For our March Protection Forum part one, we brought together advisers and insurers to discuss:
‘Childrens CIC’
Children’s critical illness cover is an essential yet often overlooked aspect of financial protection. In this session, leading industry experts explore the importance of ensuring children are covered, the challenges in the market, and the standout providers making a difference.
The discussion featured insights from advisers Emma Astley (Cover My Bubble) and Karla Edwards (Protection Parent), alongside Bonnie Earl from MetLife. They discuss the benefits of children’s critical illness cover and why more parents should be aware of it, highlighting the flexibility of different providers and how their offerings compare.
The conversation also looks at how standalone options, such as MetLife’s Child Shield, are changing the market and making protection more accessible.
Listen to the first half of the session for expert insights and practical takeaways on protecting children with the right cover:
“Child Shield is the only standalone children’s product on the market, so it is one of a kind. We introduced it because we wanted to give advisers a proposition that was completely unique, but it was built specifically for children.”
“With Child Shield, we really looked at things that could specifically happen to children. One of the key features is that we’ll cover major and minor broken bones. There’s also hospitalisation cover for children.”
“I think this really highlights the way that products like Child Shield can work alongside children’s critical illness. It’s not an either-or—if you have a child with an existing condition, that’s where Child Shield can really help.”
“We keep things very simple. Easy not only for customers to understand, but also for advisers to explain to customers as well.”
Click the audio playback below to listen to the full session.
Full session audio
“I started the Protection Parent because I think that parents deserve to understand how important children’s critical illness is. I was absolutely flabbergasted when I realised that I didn’t even have my children covered when I had three of them and nobody had ever explained it.”
“There was a man who got in touch with me for children’s cover, and in the end, he lost his job and didn’t take out the cover. Three months ago, he called me to say his son had a brain tumour and was going blind. He wished so much he had taken out even just something.”
“MetLife Child Shield, for me, there’s no reason why every child in the UK shouldn’t be protected because they’ve come up with a product that allows you as a parent to protect your child without even needing to be covered yourself.”
“Most of my clients come to me wanting to protect their child. If it’s a choice between just life insurance or a lower payout with some children’s critical illness cover, they’re going to opt for the second option.”
“Like Karla said, there are so many people out there who don’t have a clue that bump cover or children’s cover actually exists. That’s why it’s our job as advisers to be sharing that information and educating them about what’s available.”
“Some insurers need to do better in covering children from birth and not after 30 days. I love the Zurich proposition at the moment, where you can add it on and take it off when the baby’s born, saving costs for clients.”
“We had a client who found out at 20 weeks her daughter had a heart condition. Eighteen months later, her daughter had open-heart surgery with a new diagnosis. At first, the claim was declined, but after proving it wasn’t a pre-existing condition, she received a £30,000 payout.”
“We need to be speaking more about everything else that’s out there because people only see life insurance. I’m always saying there’s more than just life insurance.”
