Legal & General Retail has made a series of updates to its critical illness (CI) proposition including increased payments for terminal illness and children’s CI claims.
Guaranteed insurability options (GIOs) have also been widened across all products and Association of British Insurers (ABI) wording definitions for cancer, heart attack and dementia have been added to CI products.
.Payments for terminal Illness have risen from £10,000 to £35,000 with children’s Critical Illness Extra payments rising from £30,000 to £35,000.
There have also been increases for family accommodation – from £1,000 to £3,000 – and funeral cover has doubled from £5,000 to £10,000.
The insurer said it has improved (GIOs) across all products to allow larger increases of cover and more opportunities to revise cover following changes to the customer’s life.
Finally, L&G it has updated definitions for cancer, heart attack and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease following the ABI recommendations which have been designed to facilitate better customer outcomes.
All changes will apply to policies bought from 26 March.
Julie Godley, director of intermediary, retail protection at Legal & General Retail, said: “We listened to feedback from intermediaries around changing customer need and in response we have made these important updates.
“We understand that lives change, sometimes unexpectedly, and the updates to our critical illness products and GIOs allow advisers to offer their clients the flexibility to adapt the cover to meet their needs.”
CI Expert director Alan Lakey said: “All of these changes are positive with a strong emphasis on improved customer outcomes and with Consumer Duty in mind too, they’ll be welcomed by advisers and consumers alike.
“Legal & General has shown an increasing appetite in recent years to move away from the low premium approach and mingle with those insurers operating at the quality end of the market.
“Already the leading insurer in terms of sales, this can only increase their share of the market,” he added.