RBIG Financial Services Critical Illness Insurance Solutions

The adage goes that you should expect the unexpected. Of course, by definition, that's not possible. But what you can do is prepare for what might happen, such as being diagnosed with a serious illness or suffering a serious injury.

Critical illness insurance is designed for just such unexpected and unfortunate scenarios.

Offered either as a personal cover or an employee benefit, it can throw an invaluable financial lifeline to a policyholder, at a time when their income may disrupted or been halted. 

Following diagnosis of a range of defined illnesses - including cancer, cardiac complaints and strokes - it pays out a tax-free lump sum to help the insured and their loved ones through a difficult time. 

Those sums can be significant. Data published by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Group Risk Development (GRiD) shows that in 2019 the average payout across both individual and group critical illness insurance was over £67,500.

With our extensive experience RBIG Financial Services are ideally placed to advise you of a solution appropriate to your circumstances.

We are equipped to do this whether you're looking to protect yourself or, through introduction of group critical illness at your business, your employees.

Group Critical Illness schemes

Group schemes follow the model of individual critical illness schemes in providing a tax-free benefit on diagnosis of an insured condition.

Here though, cover is offered to employees through membership of a company scheme. This structure can offer benefits not just to the employee, but the employer. 

By signalling you care about the well-being of your staff, provision of a group critical illness scheme could help enhance staff retention. By furbishing your employer brand, it may also help entice the most talented recruits.

Simple and cost-efficient

It can be simple and cost-efficient to introduce. Many schemes do not require submission of medical histories as pre-existing conditions  are automatically excluded, so the required paperwork and executive time is minimal. The "bulk buy" nature of group schemes also means the cost per insured will usually be lower than individual critical illness premiums.

In addition its provision can  be business tax friendly. Typically group critical illness premiums are classed as a business expense. This means that, if structured correctly, you can claim tax relief. Our highly experienced advisors would be pleased to discuss the most beneficial options available to your business.

Another point for discussion, would be the level of benefit you would wish to offer.

Typically group policies offer a tax-free lump sum to five times an employees' salary, capped at £500,000. However, working with specialist group risk insurers, we can offer much greater flexibility. This gives you greater control over the size of both benefit and premium.

You may also wish to consider including group critical illness insurance within a wider employee benefits package. Such a package might include private medical insurance, group life assurance (death-in-service),  income protection, a group pension scheme or other benefits.