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• affects 1 in 4 women / 1 in 5 men before retirement
• 94.1% of the critical illness claims are paid
• protect yourself and your family if you get seriously ill

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Overview of Zurich's Protection Plans Offering Critical Illness Cover

Zurich’s Critical Illness Cover is available through its Protection Plan offerings; it can be bought through the level protection plan (as life or earlier critical illness cover), or through the decreasing mortgage cover plan (usually bought as an add-on to a life cover).

Quick Facts on Zurich Critical Illness

What Is the Critical Illness Cover of Zurich?

The Critical Illness Cover provided by Zurich is often bundled into life assurance or term life insurance cover. It can be bought as:

• Level Protection Plan (Can be bought as):
  • Life or earlier critical illness cover
  • Life or earlier critical illness cover with extra life cover
• Decreasing Mortgage Cover Plan. (Critical Illness  is usually bought as an add-on to a life cover.)

Amount of Coverage

• Mortgage Decreasing Term Cover. The amount of insurance will decrease monthly until it reaches zero at the end of the term. Any life cover (after a successful critical illness claim is paid out) will pay the difference between the current coverage amount less payments already made for the critical illness claim.
• Child critical illness cover is 50% of the sum insured or £25,000, whichever is lower.

Who Is Covered

The life insured. Age must be between 18 to 69 when the cover starts.

The life insured’s children:

• Children, either by birth or legal adoption, as well as step children
• The children should be between 3 months to 18 years old at the time of diagnosis of the critical illness
• For the critical illness benefit to be payable, the covered person must survive for at least 14 days from the day of the diagnosis
• There is no limit to how many children can be covered but only one claim can be made for each child. The critical illness benefit may be payable twice if each of the two parents have a critical illness policy.

What You Will Receive

The critical illness benefit will pay:

• The benefit amount, if you are diagnosed with a covered critical illness. That is, if the critical illness meets the definitions stated in the policy. The insured person should survive 14 days after the date of the diagnosis.
• £25,000 or 50% of the sum insured, whichever is lower, if your child is diagnosed with a covered critical illness. Only one claim per child will be paid out, regardless of the number of policies the parents has with Zurich. However, if both parents are covered by a separate single life critical illness policy, the child can be paid for each policy. Any claims for children’s critical illness protection will not affect the “main” benefit amount (or, the amount to be paid in case of a diagnosis of a covered illness). However, if the “main” benefit has already been paid out, the cover stops and any succeeding claims for children’s critical illness will no longer be payable.

Length of the Cover

Length of cover depends on the type of plan selected:

• Decreasing Mortgage Cover: Length of the term will be based on the length of the mortgage payment plan
• Level Term Cover
  • Minimum term: 5 years
  • Maximum term:
    • Reviewable Payment Plans: 40 years or on the Person Insured’s 75^th birthday
    • Guaranteed payment plans: 30 years or on the Person Insured’s 75^th birthday

Premiums

For the Decreasing Mortgage Cover plan, premiums remain level throughout the term of the policy.

Premiums can either be:

• Guaranteed. Premiums remain the same throughout the life of the policy.
• Reviewable. Premiums may change every time it is reviewed. The client has the option to pay the same amount of premium (for a lower amount of cover) or an increased/decreased premiums (for the same amount of cover, where the premiums are computed based on various factors). If the plan has a term of more than 10 years, the review will be made every five years and on every anniversary for the last four years of the plan’s term. If the plan has less than 10 years, the review will be made on the fifth year and every year after that.

Critical Illnesses Covered

The Critical Illness benefit will pay the benefit amount (or a portion) for the following critical illnesses:

Additional Optional Benefits

Depending on the type of plan the client chooses, he can also opt for the following optional benefits:

What You Are NOT Covered For

The client will not receive any Critical Illness payouts for:

• Diagnoses that does not match the definitions provided for a specific critical illness
• Non-disclosure of key information at the time of application, if the information that was not disclosed would have affected the decision to accept the application or would have changed the premiums charged
• Failure to notify Zurich about the critical illness diagnosis within six months of diagnosis
• Failure to provide information required for the claim
• Failure to survive at least 14 days after the date of the operation or diagnosis
• Illnesses that arise from pre-existing conditions (for children’s critical illness cover)
• Injuries that result from suicide or acts of self-injury
• Critical illnesses where the cause of the claim is specifically excluded
• The illness was contracted at the time the Person Insured was living abroad and was not able to return to any of the accepted countries. The list of accepted countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Jungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the United States of America.

Making a Claim

To make a claim, the insured person or representative:

• Call Zurich’s Critical Illness claims hotline: 0870 850 0786
• Submit the completed claims form
• Zurich will obtain the medical information from one’s GP, specialist or consultant who has been treating the person insured. Send Zurich’s letter to the doctor/consultant, who will then send his medical report directly to Zurich’s office.
• Zurich may need additional medical evidence of the critical illness being claimed. Where any additional medical evidence is needed, Zurich will shoulder all reasonable costs to obtain such evidence.

Submitting a claim should be done as soon as possible – after the diagnosis of a critical illness. Zurich has to be informed of any diagnosis or operation within six months.

This article is for informational pruposes only and should not be considered a financial advice. Contact Zurich directly for information about their products.

Last updated on: 25.07.2012

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