A look at the history of critical illness insurance Critical illness insurance was first established in South Africa in the year 1983. It is generally known as dread disease insurance. Critical illness insurance was then introduced to the United Kingdom in the year 1985. The first policy was then introduced by Lloyds life now a member of the Royal and Sun Alliance.
They tried to sell the product through newspaper ads which resulted in public, unfortunately, less than 100 policies sold. In the year 1986 Cannon, now Lincoln attempted a coup in critical illness. Their success is not huge. It was Abbey Life which tasted success with critical illness insurance. With the introduction of "Life Insurance" It took me a few months for the company to have a new perspective.
The initial product to serious illness. These diseases can be classified as cancer, coronary bypass, stroke, myocardial infarction, renal failure and major organ transplant. Such a policy was sold by direct sales companies or agents. Soon, other companies developed the same attitude. But a specific name to identify this type of policy has not yet been given. Critical Illness benefit, critical illness and crisis coverage has been generally used before coming to cover serious illnesses.
In addition, critical illness insurance has been slow to reach the highest level in the United Kingdom until the direct sales force (DSF) has resumed. They have achieved immense success as they have discovered the potential market and their desire to cover serious illness in the late 1980s. Few other companies have followed the same trend in 1990/91 and since then, political criticism of sale of the disease have stimulated. According to Swiss Re Life and Health Watch 5, sales of critical illness policies have increased from 150,000 in the year 1992 to about 900,000 in 2001.
As Dinani A, D and other Grimshaw (March 2000) "A" Critical Review of the year 1999, more than 800,000 life insurance critical illness have been purchased, representing nearly 38 percent of sales Policy. In addition, approximately 50,000 lives were covered by pension group against serious diseases which represent about 10 percent of the workforce. Although sales growth has been significant, the summit has not yet been reached. Thus, the probability of further expansion remained.
Being a new type of policy at the time, critical illness cover sales had surpassed that of income protection. The reason was that policies against serious diseases have been well defined with diseases that could be listed positively viewed by customers. Maybe it was someone the lump sum received on a claim that was more important for people to get an advantage on income.
As seen above there has been a considerable increase in critical illness policy as it emerged. People have seen the benefits of critical illness insurance. The lump sum was probably attracted many people in front to cover serious illness. Critical illness policies are low cost but they can not always deliver benefits that you thought. The bottom line remained that before making a serious illness cover, you should read the policy documents before making an agreement.
Posted on January 21, 2010.