Arranging A Life And Critical Illness Policy For A Client With An Extensive Medical History
- A client who had experienced several medical conditions was seeking life and critical illness insurance
- It was important to avoid submitting an application to a provider and then seeing this application denied, so we spoke extensively with providers before submitting
- While exclusions were applied, and the premium charged was higher than for a standard policy, with our extensive experience in this area, we were able to find the best policy in the market
- It was very important for our adviser to consider which exclusions each insurer would enforce, so we could identify the best provider for the client’s medical history
Client’s circumstances
Like millions of people across the UK, this 40-year-old client approached us seeking to put in place comprehensive cover to provide funds for their family should they pass away, and to provide funds to meet the costs of medical care and home conversions should they contract a critical illness. The desired sum insured was £200,000.
However, obtaining appropriate cover for this client was not entirely straightforward, as they had what could be described as an ‘extensive’ medical history, having had a number of medical issues at different stages of their lifetime.
Issues addressed
If you have an extensive medical history, purchasing life and critical illness cover without seeking professional advice can be very difficult. One of the problems here is that you can get trapped in something of a ‘vicious circle’ – if the first provider you approach declines your application, then you are legally bound to disclose this refusal to any other insurers that you apply to.
Fortunately, the client contacted John Lamb Hill Oldridge, and our team have considerable experience of assisting clients with similar needs.
Tailored solution provided to client by John Lamb Hill Oldridge
The first step was for our in-house underwriter to gather the appropriate information regarding the client’s medical history.
The next stage of the process involved contacting providers who – based on our extensive knowledge of the life and critical illness insurance market – might be able to provide cover for this client. As explained above, had we submitted an application that was subsequently declined, this would have been likely to damage the client’s chances of being accepted by an alternative provider. We were therefore most anxious to avoid this, and so we made comprehensive enquiries with multiple insurers, and would only make an application where the insurer indicated that it was definitely prepared to make an offer.
Of the insurers that we approached, some declined to offer insurance to the client at all. The typical response from the other companies, however, was to indicate that they could consider accepting the customer, subject to payment of an additional premium, which might have been 50%, or more, higher than the standard premium.
The insurers who responded also typically indicated that certain pre-existing medical conditions would be excluded from the critical illness cover they could provide. It was not, therefore, simply a matter of comparing the various quotes obtained and selecting the lowest cost plan – it was much more important to compare the exclusion offers from the various providers and use this information to identify the most appropriate provider and policy for the client’s individual medical history.
We are confident that the client in this case received the most comprehensive critical illness policy available to them in the market
