morning everyone
does anyone have any recommendations/thoughts?
Our “old” joint life insurance policy with Legal & General was coming to an end back about 3 or 4 years ago which had run for 25 years and way before I had MS, the cost was around £17 per month for £75,000 of cover, if I recall correctly.
I cant remember exactly how this happened, but I was put in touch with a broker via this site who then done a search for a new policy and came back with quotes from Aviva and some other companies.
For some reason I didnt ask my old company, Legal & General for a new quote, I cant remember why , but probably should of before “shopping around” .
Anyway the broker could get us cover, but the costs were stupidly high, apparently due to me having the MS, which I obviously didnt really question at the time as I thought it would make a difference.
After some communication with the broker, that went on for a good couple of months he still said he couldn’t get a reasonable quote, so I took it upon myself to speak to Aviva directly, I went through my medical history, had a medical done, paid for by Aviva, within a month was offered a joint policy at £33 per month for £50,000 of cover, which suited as our mortgage is finished anyway.
Apparently the MS wasn’t the main issue at all, it was my high blood pressure that was the issue, and Aviva just wanted confirmation of my medication from my GP and carry out a simple medical.
The broker never once said that my blood pressure was the issue, he just made out that the MS was the reason for the very high quotes !!
I remember reading some of the paperwork that I was receiving at the time from this broker and he was getting around ÂŁ1000 commission if a policy was taken via him.
My advice, ring up the insurance companies yourself, because having one of these so called “specialist brokers” isn’t always the best option.
MS is not regarded as a life threatening illness, insurance companies are more concerned with things like high blood pressure or if you smoke ect, but sometimes these specialist brokers tend to make out that they have to work their nuts off to get you a policy because of the MS, when in reality the MS is far lower down the list of concerns in regards to life insurance.
It’s far easier to find insurance yourself most of the time.
One thing I do recall is that the MS did stop me getting Critical Illness cover, which is fairly obvious really, because as the MS progresses theres a higher chance of making claim against the Critical Illness side of the policy, but I was more than happy just to get life cover at what I think is a fair price, bearing in mind it’s a joint policy, the high blood pressure, our ages and the MS.
yes, there’s a difference between Life Insurance and Critical Illness Cover. A friend could not get either cover because he’s under a neuro (not for m.s.)
Thanks for this knowledge. I also did not know about this difference.
Thats correct, hence the reason why it’s hard, and dare I say probably impossible or very very expensive to get Critical Illness cover when you’ve already been diagnosed with an illness such as MS.
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