27th February 2017

Aviva: A step up in protection

Upgraded critical illness

In my last blog (Critical illness cover – a solid foundation) I told you a little bit about the ‘solid foundation’ we had laid down through our new critical illness  proposition and why we thought it was important to make some of the benefits that are available optional, rather than including them automatically. 

Today I want to talk to you about one of the optional benefits in more detail - upgraded critical illness benefit. By introducing this benefit, we’ve made it possible, for clients who choose to take out critical illness cover with Aviva, to give their coverage an extra ‘boost’.

Why did we do it?

We believe critical illness cover, in the intermediated market, has reached a stage where clients needed more choice and flexibility. With the guidance of an adviser, we felt that the needs of individual customers could be better met by introducing a product that has the ability to be adapted to suit them. 

Across the board, we have looked to simplify definitions where possible, for example by removing the drug and alcohol exclusion. Under upgraded critical illness benefit we have also introduced new conditions such as psychosis and bipolar effective disorder and coronary angioplasty to make our cover as relevant as possible (the latter was previously covered by Friends Life, but not covered by Aviva for many years).

By selecting the upgraded option, clients will be able to take advantage of cover for  an extra 13 full payment conditions, four more accelerated surgery conditions and a further 36 additional payment conditions. But it’s more than just the numbers, the amount we will pay out for these additional conditions has also been improved and will perhaps be a little different to what you are used to. So I’ll explain… 

Improved additional payment conditions 

Additional payments have been around for many years now and were a very welcome addition to the full payment conditions critical illness products already covered.  It meant, for example, that for women, who had undergone surgery for non-invasive breast cancer, they could still benefit financially from their protection policy and their cover wouldn’t be reduced or come to an end once a claim for this less advanced type if breast cancer had been made.

It’s a fairly standard feature across the industry to limit the financial benefit of additional payments to 25% of the cover amount, up to a maximum £25,000. We recognised however that many of our customers have either taken out decreasing policies in order to protect a mortgage, or have level cover below £100,000 (the minimum amount previously required in order to get the full £25,000 available for an additional payment). 

With this in mind, we have designed our upgraded critical illness benefit  so that any client claiming for an additional payment receives a set amount of  £25,000 or the full cover amount (if this is lower). This means that if your client has a £40,000 level term product with upgraded critical illness benefit, they’ll receive £25,000 if they meet one of our definitions for additional payment, such as less advanced cancer of the breast, coronary angioplasty or type 1 diabetes.   Likewise, if your client has a

decreasing policy, which over the years has decreased to say £37,000, they’ll still receive £25,000 in the event of an additional payment claim. 

We believe that it’s details like this that will make all the difference should your client need to claim. Our critical illness proposition has been developed to ensure that each component will be valuable for your client throughout their policy term.

More to follow

Upgraded critical illness benefit is applicable to adult cover, but in my next blog, I will talk about our upgraded children's benefit and how your clients can benefit from enhanced children's cover when taking out this option.

As always, if you require further information, please visit the document library section on Aviva for Advisers or get in touch with your usual account manager. 

Healthcare, Protection