"If you’ve got someone asking about Life Insurance, probing a little deeper to figure out if they’re aware of CIC could unearth basic misconceptions about its relevance to them."
- Ryan Griffin, Director of Protection at Beagle Street
Life Insurance is like a rite of passage – you get a mortgage, and a sensible family member or friend will suggest you put some protection in place.
But customers think of Critical Illness Cover (CIC) as a ‘bolt-on’ – unnecessary. With this in mind, it will probably come as no surprise to advisers that roughly 12.7mn young adults in the UK don’t have CIC.
Beagle Street’s latest research found that half of those aged 18-40 don’t even know what CIC is supposed to do. Of those surveyed (2,000), 21% of young adults said they don’t want to think about how their family would cope if they became seriously ill and couldn’t work. 10% said their families categorically wouldn’t cope as they’re the main source of income for the household.
READ MORE: 42% of young adults would use Critical Illness to pay for private medical treatment if needed
I find this quite shocking, especially when you read reports that suggest serious illness is on the rise. One in five adults in England will be living with major diseases by 2040, and the Department of Health & Social Care is working on its Major Conditions Strategy, considering the impact of six major health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
I recently heard from one of our customers, Jason Fenton (51-year-old father of two), who had a heart attack and needed four months off work to recover. Thankfully, Jason had CIC alongside Life Insurance, so his family were looked after financially. This is his story:
“You always hope that serious illness will never affect your family, but if it does, the last thing you want to be doing is worrying about money,” he said. To protect his loved ones, Jason purchased Life Insurance & CIC when they bought their house.
“My wife works as an administrator for a care home. My eldest son, Jamie, is in the RAF currently serving abroad, and my 14-year-old son, Alfie, loves football and plays for a local team.”
Last year, Jason went for a jog after work - as he often did - but didn’t get far before he felt pain in his chest. “I put it down to the cold air, but the pain started to get worse, so I made my way back home.”
“When Alfie opened the front door, I collapsed into the hallway. We were told that an ambulance wasn’t available, so they advised my family to drive me to hospital.”
Jason was in “so much pain that I couldn’t get off the floor,” so his father-in-law and neighbours helped him get into the car. Within two hours, he was having a stent fitted. “The whole thing had been so surreal, and I was left wondering what on earth had just happened. I can’t imagine how my family must have felt,” he said.
“My wife was taken to the relatives’ room when she first got to the hospital and was told that there was no guarantee of survival.”
Jason was amazed at how quickly his CIC policy popped into his head after the heart attack. “One of the first things you think of after something like that happens is, ‘How are we going to manage financially?’ Everything is so unknown and up in the air at the time, so you do whatever you can to ease the pain,” he explained.
Seven years ago, Jason moved his policies to Beagle Street due to competitive pricing and ease of application; “The paperwork was very straightforward and clearly listed ‘heart attack’ as a covered condition for CIC claims.”
“Being able to use live chat to contact Beagle Street was a welcome relief as it had been a very emotional few days.”
After roughly six weeks, Jason received £13,500 and he only had to answer one question throughout the process. “Receiving the money was like a weight had been lifted from our shoulders. It meant we were able to pay off a few things and Emma could go down to working four days a week.”
Jason believes everyone should buy CIC and Life Insurance, because “You never know what’s going to happen in life […] if we hadn’t had it, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
Like Jason, you might not be well enough to work, but the bills keep rolling in – adding to the stress of living with serious illness. Ironically, the ‘will’ is there; four in five adults we surveyed said they’d consider taking out CIC once the product had been explained.
If you’ve got someone asking about Life Insurance, probing a little deeper to figure out if they’re aware of CIC could unearth basic misconceptions about its relevance to them. For example, have they thought about the impact a cancer diagnosis could have on their loved ones?
READ MORE: The doctors said it was “impossible” but here I am with pancreatic cancer at 20 years old
As providers, we need to ensure that our offerings are clear with simple and easy-to-understand products. CIC shouldn’t be an afterthought; if customers don’t know what it is, how can they possibly know that they need it?
