AIG (American International Group) is a recognisable household name, which isn’t surprising when you consider that they’re a US-based insurance giant. Here in the UK though, they operate as AIG Life Limited.
With roots that can be traced back to 1919, today AIG has become a global organisation. In fact, they have customers and clients in more than 80 countries worldwide!
AIG is currently the largest US-headquartered Life Insurance provider in Europe. Their Enhanced YourLife Plan with Critical Illness Choices has a solid market reputation, with a 5-star Defaqto rating for its coverage.
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AIG offers a slightly different Critical Illness policy. At first, it might not seem very comprehensive, because of the comparatively low number of conditions it covers. But their definitions are actually much broader.
For example, rather than having different definitions for all the less advanced forms of cancer, AIG groups them under one condition. It’s important to understand features like this, as AIG still offers a very high coverage plan.
We’ve given a more thorough summary in the table below.
AIG Critical Illness Coverage | |
|---|---|
Maximum Benefit | £3 million |
Type Of Cover |
|
Minimum Entry Age | 17 |
Maximum Entry Age | 75 |
Standalone? | ❌ Combined Life & Critical Illness only |
Joint Cover? | ✅ Joint life first diagnosis only |
Premium Type |
|
Waiver of Premium | Optional |
Full Conditions |
|
Survival Period | 10 days |
Core Children’s Cover (Optional) | An optional add-on for an extra premium. Children are covered between birth and age 22 for:
| Enhanced Critical Illness (Optional Upgrade) |
Enhanced Cover | An optional upgrade for an extra premium, which pays:
|
Enhanced Children’s Cover | You can add-on and enhance Children’s Cover for an extra cost. This covers children from birth to age 22 for:
|
As we mentioned before, AIG sets out its Critical Illness conditions slightly different from other providers. This isn’t a bad thing though, as it offers just as high coverage, or in some cases, even more.
So, what are the key aspects of AIG’s Critical Illness policy that you need to know?
Most providers offer detailed definitions of every single condition they cover. They’ll even go as far as to specify how severe the condition should be. If you don’t meet the exact specifications or severity of their definition, you won’t be able to claim.
AIG offers ‘groupings’ of their conditions. So, for example, AIG won’t define every kind of neurological disorder they’ll pay out on. Instead, their condition is simply, ‘Degenerative Neurological Disorder’. This is a much broader definition.
In the event that a person contracts a rare, degenerative disorder, this wouldn’t otherwise be covered. With AIG, there’s a higher chance they’ll pay out, as they haven’t narrowed down their definitions.
In other words, one condition with AIG can give you greater coverage than multiple conditions from other insurers.
Here at Drewberry™, we always recommend that our clients upgrade to a fully comprehensive policy. And AIG is no exception. Their Enhanced Critical Illness offers so much more coverage than their Core plan.
AAIG’s core plan covers you for the equivalent of 94 full & additional payouts. But the enhanced plan protects you against the equivalent of 148 conditions in total, including:
Even though upgrading your cover will cost a bit more, it’s far more likely that you’ll need the enhanced cover. Many of the conditions it covers are more common, but less severe—like skin cancer, for example.
Most people overestimate the cost difference between a Core and an Enhanced plan. In reality, it typically costs only a few pounds extra per month to upgrade.
While we understand cost is a big factor, we also have a duty to make sure the product you buy is fit for purpose. And the truth is, upgraded plans offer far better value for money, and greater peace of mind.
Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Expert
AIG offers children’s cover as an optional extra, which comes with an additional premium. There are two levels to AIG’s Children’s Critical Illness Cover:
You’ll also receive a hospitalisation benefit and a cash lump sum if your child passes away. The Enhanced cover includes a payment if your child is born with a birth defect, and will double your claim if your child can only be treated overseas.
If you want children’s cover, AIG offers a comprehensive choice. You just need to be aware that it’ll cost extra.
AIG offers a Guaranteed Insurability Option known as Life Event Changes. This option lets you increase your cover without any further medical questions. You can use this option following:
You can increase your amount of cover or policy term, or both, if needed. If your cover increase is for mortgage related reasons, it’ll be limited to the extra amount you’re borrowing.
Or, if you’re extending the term of your policy due to a mortgage extension, it’ll be capped at 150% of the original term, the end of the new mortgage, or your 65th birthday—whichever is due to occur first.
You can use this Life Event Change option to increase your cover multiple times. But the total sum of all increases can’t be more than your original amount of cover or £200,000—again, whichever is lower.
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In order to use AIG’s guaranteed insurability option, you need to apply within 13 weeks of the life event. You also need to be age 55 or under and have more than 5 years left on your policy term.
While no-one ever plans for it to happen, AIG (like most providers) offers a flexible option in case your relationship ends. If you divorce, separate, or dissolve your civil partnership, you can split a joint plan into two single ones.
To separate your policies, you need to apply within 6 months of the separation. And again, you’ll also need to give AIG any evidence they ask for.
Another stipulation of this option is the amount of cover you’ll be allowed. The total combined cover of the two single policies can’t be more than the sum assured of the joint cover. So, if your joint plan covers you for £200,000, each person could have £100,000 each after separating the policies.
When you take out an AIG Life & Critical Illness policy through an advisor, you’ll have the option of taking out increasing cover. This stops your cover amount from losing value in real terms as a result of inflation.
With this option, AIG increases your benefit by 5% each year. Your premiums will also go up, but by a slightly higher amount. This is because premiums are also based on your age and the remaining policy term.
If it ends up costing a bit too much, or you change your mind for other reasons, you can switch from ‘Increasing’ to ‘Level’ at any time. And if you do, you can opt back in to the annual increase on the same terms as before.
A great feature of all protection policies are the extras that come with it. You don’t only get a comprehensive insurance policy, you also get to enjoy some extra benefits. And the cherry on top is: many of them are included for free!
With AIG, you’ll get to enjoy a range of free services under their Smart Health benefit. We’ve provided a bit more detail on each one below.
You can book a phone or video call with a remote GP at any time. It could be day or night, on any day of the year. AIG aims to give you an appointment within 2 hours of you requesting one. And, you can receive prescriptions immediately.
Through Smart Health, you can access exercise regimes and nutrition programmes. The fitness plans can be tailored for either 4 or 8 weeks, and they come up with weekly meal plan ideas to help you reach your goals.
The recipe plans come from qualified nutritionists. And what’s more, they can tailor your meal plans to most (if not all) dietary requirements. This can help you maintain a healthy body weight and can lower the risk of health issues caused by a poor diet.
Smart Health also gives you access to a team of mental health professionals. They can support you with your mental health concerns, like anxiety, depression, and stress-related issues.
You can use up to four tailored therapy sessions with an expert, including psychologists who can provide you with counselling.
AIG’s Smart Health service also offers an online health assessment. This helps you discover important health metrics like your BMI and cardiovascular risk profile. AIG’s experts can provide personal recommendations after your assessment to help you live a healthier, happier life.
The Best Doctors service gives you access to a second medical opinion from a leading clinician. It can be used for yourself if you’re experiencing health symptoms, or a family member.
If you’re worried you aren’t getting the right treatment or diagnosis, this can provide much-needed reassurance, or a more suitable alternative.
Since you’ll take out AIG’s Critical Illness alongside Life Insurance, we think it’s important to mention this benefit, too. It’s tailored more to the life part of your cover, but it’s still good to know.
AIG partners with Winston’s Wish, who are the UK’s leading charity for child bereavement. If you pass away, they can provide much-needed support for your children at a very difficult time.
Similarly, AIG’s Funeral Pledge is more geared towards the Life Insurance part of your benefit, but we think it’s important to cover everything.
Through this pledge, AIG commits to paying up to £10,000 of your Life Insurance claim in advance to help cover funeral costs. It can be paid either to a funeral director or to your family if the claim has been agreed but is tied up in probate. Your loved ones can then use the advance to cover funeral costs or pay for probate application fees.
All Critical Illness policies tend to cover Total Permanent Disability (TPD). It pays out if you become so completely disabled that you can’t ever work again. But the way each provider packages it into their plan can differ.
With AIG, TPD comes as an optional add-on. You can choose to include it in your policy, but it’ll cost you an extra premium. If AIG pays out a valid claim, your cover will stop.
You can also choose to include Waiver of Premium cover to your plan for an extra charge. It kicks in if you’re signed off work due to a health-related incapacity.
If you add this option on with AIG’s policy, it comes with a standard 26 week deferred period. This means that if you’re still signed off work once those 6 months have passed, AIG will waive your policy premiums.
It won’t matter whether you’re claiming for a critical condition. People often miss work for non-critical reasons, like musculoskeletal conditions or ill mental health. This is when your premium waiver might kick in.
Another important factor you might want to keep an eye on is the provider’s claim statistics. Insurers might have different classifications for successful claims, but it can be a helpful indication.
According to AIG’s claim statistics, they paid out 98% of Critical Illness claims in 2021.
Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert
Doing a deep-dive into each provider’s policy is great, but it can be hard to know the key comparison points. Our advisers have offered their expert insights so you can see how AIG measures up in the market.
AIG’s broad, grouped definitions offer a substantial amount of cover. In fact, CI Expert says AIG’s Enhanced policy covers the equivalent of 57 “underlying” conditions and 47 additional conditions.
AIG is also one of the only providers to include pregnancy cover in their Critical Illness plan. This makes their enhanced policy a very competitive offering.
As we mentioned before, some providers include Children’s Cover for no extra charge. But with AIG, it’s an optional add-on.
This could be a preference for child-free people who don’t want to pay extra for cover they don’t need. But if you already have children or plan to have children in the future, this’ll cost extra.
While you will pay to include Children’s Cover, AIG offers some fantastic features. For instance, £100 per night (up to £3,000) when your child is in hospital for more than 7 consecutive days. This helps you pay for family accommodation, travel, meals, or other expenses.
AIG also pays a £5,000 child death benefit, which increases to £10,000 when you take out Enhanced cover. Upgrading your cover also gives you a £5,000 if your child is born with a birth defect, and double the claim payout if your child needs overseas treatment.
When you’re diagnosed with a critical condition, your provider requires you to survive for a certain time period before they’ll pay out. Where other providers have a 14-day survival period, AIG only requires you to survive for 10 days.
There are some insurers that include Waiver of Premium cover as standard, which pays your policy premiums when you’re signed off work. Unfortunately, AIG isn’t one of them. You can add it onto your policy, but it’ll come at an extra charge.
As we mentioned before, TPD is a part of most Critical Illness policies. It’s an optional add-on to AIG’s policy, making it a non-standard condition. There are other providers that incorporate TPD cover into their policy as standard.
Lastly, AIG offers one of the most comprehensive packages of extra benefits. This provides access to several services that can support your ongoing health and wellbeing.
Not only that, but the benefits are tailored to the kind of support you might need with a Life & Critical Illness policy. In other words, they offer valuable support if you become critically ill, and bereavement support for your loved ones.
One of the benefits our clients get a lot of use out of is the unlimited digital GP service. This helps you address any health concerns quickly and access prescriptions straight away.
Features like this make AIG’s free suite of benefits one of the most competitive services on the market.
For those who need cover but are on a very strict budget, AIG offers another Critical Illness product.
Key3 Critical Illness is a simplified version of the YourLife Plan, covering only cancers, heart attacks and strokes. It’s available on its own, or combined with Life Protection.
Bradley Fedarb
Independent Protection Expert
Cost is a crucial consideration for our clients when it comes to cover. To provide you with an idea of pricing, we have included some examples below.
These figures show the cost of a combined Life & Critical Illness policy at different ages. They’re based on a person who:
Monthly Premiums | 30 Years Old | 40 Years Old | 50 Years Old |
|---|---|---|
£66.50 | £115.90 | £202.39* |
As you can see, the cost of cover steadily goes up with age. Naturally, this is because the risks of us falling ill also increase as we grow older.
Of course, these are just examples, and your actual costs could vary quite a bit. It will depend on your own circumstances, such as your age, lifestyle, and medical background.
Critical Illness policies will always get substantially more expensive over time, so don’t wait to enquire! The sooner you take out the protection you need, the more money you’ll save in the long run.
One great benefit of working with an adviser is that we can use our negotiating power to get you the most competitive terms possible.
Not only that, but we know the best ways to tweak your cover so that it meets your budget. If it costs too much at first, we’ll work hard to bring the cost down until it meets your needs.
Alex Weir
Independent Protection Expert
AIG is a great example of how much Critical Illness protection can vary between providers. On the one hand, you might look at the number of conditions covered and worry that it’s quite a low amount.
It’s not until you understand how each provider has their own definitions of cover that you can fully appreciate what AIG offers. This is why it can be so risky to “do-it-yourself”.
As an independent and impartial consultancy, we’ll research the whole market for you. Our friendly experts will make a personal recommendation to suit your specific needs. And we’ll make sure everything is set up as smoothly as possible.
We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.
We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.
If you’d have questions or need advice, you can pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk. Our friendly experts are always happy and ready to help.
Or, if you’re sure you know what you are looking for, you can use our Critical Illness quote tool. This can help you compare the cost across the top UK providers and apply online.
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