payment being made.

Term assurance, therefore has no surrender value at any time.

Whole of Life Assurance policies pay the sum assured on the death of the life assured, whenever that may occur. Because a payment is certain to be made under this type of policy, cover is usually more expensive than under a Term Assurance policy.