Should you become critically ill, it could affect your future cover, but all existing cover remains in place and at the same premium. Here’s what you need to know about cover after an illness.

What happens to your critical illness cover after you’ve received a diagnosis? We look into why it’s crucial to have this cover in place.

When faced with the reality of a life-threatening illness, most people are motivated to do a full review of their existing risk cover to ensure that it’s sufficient to provide for them and their families. It’s important to understand how the diagnosis of even an early-stage illness can affect your cover.

If you already have cover in place, whether it’s for death, disability or critical illness, your premiums and cover will continue unchanged irrespective of how your health has changed over time. This is the main advantage of taking out cover while you’re still young and healthy.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a critical illness and now wish to increase any of your risk covers (death, disability, critical illness or income protection), it would be considered new business from an underwriting perspective and would be subject to medical underwriting, unless you have an option to exercise an underwriting-free conversion.

The cover you’d qualify for, and at what rate, would be determined by the severity of the illness. For example, a pre-stage-one breast cancer diagnosis where the tumour was completely removed may carry a lower risk rating than someone who was diagnosed with stage-three cancer. The time elapsed since the diagnosis would also influence the underwriting decisions. For example, a 40-year-old man who had stage-three testicular cancer in his early 20s may pose a very low risk in terms of underwriting.

The severity and time elapsed would determine whether full cover would be granted with a premium loading, whether the illness is excluded from the cover, or whether the cover is declined altogether.

It’s important to note that the original policy would not be affected unless the client chose to cancel. In the case of critical illness cover, even if a client has claimed from the policy, the premiums remain unchanged and benefits would be payable again for a different illness, provided this second illness is completely unrelated to the first. Where a particular event pays out different proportions of the sum insured for different levels of severity of the illness, multiple payments might be possible for the same illness if the condition deteriorates over time.

Time for something fresh!

Read more about our new offering that provides a wider range of investors access to Liberty's iconic properties.

Click here for more information.

As the industry adjusts to the changes brought by the Retail Distribution Review, it’s important for financial services consumers to understand their rights and the implications of paying for advice.

The ability to tell the facts from the fiction when it comes to health myths can make all the difference when it comes to treatment. We look at three common cancer myths and give you the facts.

Liberty’s new property portfolio offers customers the unique opportunity to invest at a discount. We delve into the details of the portfolio and answer some of your most frequently asked questions.

Although you may have taken out a policy or investment plan in your 20s, your 30s are really when you start to focus on a holistic financial strategy. Palesa Tlholoe shares the questions you need to be asking.

Got a question? We're here for you!

Thank you for the feedback we have received on these newsletters so far. Your comments and suggestions will help us to give you relevant information for planning and managing your finances. Please keep talking to us and telling us what you think by contacting us via the channels below.