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Home / - Terminal Illness Cover
This benefit is included almost without exception free of charge on all life insurance and life assurance and/or critical illness policies.
Terminal Illness Cover pays out the sum assured immediately (instead of on death or critical illness) if the life assured is diagnosed as being terminally ill, with a life expectancy of less than 12 months typically.
This cover does not usually apply during the last 12 to 18 months of the period of cover.
NEWS
Life insurance customers should be treated more fairly
18 May 2007 17:11:18
New industry guidelines will lead to better treatment for life insurance customers, according to the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
A study of after-sales performance in the life insurance sector has revealed a variable standard of customer care, with many consumers unsure of their level of life cover.
Sarah Wilson, FSA director, said that post-sales communication needed to be clearer across the board: "Without ongoing advice, consumers might not be able to make properly informed decisions about their with-profits policy.
"Poor after-sales information for these and other policy types makes it harder for consumers to understand the performance of their policies and the product features they have paid for."
She added: "We will take appropriate supervisory or enforcement action in cases where we find that customers are not being treated fairly."
The Independent reports that the Association of British Insurers accepted the FSA proposals.
Consumers should take to heart the recent FSA report on Treating Customers Fairly, which revealed an improved level of commitment to industry guidelines from bosses of life insurance companies.
Stroke risk 'reduced' by prompt specialist attention
23 November 2007 10:53:58
Hundreds of strokes could be prevented every year if patients suffering "mini strokes" were assessed sooner by specialists, it has emerged.
Known as transient ischaemic attacks or TIAs, it was revealed that almost two-thirds of patients attending "rapid access" TIA clinics took more than the recommended seven days to be seen by a suitably trained professional.
According to a study carried out by scientists at the University of Manchester, access to specialist clinics takes at least twice as long as it should, on average.
"Current UK guidelines recommend that all people who have had a TIA should be assessed by a specialist within seven days of the start of symptoms," remarked Dr Craig Smith, a member of the University's clinical neuroscience group.
"Our findings suggest that this standard is not being met and, in reality, TIA patients should ideally be assessed for risk of further stroke within a couple of days, if not on the same day as the initial symptoms," he continued.
A TIA, often characterised by a temporary weakening of one side of the face and the corresponding arm, drastically increases a person's chance of suffering a major stroke within days of the initial symptoms.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
'Understanding of CF development could lead to new treatments'
10 March 2008 17:21:45
New research has enabled scientists to gain a better understanding of the development of cystic fibrosis (CF) which may help to develop new treatments for the disease.
The news may affect the life insurance premiums of sufferers.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found a molecular mechanism that could be responsible for the development of the disease, reports Medical News Today.
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust more than 8,000 people are affected by CF in the UK.
The fatal disease is caused by a defective gene that produces a misshapen form of a protein called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR).
As their bodies rapidly remove the mutant protein, people affected by CF do not have the necessary amount of CFTR for proper cellular functions.
Lead researcher Nikolay Dokholyan said: "Understanding molecular etiology of the disease is a key step to developing pharmaceutical strategies to fight this disease."
The report has been published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Around one in 25 people in the UK carry the faulty gene that causes CF, reports the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
If two carriers have a child, the baby has a one in four chance of having the disease.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
18 May 2007 17:11:18
New industry guidelines will lead to better treatment for life insurance customers, according to the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
A study of after-sales performance in the life insurance sector has revealed a variable standard of customer care, with many consumers unsure of their level of life cover.
Sarah Wilson, FSA director, said that post-sales communication needed to be clearer across the board: "Without ongoing advice, consumers might not be able to make properly informed decisions about their with-profits policy.
"Poor after-sales information for these and other policy types makes it harder for consumers to understand the performance of their policies and the product features they have paid for."
She added: "We will take appropriate supervisory or enforcement action in cases where we find that customers are not being treated fairly."
The Independent reports that the Association of British Insurers accepted the FSA proposals.
Consumers should take to heart the recent FSA report on Treating Customers Fairly, which revealed an improved level of commitment to industry guidelines from bosses of life insurance companies.
23 November 2007 10:53:58
Hundreds of strokes could be prevented every year if patients suffering "mini strokes" were assessed sooner by specialists, it has emerged.
Known as transient ischaemic attacks or TIAs, it was revealed that almost two-thirds of patients attending "rapid access" TIA clinics took more than the recommended seven days to be seen by a suitably trained professional.
According to a study carried out by scientists at the University of Manchester, access to specialist clinics takes at least twice as long as it should, on average.
"Current UK guidelines recommend that all people who have had a TIA should be assessed by a specialist within seven days of the start of symptoms," remarked Dr Craig Smith, a member of the University's clinical neuroscience group.
"Our findings suggest that this standard is not being met and, in reality, TIA patients should ideally be assessed for risk of further stroke within a couple of days, if not on the same day as the initial symptoms," he continued.
A TIA, often characterised by a temporary weakening of one side of the face and the corresponding arm, drastically increases a person's chance of suffering a major stroke within days of the initial symptoms.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
10 March 2008 17:21:45
New research has enabled scientists to gain a better understanding of the development of cystic fibrosis (CF) which may help to develop new treatments for the disease.
The news may affect the life insurance premiums of sufferers.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found a molecular mechanism that could be responsible for the development of the disease, reports Medical News Today.
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust more than 8,000 people are affected by CF in the UK.
The fatal disease is caused by a defective gene that produces a misshapen form of a protein called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR).
As their bodies rapidly remove the mutant protein, people affected by CF do not have the necessary amount of CFTR for proper cellular functions.
Lead researcher Nikolay Dokholyan said: "Understanding molecular etiology of the disease is a key step to developing pharmaceutical strategies to fight this disease."
The report has been published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Around one in 25 people in the UK carry the faulty gene that causes CF, reports the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
If two carriers have a child, the baby has a one in four chance of having the disease.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online