For our March Protection Forum part two, we brought together advisers and insurers to discuss:
‘Childrens CIC’
Children’s critical illness cover is a crucial but frequently underestimated part of financial protection. In this session, top industry experts discuss why coverage for children matters, the key challenges in the market, and the providers leading the way with innovative solutions.
The discussion featured insights from advisers Emma Astley (Cover My Bubble) and Karla Edwards (Protection Parent), alongside Bonnie Earl from MetLife. Similarly to part one, 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.
Listen to the second half of the session for expert insights and practical takeaways on protecting children with the right cover:
“I think this really highlights also the way that products like Child Sheild can work alongside children’s critical illness. It’s not an either-or… it really is about knowing all of the different options available and how they can actually work alongside each other.”
“Child Shield is the only stand-alone 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 built specifically for children.”
“With Child Shield… we looked at things that could specifically happen to children… one of the key features is that we’ll cover major and minor broken bones, and there’s also hospitalisation cover for children.”
“There is no medical underwriting on children’s cover. So this is a huge benefit for children with existing conditions. It means that we can still cover them.”
Click the audio playback below to listen to the full session.
Full session audio
“Most of my clients only come to me for wanting to protect their child. So if it’s a choice of do you want just life insurance… or do you want £100,000 pay out with some child’s critical illness, they’re going to opt for the second option.”
“Just to add one thing… When you’ve got a client who already has children and they are wanting to change their policy to add on pregnancy cover because they’re having more children, always be mindful to check if their current child has any conditions.”
“The amazing thing with Guardian is it covers stage 4 cancer, so if you’ve got a client who’s really anxious about cancer, Guardian would be an amazing fit.”
“If I have a client who comes to me and they have no cover… It’s my job to educate them and say: ‘If you plan on having children, before you even think about when you’re ovulating, you need to speak to me so I can sort you out.’”
“For every provider who has children’s critical illness as an add-on, every provider should just do that as standard. That would be my first go-to, so every client has the best chance of getting their children covered.”
“Yes, we are both focused on families. But we first focus on pre-underwriting the adult… then it’s an easy conversation to talk about bump cover, children’s cover, child shield.”
“If a child is diagnosed early with a heart condition, that would be excluded from any critical illness plan… But if they are later diagnosed with a secondary heart condition, that would hopefully be covered on the policy.”
“I had a client who found out at 20 weeks their daughter had a heart condition. 18 months later, she had open-heart surgery with a second diagnosis… We put a claim in, and after a challenge, that family received £30,000.”
“The Child Shield policy is unique because you can have cover with any pre-existing condition. You just have 12 months of that waiting period, but after that, you can claim.”
“Some insurers need to do better, covering children from birth and not the 30 days. That’s why I love Zurich’s proposition, where you can add it on and take it off once the baby’s born.”
