Legal & General Critical Illness Insurance [REVIEW]

What Does L&G Critical Illness Insurance Cover?

All Critical Illness policies are designed to pay out a lump sum cash benefit if you suffer from a critical condition. Once a full claim is paid, the policy ends. But, if you make a partial claim or a child’s claim, your cover under the policy carries on.

In the table below, we’ve given a detailed summary of Legal & General’s Critical Illness Insurance.

If you apply directly to an insurer, you’ll usually only get their core cover, which we don’t recommend. For only a few pounds extra per month, you can get far more coverage with a comprehensive plan.

Legal & General’s Critical Illness Extra plan is a great example of this. It offers partial claims for many more common, less severe conditions. With the core plan, you’d miss out on this extra protection.

Legal & General Critical Illness Insurance Key Policy Features

So, what are the key things you need to know about Legal & General’s Critical Illness policy? We’ve picked out the main points to consider when choosing the right provider.

Upgrade For Critical Illness Extra

If you take out your policy through an advisor, you’ll be able to upgrade to Critical Illness Extra. It’s only available through an intermediary, but it offers a lot more protection. It will pay out fully on 17 extra conditions and offer a partial claim for 28 extra conditions.

Some of the extra conditions Legal & General will pay out a partial claim for include:

• Diabetes mellitus type 1
• Less advanced cancers, including carcinoma in situ of the breast, prostate and larynx
• Significant vision loss
• Crohn’s disease
• Coronary angioplasty.

The cost difference between a ‘core’ and an ‘upgraded’ plan is usually within about £10 per month—often less. And because these conditions are more common, it’s possible you’ll need this extra level of protection.

Free Child Critical Illness Cover

When you take out a Critical Illness policy for yourself, any children you have are covered for free. The policy will pay out if your child is diagnosed with a critical condition between 30 days old and their 18th birthday. Legal & General’s Child Cover also pays out in some other ways that make it quite unique:

• If your children are in full-time education, they’re covered until their 21st birthday
• You’ll get a £1,000 benefit towards childcare with a registered childminder if you receive a critical diagnosis. As long as your child is under 5 years old, you can claim this within 18 months of your diagnosis
• Another £5,000 benefit if your child is left with accidental injuries that require at least 28 days in hospital.

Guaranteed Insurability

For those that need a policy with flexibility, Legal & General offers a Guaranteed Insurability option. This lets you increase your benefit without any extra medical checks after major life events. You can use it following:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Birth or legal adoption of a child
• An increase in your earnings following a change in employment or promotion
• Increasing in your mortgage due to moving house or undertaking home improvements.

You need to take up the Guaranteed Insurability option within 6 months of your major life event. The maximum amount you can increase your policy by is 50% of your original benefit or £150,000, whichever is lower. Although, changes to your earnings and mortgage have slightly different limits.

If your salary has increased, you can increase your cover by your original benefit multiplied by the percentage increase in your earnings. For example, if your original benefit was £100,000, and you received a 10% salary increase, you’d do 100,000 x 10%. This gives you £10,000.

And for a mortgage increase, Legal & General caps it at the increase in your mortgage.

Split A Joint Policy

While no-one plans to separate from their partner in the beginning, it can happen. If it does, Legal & General lets you split a joint policy into 2 single policies.

You need to take up this option within 6 months of your separation. Each new policy will cover you for either £1 million or the original amount of cover—whichever is lower.

Another thing to be aware of is that each of the new single policies can’t extend past each person’s 70th birthday.

Indexed Cover Available

Legal & General also offers the option to index your benefit. This means that your cover increases with the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation. As a result, the value of your benefit won’t be lost over time. It’s important to note though that it won’t increase by more than 10% each year.

As you might expect, to ensure your benefit stays in line with inflation, your premiums will increase each year. They’ll go up by the rate of inflation multiplied by 1.5. For instance, if inflation rises by 2% in a given year, your premiums would increase by 3.5%.

Legal & General Critical Illness Additional Benefits

When you take out a policy with Legal & General, you don’t only receive the agreed cover, you’ll also get access to some extra benefits. The good news is many of them come free of charge!

Umbrella Benefits Under Wellbeing Support

All Legal & General policyholders have access to Wellbeing Support. This offers a wide range of ‘umbrella benefits’ that give you practical and emotional support during difficult times. The service is provided by RedArc and it offers:

• Practical & Emotional Assistance
  A dedicated nurse to provide as much support as you need, for as long as you need it
• Second Medical Opinion
  Receive a second medical opinion from a relevant specialist after a critical diagnosis. They can provide reassurance about your current treatment plan or recommend alternative options. This can give you much-needed support and guidance at difficult time
• Mental Health Support
  Long-term support for a number of mental health conditions. This includes support for stress issues, anxiety, depression and trauma. You can also receive specialist counselling if needed
• Recovery Support
  Help with managing your recovery and returning to work after suffering an illness or injury. You can receive lifestyle advice, coaching, and vocational support, such as speech therapy
• Diagnosis Understanding
  Trained professionals at RedArc can answer any questions relating to your critical diagnosis. They can also offer support in terms of the next steps and your treatment plan
• Dietary & Lifestyle Support
  Advice on a number of dietary and lifestyle topics. For instance, staying healthy, avoiding illness, and reducing the risks of becoming unwell
• Serious & Chronic Illnesses Management
  Guidance on managing any serious or chronic illnesses, and the treatment available to you
• Later Life Planning
  Information on what government services you can use, retirement planning, housing and finances to plan a bright future.

Advance Payment For Surgical Procedures

If you’re on the NHS waitlist for a certain kind of surgery, Legal & General will pay out your claim early. For a basic policy, the approved surgeries are:

• Aorta graft surgery
• Heart valve replacement or repair
• Specified heart surgery.

With the Critical Illness Extra plan, a lot more surgeries are included. Legal & General will also pay out early for peripheral vascular disease, pulmonary heart surgery and ulcerative colitis.

This means that if you’re unable to work while critically ill, you don’t need to worry about waiting until after your procedure to claim. Instead, you can make ends meet with the advance benefit and focus on managing your health.

Project Smile

If Legal & General pay a valid Children’s Critical Illness claim, they send a personalised gift to your child. You’ll be able to let the claims assessor know your child’s preferences and agree on a suitable present. It’s then gift wrapped and sent to your home address to help deliver a smile at a difficult time.

Accidental Hospitalisation Benefit

With Legal & General’s Critical Illness Insurance, they’ll pay £5,000 if you’re hospitalised by an accident. To be eligible, you must have suffered physical injuries as a direct result of the accident, and be hospitalised for at least 28 consecutive days.

There are some additional benefits which are only available when you take out a policy through an adviser. With Legal & General, these are optional, and they’ll cost a little more each month.

We always recommend speaking to a specialist who knows the market. That way, you get the highest level of coverage at the most affordable price.

Alex Weir
Independent Protection Specialist

Private Diagnostics (Additional Cost, Adviser Only)

When facing a potentially critical health issue, the waiting is often the hardest part. Knowing what you’re up against and having a plan to face it is so important.

Legal and General provide a Private Diagnostics service, giving you access to some of the top specialists in the UK. You’ll be able to use their diagnostic test centres to investigate your symptoms. This will be the case regardless of whether you’re referred for oncology, cardiology, or neurosurgery.

Including this benefit costs an extra £4.50 per month, on top of your policy premium.

Fracture Cover (Additional Cost, Adviser Only)

For an extra £5.90 per month, you can include fracture cover. With this benefit, Legal & General pay out a smaller cash lump sum if you fracture a bone. The payout can help you recover from the fracture you’ve suffered.

It’s also important to note that in order to make a successful claim, the injury you sustain must be one that is specified in your policy. Minor fractures come with a smaller payout, whereas major fractures will pay out more, based on severity.

Waiver Of Premium (Additional Cost, Adviser Only)

When you start your policy, you can choose to add on Waiver of Premium cover. With this, Legal & General will pay your policy premiums for you if you’re unable to work due to poor health.

It comes with a standard deferred period of 26 weeks. So, if you’re signed off work for more than 6 months, the premium waiver will kick in—regardless of whether you can make a claim on the policy.

How Does Legal & General Critical Illness Insurance Compare?

When you’re choosing your provider, it’s important to understand how they stack up against the rest. So, we’ve outlined some key points to highlight how Legal & General compares to other insurers.

High Maximum Benefit

Some providers offer an unlimited maximum benefit for combined Life with Critical Illness Cover. However, Legal & General caps their critical illness benefit at:

• £2 million (if you have own occupation total permanent disability cover), or
• £3 million (if you have work tasks total permanent disability cover).

These are still high benefit amounts that will probably be enough for most people. However, for those that do need more cover, or want an increasing policy, another provider may be more suitable.

Child Cover Included As Standard

With some insurers, children’s Critical Illness Cover comes as an optional add-on for an extra monthly cost. But with Legal & General, Child Critical Illness Cover is free when you take out cover for yourself.

If you don’t have—or plan to have—children, you may not need this. But if you are a parent or plan to become one soon, your children could benefit from this protection.

Unique Child Cover Features

Legal & General’s child cover offers some unique elements that many other providers don’t offer. For instance:

• The £5,000 hospitalisation benefit
• £1,000 childcare support
• Family accommodation benefit of £100 per night (up to £1,000*).

Legal & General also offers Project Smile. This sends a personalised suitable gift to a child when their parent makes a children’s Critical Illness claim. In our experience, this is currently a unique feature in the market.

* With Children’s Critical Illness Extra, the limit increases to £3,000.

Accidental Hospitalisation Benefit

Legal & General offers a £5,000 accidental hospitalisation benefit if you’re in the hospital for 28 days after an accident. This is another feature we haven’t seen elsewhere in the market, which no other providers have matched yet.

14 Day Survival Period

Every insurer has a survival period for Critical Illness insurance. It’s the period of time you need to survive after your diagnosis in order to receive your claim.

While some providers have a survival period of 10 days, Legal & General’s survival period is 14 days. Although this isn’t a huge difference, it could impact some people.

Optional Waiver Of Premium

Some providers offer a premium waiver included in the cover as standard. However, with Legal & General, it’s an option you can add for an extra charge.

Minimal Additional Benefits

Legal & General offers help and support in several areas through their free Nurse Support Services. However, these benefits might be considered fairly minimal compared to what some other insurers have on offer. Some providers offer access to remote GPs, medical screenings, and physiotherapy.

According to their most recent claim statistics, Legal & General has paid out 93% of Critical Illness claims, which is a high amount.

Like most providers, the top condition they paid claims on was cancer (65.8%), followed by heart conditions (13.4%) and strokes (7.7%).

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Specialist

How Much Does Legal & General Critical Illness Insurance Cost?

In most cases, your budget will determine the level of cover you end up with. So, it’s important to have an idea of how much your cover may cost.

There are many different factors that can affect the cost of L&G Critical Illness Cover. For the most accurate and up to date quotes, speak to us directly on 02084327333, email help@drewberry.co.uk, or get quotes online in 60 seconds.

Critical Illness Cover can become pricey, but we understand that most people have a budget in mind for their protection.

We’ll always work hard to bring the price into your budget by tweaking the cover until it meets all your needs.

Alex Weir
Independent Protection Specialist