I think the time has come for me to consider making a claim on my life insurance. I’d like to spend whatever time I’ve got left with my family not worrying about work, etc and it would be one way I could ensure financial security. So, I was wondering if anyone else has done this, how easy it was and how long the process took, etc. Of course, I’m hoping I have more than 12 months but I can’t be certain and it’s very difficult to estimate prognosis these days anyway with all the new drugs that prolong life. How do the insurance companies determine your life expectancy. I’ve been given a DS1500 form from my doctor but I don’t think for a minute the prognosis is less than 6 months so is it a similar thing with the insurance companies? Any help would be gratefully received.
I am not quite sure what you mean about claiming on your life insurance. I thought that life insurance only paid out on death. I wonder if you mean critical illness policy - I claimed successfully on this when I was first diagnosed. Sorry if ;ve got the wrong end of the stick here.
I have just taken out a new life ins policy (after critical illness payout 3 years ago for primary bc). The policy states that it will pay out on death or terminal illness.
Wow, I did not know you could get another Life Insurance policy again that paid out on terminal illness. Would you mind if I asked which insurance company you are with? I was told by several companies that I could only now be insured for death.
I am only insured for death and can never get critical illness again. But if its terminal, they will pay out before actual death. I do pay increased premiums for first 6 years, and couldnt start policy until 2 years from end of treatment. Its with The Insurance Surgery, as specialist co.
Terminal illness and critical illness are two different things. CI is an illness whereby you are expected to live but it will have a serious effect on your ability to work and undertake normal everyday activities. They are things like heart attack, cancer and strokes and were designed as a result of a request from Dr Christian Barnard, the heart surgeon. He was saving lots of his patients but they were suffering financial hardship as a result of being unable to work for many months etc.
Terminal illness is where your Doctor expects you to die within 12 months. However, as the OP has said, that isn’t a precise science!
All you can do is submit a claim, the company will ask for reports from your specialist and then give a yay or a nay! It was designed to enable you to enjoy the remainder of your life, put your financial affairs in order etc etc.
Interesting. I am stage 4 and 31 yrs old. I hope to live for many years but who knows! If we could make a claim for terminal illness on our life insurance policy it would make things so much easier for us financially…
How can they prove how long I will live if the disease is terminal…? Any thoughts? Have any stage 4 ladies successfully claimed for terminal illness?
Thanks. I live in a different town from my parents and my dream has always been to move back to my home town but it has been impossible financially … So if we successfully claimed I would be able to move home!!
Well I wish you the best of luck. I am a “resting” Independent financial adviser as I care for my parents currently but been in the industry since 1994. If you have any questions feel free to PM me, if I can help I will.
This is all incredibly helpful. I am going to see if i can get cover that pays out in the event of a terminal diagnosis. Hopefully I will never need it, but well…
Hi all, Thanks for all your replies, As has all ready been discussed, yes it was life insurance I was talking about not critical illness cover. I think it’s pretty standard that most life insurance policies have a clause which will pay out the full amount if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, it just boils down to how they decide if you are classed as terminally ill. Kate, I am also hoping I’ve got years left but I could be being optimistic. I guess the only thing to do is claim and see what happens. Except, one thing I was concerned about is if I tell them I’m terminally ill could they cancel the policy or try to charge me more for it?
No they cannot cancel it if it is a normal term assurance policy and no the premiums cannot be loaded after inception. It is written and issued based on your health at outset not what happens subsequently. Beware though some ultra cheap policies do not have TI.
I’ve just rung my insurance company and it looks like a no go which is disappointing. You have to be explicitly told you have less than 12 months to live which is a bit problematic given that no one knows how long someone has left, not even the doctors, and do I really want to go and ask my onc to tell me if I’ve got less than 12 months. Even if it was true I’d rather not know.
We have life cover where the company ‘threw’ in terminal illness cover, i think the best you can hope is they will try every trick in the book to not pay out and say ‘it’s written very specifically’ (to never pay out i bet).
Your company’s ‘claims team’ seem to have made a very quick assumption between your first post and todays update ?.
After an ititial phone call our company wriggled and didn’t want to send a claim form out, the 2nd time we persisted and they sent out the claim form bedgrugingly, which has now gone back. We’ll leave it to see what the oncy decided to put on the form, the local gp has said they will wriggle like hell and we expect it to not pay out while we can make best use.
It’s good though isn’t it, in huge letters on the 1st page life cover & payout on diagnosis of a terminal illness then on the last page if you hold a strong magnifying glass over the full stop at the end you may just see the terms and exclusions, there are dozens of years years left on the policy, personally we would rather not even have the money one bit but a healthy long term future.
In the meantime we would prefer the money now to make things a lot easier with a proviso that if the policyholder is still going strong at policy end they pay it back with interest. We’d love to be in that position but i don’t suppose pigs will ever fly.
Pity we cancelled a different critical illness policy a few years ago worth twice as much, but we’d much rather have no ‘scam’ policies just a long healthy life ahead.
Always a dilemma but you don’t have to see the Consultant’s report. You can get the claim form, do your bits on it and then they usually request information from your Consultant direct.
If they have done you the special form, erm, a 1500 something is it for DLA, then you might find the Consultant’s answers are in your favour. But as you rightly say, who knows what time we all have left? It is only “best guess” based on the info they have available to them. It doesn’t mean you won’t be here in 12 months’ time and I sincerely hope you are all here for many years.
Sigh, this is always a very tricky one isn’t it but do have a think about it bearing the above in mind.
This is a really interesting thread! Two years ago I claimed a very nice sum on my critical illness cover but I had no idea there was a company out there willing to take on sufferers for new life insurance cover…hopefully only to be used in the distant future.Just phoned the Insurance Surgery and they were most helpful:)
Hmmm, Lands, it’s interesting that you had to ask twice. Maybe I’ll try again then. The women on the claims line just asked me if I’d been given a prognosis of less than 12 month and I said no. Maybe I should just say yes or maybe I could say I’d rather not discuss on the phone and could they just send me the form. The fact is they will have to pay out in the end anyway. Unfortunately that is a reality I’ve had to face, it would mean so much to me in terms of ensuring financial security if I could have the money now.
Give it a go Crawfo, tell them that your Consultant has signed a DLA 1500 form and that you would like a claim form for your TI cover. Nothing ventured and all that…!