AIG Critical Illness Insurance [REVIEW]

What Does AIG Critical Illness Insurance Cover?

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 Insurance Key Policy Factors

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?

Grouped Conditions

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.

Upgrade For Full Cover

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:

• Neurological conditions
• Permanent sensory impairment
• Body trauma conditions
• Less advanced cancers
• Heart-related surgeries.

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 Specialist

Optional Children’s Cover

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:

• Core Children’s Cover
  This pays out up to £25,000 if your child is diagnosed one of 23 conditions. With AIG’s grouped conditions, this is equivalent to over 49 conditions
• Enhanced Children’s Cover
  The maximum benefit you can claim goes up to £50,000 if your child suffers one of 44 conditions. But because of the grouped conditions, it’s actually the equivalent of over 75 conditions.

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.

Life Event Changes

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:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Birth or legal adoption of a child
• Increasing the amount of your mortgage.

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.

Separation Benefit

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.

Increasing Cover Available

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.

AIG Critical Illness Additional Benefits

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!

Smart Health

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.

24/7 Digital GP

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.

Fitness And Nutrition Plans

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.

Mental Health Support And Counselling

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 a specialist, including psychologists who can provide you with counselling.

Health Check

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 specialists can provide personal recommendations after your assessment to help you live a healthier, happier life.

Best Doctors

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.

Winston’s Wish

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.

Funeral Pledge

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.

Optional Extras

Total Permanent Disability (Additional Cost)

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.

Waiver Of Premium (Additional Cost)

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 Specialist

How Does AIG Critical Illness Insurance Compare?

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 specialist insights so you can see how AIG measures up in the market.

Comprehensive Enhanced Cover

AIG’s broad, grouped definitions offer a substantial amount of cover. In fact, CI Specialist 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.

Children’s Cover Not Standard

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.

Unique Children’s Cover Features

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.

10-Day Survival Period

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.

Waiver Of Premium Not Standard

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.

Total Permanent Disability (TPD) Not Standard

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.

Excellent Free Additional Benefits

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.

Budget Option Available

For those who need cover but are on a very strict budget, AIG offers another Critical Illness product.