Aegon Personal Protection
Aegon has made a number of changes to its existing critical illness (CI) cover. These include a new £2,500 payment for a living donor customer to donate a kidney, bone marrow or a portion of lung or liver to a family member, which Aegon says is an industry first. The full update includes:
Adding three new definitions. These are Parkinson plus syndromes, Spinal stroke and Neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s disease).
Adding six additional critical illness definitions (partials). These are:
Borderline ovarian tumours (low malignant potential) – requiring surgery to remove an ovary.
Carcinoma in situ of the oesophagus – requiring surgery to remove the tumour.
Carcinoma in-situ of the testicle – requiring surgery to remove at least one testicle.
Carcinoma in-situ of the urinary bladder.
Central retinal artery occlusion or central retinal vein occlusion (eye stroke) – resulting in permanent visual loss.
Donor cover.
Improving two CI definitions to make them into ABI+ definitions:
Deafness. The decibel level has been lowered to 90.
Motor neurone disease. Kennedy’s disease has been added.
Changing four existing definitions. The conditions are:
Benign brain tumour.
Coronary artery bypass grafts.
Dementia including Alzheimer’s.
Heart valve replacement or repair.
Raising the additional CI conditions to up to 25% or £25,000 for the following:
Crohn’s disease – with specified severity.
Partial loss of sight – permanent and irreversible.
Ulcerative colitis – treated with total colectomy.
Removing the exclusion for carcinoma in situ of the breast.
Removing three definitions and incorporating them into other existing definitions:
Alzheimer’s.
Multiple system atrophy.
Progressive supranuclear palsy.
As well as the changes for CI cover, Aegon has also made changes to its life protection and income protection cover. For life cover it has increased the age when life protection must end, from 85 to 90 years old.
For income protection cover the changes are:
House person’s cover has been increased to £1,500 a month.
Career break cover has been increased to £1,500 a month.
The doctors’/dentists’ occupation classifications have been changed.
In April, Aegon added a health and wellbeing support service for its protection insurance customers, through partner Health Assured.
Comment: Aegon has had a hard look at its protection range and introduced a number of changes to its CI cover but also tweaked its life and IP covers too. In essence, the changes to its CI cover mean it will pay out more CI claims than before.
The new donor benefit is particularly interesting. It only applies to certain donations and even then only to a family member. But, to understand its significance, you have to put yourself in the shoes of such a donor. They will have agonised with their family member about the condition, the need for a transplant and whether the donor should be them. Such decisions are not taken lightly. Few would expect an insurer to pay out for such a selfless act, so imagine how they will feel when Aegon does.
The amount may be small (not least because it shouldn’t influence any decision) but symbolically, it shows insurers have heart, that they are interested in providing ‘warm’ benefits as well as cold financial ones.
This, together with a raft of other changes, adds up to a more powerful reason for advisers to recommend Aegon and for consumers to buy Aegon.
Plus points: Donor cover – a small but valuable benefit that shows insurers have heart too; A range of new and improved definitions; Some simplification of definitions; Life and IP have been improved too.
Not so plus points: More conditions covered = additional complexity; Now covers more conditions but, as with all CI plans, not yet all critical conditions.
Website: http://www.aegon.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 8.5. Overall: 8.5. Gold
Tags: CI; Aegon