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Children’s Benefit
Most critical illness plans include a provision to pay out some benefits if the life assured’s natural, legally adopted (and sometimes step) children are diagnosed with a critical illness.
The child has to be diagnosed with one of the listed conditions and survive the survival period stated by the life office.
The detailed policy wording will confirm that a small number of the critical illnesses will not apply to children (e.g. Parkinson’s Disease). In addition conditions that are caused by a familial or congenital defect, or which were present before the child became covered by the plan are excluded.
Furthermore a child is only entitled to one pay out per plan, however two single life policies (one on each parent), would produce two pay outs.
A number of life offices limit the number of payments in respect of children that can be paid under the plan. The table below illustrates a snap shot of the life offices’ approach to children’s cover (August 2005).
06 May 2008 18:11:19
The discovery of a group of chemicals that protect a key anti-tumour gene may lead to new cancer treatments, scientists have claimed.
A team of researchers from universities in Scotland have uncovered tenovins, which protect the gene p53 from destruction - a finding which may affect life insurance policies.
They hope that it may be possible to develop treatment that could shield p53 from damage and therefore reduce tumour growth.
Dr Sonia Lain from the University of Dundee, who lead the study, said: "Our findings indicate that tenovins have the potential to stop tumours. We found that tenovins work by inhibiting enzymes called sirtuins which clip off a crucial chemical group from p53, leading to its destruction."
"We hope that targeting sirtuins with drugs could treat many different cancers in the future."
Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information Dr Lesley Walker said the organisation is "very excited" to see chemicals which could be developed into new drugs to treat cancer.
The study has been published in the journal Cancer Cell.
07 June 2007 16:36:37
Norfolk and Norwich University hospital (N&N) is hoping to raise a £400,000 windfall to drastically reduce the number of heart attack fatalities in the region.
If the funds can be raised, a second catheter laboratory could be opened, allowing the introduction of a direct primary angioplasty service.
Such a service could save hundreds of heart attack patients - research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference showed that less than three per cent of heart attack patients given primary angioplasty at the Harefield Hospital in Middlesex died.
Dr Liam Hughes, consultant cardiologist at the N&N confirmed the plans for a centre:
"We would like to move towards providing this sort of heart attack service during the week, during normal working house.
"It would not be 24 hours a day because there would not be enough staff, but for certain patients, it would undoubtedly be a possibility."
Around 600 of every 100,000 men in the UK suffer a heart attack every year, while 200 of every 100,000 women are affected.
02 November 2007 14:00:08
The maximum sum assured for personal critical illness cover by Legal & General will be extended to £1 million this month.
With effect from November 18th, customers will also be able to take out an extra £1 million business protection on top of their personal cover.
Bonnie Burns, protection product marketing director for the UK's leading provider, said the move was Legal & General's way of meeting the needs of today's families and businesses and responding to the changing trends that underpin the market.
"People are taking out larger mortgages and they require greater flexibility in terms of the amount of cover they need," explained Ms Burns.
"We believe that there is huge potential to help businesses better protect their key assets - their people - and increasing the maximum sum assured reflects our commitment to this market," the Legal & General representative added.
Another leading insurer, Norwich Union, recently introduced plans to extend children's critical illness cover to all of its policies.
Having introduced the cover as a standard inclusion from August 2003, it provides a benefit of £10,000 or 50 per cent of the sum assured - whichever is lower - for each child on the adult's policy.
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