Much is made at present about obtaining the lowest possible premium for life and critical illness with many claims made by competing interests offering the cheapest rates on the market. But, have you ever considered that on almost any basis of comparison, it's already an astonishingly deal?
Up to about 1983 Life Insurance policies in the UK were regarded as a service utility. Life Assurance Companies considered it as not so much a selling line but as a device for family or business protection or tax planning, often for existing customers and not something to be mass marketed as now but as a service. Several things happened in the 1980's to change that. One was that newer Companies looking for profitable business began to see protection business and more particularly, term or temporary life assurance as an ideal vehicle to obtain greater market share. The possibilities were there because although UK life assurance rates were regarded as very competitive as compared to the European or US domestic Insurance industries there was room for improvement especially for companies prepared to look at the market with a fresher perspective. Special rates for life assurance had been available from the 1880's and had been offered by the so-called "Temperance Societies" who recognised that people abstaining from using alcohol and tobacco generally benefited from an increased longevity and consequently were better risks for life insurance. There were only a handful of companies offering such terms and critical illness cover didn't even exist at that time. From about 1982, newer Companies began to enter the market and the concept of "smoker" and "non-smoker" rates began to emerge. Secondly the mortality tables on which life assurance premiums are partly based were becoming more sophisticated. Better statistical methods, greater volumes of information and increasing longevity from improving healthcare showed clearly that there was more scope than previously to lower rates and still stay profitable. So Life Insurers increasingly did just that. Later on, scares about pandemics following the emergence of AIDS caused rates to firm up and some of the more imaginative plans of the time were shelved, however when more information about these problems emerged and it seemed that the fears had been over- exaggerated rates once again began to fall. Versicherung Kassel Umgebung In the midst of these developments came Critical Illness Insurance. Marius Barnard the South African heart surgeon assisted his brother Christian in the first heart transplant operations in the 1960's and is also hailed as the inventor of Critical Illness Insurance. Basically people began to realise that whereas in the past, many critical illness events such as a heart attack or diagnosis of cancer was usually followed by a fatality, due to enormous advances in medicine, it was becoming likely that people would survive such events. A consequence was that they might not trigger a life assurance claim but would possibly not be able to return to work and might need further lifetime care. The field was opening to develop a brand-new type of cover, - critical Illness Cover and with huge technical input and advice from Dr Barnard these new plans proved increasingly popular. Another driver in the progress to the lowering cost of life insurance and critical illness was the employment of information technology by Life Assurance Companies.
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