The policies do not include all the enhanced features available with Guardian’s critical illness protection and have simplified terms and conditions to make it easier for clients to understand.
The covers have been developed in collaboration with advisers, where demand for lower-cost options were identified.
They are available on UnderwriteMe’s The Protection Platform, Ipipeline’s SolutionBuilder and comparison service, Iress’ The Exchange and Novium.
They’re also available to compare on CIExpert, Protection Guru and Defaqto.
The policies have four additional payout conditions for early-stage cancer, which Guardian said was compared to the industry standard of two payout conditions on core policies.
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The insurer also includes its dual life approach on these covers, where a premium waiver is included as standard for clients who apply before the age of 65 and pays out after a 26-week deferred period if the client is unable to work due to illness or injury.
The dual life cover ensures that both parties in a policy’s cover are kept separate.
The built-in children’s cover gives clients the ability to add optional children’s critical illness protection for additional cover.
Improvements to documents and policies
Further to the two newly launched covers, Guardian has improved its policy terms and conditions to help with understanding.
It has split its policy term and conditions and key facts into eight version for each type of cover. This will replace the single document containing all covers, meaning policyholders will receive information relevant to their policy.
Additionally, the insurer has reduced the ‘survival period’ on critical illness protection and children’s critical illness protection from 14 days to 10 days for new policyholders.
This means policyholders must survive for a shorter period after being diagnosed with a critical illness to be eligible for a payout, aligning with Guardian’s new critical illness essentials.
Life protection and combined life and critical illness protection have been updated to no claim will be paid if death is due to suicide or intentional self-inflicted injury within the first 12 months of the policy for new policyholders. This is the same for life essentials and combined life, and critical illness essentials.
Small wording changes have been made to seven definitions across critical illness protection, combined life and critical illness protection, and children’s critical illness protection, so what is covered is described more clearly.
All existing policyholders will benefit from improved definitions at no extra cost.
Quality critical illness cover at an accessible price
Hilary Banks, chief commercial officer at Guardian, said: “Often, lower-cost cover means cutting corners on quality or service. We didn’t think that was good enough.
“By working with advisers to design our new covers and listening to what they and their clients need, we’ve built critical illness essentials to deliver quality cover with the fast, dependable support that Guardian is known for, at a more accessible price point.”
Alan Lakey, founder and director at CIExpert, said: “Guardian continues to invigorate the critical illness market with its new critical illness essentials plan. It’s designed for the discerning client who is unable to afford fully comprehensive cover but still aspires to high-quality coverage. The inclusion of 34 conditions that pay out in full, plus four additional payment conditions for less advanced cancer of the breast, prostate, ovary and testicles, makes it stand out in the market.
“The additional payment conditions pay the lower of £30,000 or 30% of the sum insured, and advisers should note that there are nine conditions [that] pay out if added to the NHS waiting list for surgical treatment.”
Chloe Davies, head of protection distribution at L&C Mortgages, said: “It’s been a real pleasure to get to work alongside Guardian to help shape what we then take out to clients. This sort of collaboration is what’s needed in our market to help more people access the level of protection they need. It’s great to see a provider genuinely listening to advisers and acting on it.
“The new split policy terms and conditions are just another way Guardian is going above and beyond to make life easier not only for us, but for our clients too. This, combined with what we know is a stellar service and fast underwriting, is exactly the kind of product we’ve been asking for.”
