Protection specialist LV= has announced changes to its critical illness cover, which will make it market-leading and even easier to claim on.
The changes include an increase in the number of conditions and partial payments covered, and an improvement to a number of definitions for existing conditions, to increase the quality of cover its policy provides.
LV= now offers cover on 64 conditions in total (previously 59) with 19 ABI+ definitions (previously 18) and 20 partial payments (previously 16).
Also under the changes, LV= has enhanced six of its existing definitions, including the most claimed for conditions; cancer, heart attack, MS, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. The key new benefits are:
A change in the severity levels within the heart attack definition so LV= will now make a full payment for all clinically diagnosed heart attacks.
The policy will now pay out on diagnosis of a stroke with no requirement for permanent neurological deficit; instead will pay out if symptoms have persisted for 24 hours.
In order to be able to pay claims at an earlier stage, LV= has extended its MS definition so that the policy pays out on evidence of two or more attacks of impaired motor or sensory function.
LV= has moved to an ABI+ definition on deafness and has added partial payments for six new conditions, including Diabetes type 1 and ovarian tumours.
The extension of children’s cover from 18 to 21 years old, with no requirement to be in full time education. In addition the minimum age of 30 days has been removed so that protection is now available for children from birth and even covers conditions which existed before birth.
Chris McNab, Protection Product Manager at LV=, said: “We have listened to advisers and customers plus worked with our claims and underwriting teams to ensure that any changes we made to our policy made it market- leading, are meaningful and add value.
“Critical illness cover is designed to provide essential financial support to clients when they need it most. Increasing the number of partial payments covered in our policy allows us to take a more flexible approach, and provide a greater number of clients with financial assistance. We are committed to the critical illness market and believe the changes we have made will significantly benefit advisers and their clients.”
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