Critical illness insurance is designed to cover a specified range of critical illnesses and will pay out a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a serious illness during the policy term. It is not designed to replace lost income; a separate type of insurance, Income Protection is tailored to meet this need.

It is important to seek guidance when looking at critical illness insurance as policy conditions, illness definitions and survival conditions vary considerably from company to company.

Critical illness insurance provides financial assistance to help you cope with the impact of surviving a serious illness. The payout can be used to repay or reduce a mortgage or other financial commitments or provide funds to assist with recovery or purchase special equipment.

A serious or critical illness is one which is regarded by the medical profession as life threatening and examples are heart attack, stroke, cancer, major organ transplant, kidney failure. You should check the details of any policy for the exact list of conditions covered.