Skandia Critical Illness cover
In December, Skandia announced the latest upgrades to its critical illness plans. The main changes introduced from 12 December 2013 are:
• New partial condition for testicular cancer of low grade. This requires the removal of a testicle and pays the lower of 25% of the sum insured and £25,000.
• Improvements to the definition of blindness and liver failure. On blindness the severity of the definition has been reduced to a visual acuity of 6/60 on a Snellen chart, and a central visual field of 20 degrees. On liver failure, the requirement for failure specifically due to cirrhosis has been removed.
• A new combined definition of Parkinson plus syndromes has been introduced. This covers the previous definitions of multiple system atrophy and progressive supra-nuclear palsy (which have now been dropped) and also three new additional conditions. These are Parkinsonism-dementia-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis complex, corticobasal ganglionic degeneration and diffuse Lewy body disease.
• Maximum age at outset has been increased to 67 and the age at expiry extended to 80- (fixed terms only).
Skandia Protect is available with or without life cover and is available to individuals and businesses. In total 56 critical conditions are now covered. There are 43 main conditions, of which 18 are ABI+ and 13 are partial payments that pay the lesser of 25% of the sum insured or £25,000. The plan also includes surgery benefit, which is an advance payment to the treating hospital. Children’s critical illness cover applies from birth to age 21 and covers all 43 main conditions. It pays the lesser of 50% of the sum insured or £25,000.
Comment: it’s not often that a CI provider drops one condition, let alone two. However, what Aegon has done is to replace both with a single definition that not only includes both, but adds three other conditions too. The overall whole is wider coverage than before.
One new partial condition and improvements to two other definitions have also widened effective cover, while a broader age range also opens up the plan to a wider audience.
Now for our familiar CI moan! CI cover is now extremely complex and if you want to know what is covered, the Details of your Skandia Protect critical illness policy document runs to 48 pages and a fair chunk of that is just explaining what is covered. It’s a well-written document but even so, how many customers or even advisers will actually read it all and then understand it?
Plus points: A new partial condition added; Improvements to some existing definitions; A new ‘super’ definition covers Parkinson-type conditions; Age range expanded.
Not so plus points: Number counters may prefer separate conditions rather than a super definition; As with all CI, fully understanding the breadth of the cover is not easy.
Website: http://www.skandia.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 8. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: Skandia; CI.