Royal London Critical Illness Cover
Royal London has made a number of changes to its existing CI product. These include:
Cancer cover has been improved. Now, over 60 early stage cancers are covered and clarity has been improved by removing a long list of specified cancers. Royal London will pay a partial payment of the lower of 25% of the sum insured or £25,000 for either carcinoma in-situ (other) or for skin cancer.
Other additional cover definitions are for:
Coronary angioplasty to two or more coronary arteries.
Central retinal artery or vein occlusion which results in permanent visual loss.
The survival period for CI and children’s CI cover has been reduced from 14 days to ten days. This should result in more claims being payable and potentially faster payouts in some cases.
Two definitions have been updated or added:
- A new Parkinson definition now includes Parkinson plus syndromes and this includes multiple system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy.
- The motor neurone disease definition has been updated and now includes Kennedy’s disease. This change results in this definition now becoming ABI+.
In total, Royal London says it now covers 57 defined conditions – of which 43 pay the full sum insured. The other 14 (nine of those cover early forms of cancer) pay a smaller amount. Seventeen of the conditions covered are now ABI+ definitions.
Comment: Royal London has undertaken a useful review of its CI plans, simplifying some conditions and improving others. Reducing the 14 days survival period to ten days is also valuable as it means both that more people will qualify to benefit and in theory that could be four days sooner too. Why not reduce it to zero days? The argument here has always been that if the insured dies that quickly, the need is not for critical illness cover but for life cover.
As with all CI plans, this type of cover remains complex because all insurers specify in very precise terms what they will pay out on, and such medico legal definitions can be difficult to understand in terms either of the specifics or in wider terms. That said, any simplification and cover expansion must generally be a good thing.
Plus points: Wider cover than before; Improvements to an already well-established product; Some definition improvements and simplifications; 14 days survival period now cut to ten days.
Not so plus points: CI remains a very complex product to fully understand for many people; Some competitors offer wider cover.
Website: http://www.royallondon.com.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7.5. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: CI; Royal London