Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Liverpool Victoria (LV)?

LV started out as a friendly society in 1843, providing ‘penny policies’ to the poorest members of society. Their first president, William Fenton, believed everyone deserved to die with dignity and avoid a pauper’s funeral.

Now, almost two centuries later, LV is one of the UK’s biggest providers in the financial services market, with more than 1.28 million customers.

LV is often recognised for its car insurance, but they also offer protection policies, including Critical Illness.

Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Policy Overview

• Unlimited Maximum Benefit
  LV doesn’t have an upper limit to the amount of Critical Illness cover you have, so you can apply for as much cover as you need
• Combined Policy Only
  With LV, you can’t take out Critical Illness cover on its own; it’s only available when you combine it with a Life Insurance policy
• Cost of Cancer Payment
  If you’re diagnosed with any form of cancer the policy covers, LV pays another £1,000 on top of your benefit amount
• Upgrade for Enhanced Children’s Cover
  With LV’s comprehensive policy, Standard Children’s Cover comes included, but you can upgrade it to Enhanced for extra protection
• Competitive Extra Benefits
  LV offers a great range of additional benefits, such as a remote GP service, physiotherapy, mental health support and more.

What Does Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Cover?

LV offers two different Critical Illness insurance policies:

• Combined Life & Critical Illness
  LV’s core policy covers 39 full payment conditions and 2 additional payment conditions
• Combined Life & Enhanced Critical Illness
  Taking out LV’s upgraded cover protects you against 49 full payment conditions and 39 additional payment conditions. It’s a fully comprehensive policy which offers a great deal more protection.

To make sure our clients end up with policies that are fit for purpose, we only ever recommend Enhanced Cover. The cost difference is minimal, and most clients can benefit from the comprehensive protection.

The main points of LV’s Enhanced Life & Critical Illness policy are detailed in the table below.

It’s quite unusual for Enhanced Children’s Cover to include a benefit for pregnancy complications. However, this gives LV’s customers a great option to increase their protection if they plan to grow their family.

Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Key Policy Factors

The table above shows the key coverage points of LV’s Life & Critical Illness policy. But there are some aspects of the cover that need a closer look.

As we mentioned above, we only tend to offer our clients LV’s Enhanced policy, as their core cover is often unfit for purpose. We’ll explain why below.

Comprehensive Cover

LV’s enhanced policy covers a total of 68 critical conditions, which is made up of 49 full payment conditions and 19 additional payment conditions.

However, one of the additional payment conditions —‘less advanced cancer’—covers 20 different forms of cancer. These include carcinoma in situ of the breast, cervix, larynx, and prostate.

In other words, with the Enhanced policy, you’re actually covered for the equivalent of 86 critical conditions in total.

Cost Of Cancer Payment

If your critical diagnosis is for any form of cancer, LV will pay out an additional £1,000 on top of your claim. This could be a full claim or an additional payment claim. Cancer is the biggest cause of critical illness claims. So, LV has committed to pay out extra funds to support more of their customers.

Enhanced Critical Illness Payments

LV will double your benefit for certain critical illness claims, up to an extra £200,000. With a Core policy, this only covers 9 conditions. But with an Enhanced plan, it applies to 17 illnesses and injuries out of the 48 full payment conditions covered.

As mentioned before, we always recommend upgrading to LV’s Enhanced Critical Illness policy. It means you could receive double your amount of cover in more circumstances, such as:

• Before age 55, you develop Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease, or Parkinson-plus syndromes with permanent symptoms
• You suffer liver failure, develop severe lung disease, or need a major organ transplant
• Or if you develop one of 10 conditions as a direct result of an accident. For example, blindness, deafness, loss of a hand or foot, loss of speech, and six other conditions.

The Enhanced payments are designed to boost your payout for conditions that LV believes will have a significant financial impact on your life.

Free Standard Children’s Cover

LV’s Enhanced cover includes a standard form of Children’s Critical Illness for free when you take out cover for yourself. This pays out a claim if your child suffers one of 85 critical conditions between birth and their 23rd birthday.

There’s no survival period for children’s cover, so after a diagnosis LV will pay out a claim immediately. For a Standard Children’s Cover claim, you’ll receive £25,000, or 50% of your benefit, whichever is lower. You also receive £5,000 if a child passes away between birth and age 23 during the term of the policy.

Upgrade For Enhanced Children’s Cover

If you want your natural, step, or adopted children to have greater protection, you can add Enhanced Children’s Cover for an extra cost.

This builds on the Standard Children’s Cover in a few key ways:

• Children are now covered for a total of 95 conditions
• Claim payments increase to £35,000 or 50% of your cover amount (whichever is lower)
• Enhanced claim payments increase to £70,000 or £100% of your cover amount (whichever is lower)
• The £5,000 funeral payment applies if a child passes away anytime after 24 weeks in utero
• You’re also covered for £5,000 if you suffer one of six pregnancy complications.

This gives all LV’s customers a clear choice based on what’s best for them. If you don’t think you want to become a parent, you may choose to stick with the Standard Child Cover that comes included with your own Enhanced cover. But if you do plan on adding children to your family, you have the option to upgrade to Enhanced Children’s Cover.

Junior Option

If you have a child who’s covered under either Standard or Enhanced Children’s Cover, they can convert that cover into their own policy. Your child will need to do this before they turn 23, and they won’t need to be medically underwritten.

They can have 50% of your cover, up to £25,000 if they’ve had Standard Cover. Or, if you took out Enhanced Children’s Cover, this rises to £35,000. If the child is covered by more than one policy (i.e., each parent has a policy that covers the child), these limits double.

This option only applies where LV hasn’t already paid a critical claim for the child in question.

LV paid 88% of Critical Illness claims in 2022. Cancer was the most common cause, accounting for 56% of all claims.

It’s only with LV’s enhanced policy that you get a great deal more protection against more forms of cancer. This is a common reason why their core cover simply doesn’t meet our clients’ needs.

Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Expert

Increasing Cover Available

If you take out your policy through an advisor, you can have increasing cover. This prevents inflation from eroding the real value of your cover over time. With this option, you can link your policy to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation.

If you do this, your benefit will go up each year in line with the cost of living. Also, to cover the cost of this increased benefit, LV will also increase your premiums by inflation multiplied by 1.5.

Guaranteed Increase Options

LV also offers a Guaranteed Insurability Option known as their Guaranteed Increase Option. This lets you increase your cover without any more medical checks after certain life events.

You can increase your cover by a maximum of 50% of your original benefit. As long as you’re under the age of 54, you can use these options after the following life milestones:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership
• Childbirth or legal adoption of a child
• Any increase in the term or amount of your mortgage
• Rent rises
• Salary rises.

If you want to increase your benefit because of your mortgage going up, there’s a different limit in place. You can increase your cover by either 50% of your cover amount, or the amount your mortgage is increasing by—whichever is lower.

In addition, LV lets you increase your benefit if your rent goes up. This could be because of moving into a more expensive rental property, or your landlord increasing your rent. So, you can increase your cover by the rise in your rent multiplied by the months remaining on your policy, or 50% of your benefit. Again, the lower figure will apply.

Lastly, if your employer increases your basic salary by at least 10%, you can increase your benefit. It can go up by the lower of five times the increase, or 50% of your benefit.

Split A Joint Policy

If you separate from your spouse or partner and have a joint policy with LV, you can split this into two single policies. There’s no age limit that determines when you can or can’t do this, but each partner needs to agree.

Using this option leaves each person with their own individual policy to replace the joint cover. The amount of cover needs to be equal to, or less than, the original benefit. You’ll also need to use this option within 6 months of separating.

Additional Benefits

It’s important to think about the extra features you get with a policy. If you think you’ll make good use of a particular service, it might help you decide on one insurer over another.

LV offers a great range of additional benefits with their Life & Critical Illness policy. We’ve taken a closer look at these in more detail below.

LV Doctors Service

The main benefits come under the LV= Doctor Services package. This gives you access to six types of medical support, either over the phone or via an app:

• Digital GP
  Unlimited consultations with a remote GP, either by phone or video. The appointments are available 24/7, giving you full flexibility
• Private Prescription Services
  A private prescription for any medicine you need, avoiding the need to see your local GP
• Second Medical Opinion
  Video or face-to-face consultations with a UK-based medical specialist to review a diagnosis and discuss treatment options
• Remote Physiotherapy Services
  Up to five free video consultations each year with a physiotherapist. They can diagnose musculoskeletal issues and support your recovery with a bespoke treatment plan
• Remote Mental Health Support
  Up to five free sessions of psychological support and treatment per year. This can be with counsellors or highly trained cognitive behavioural therapists
• Discounted Health MOTs
  A 25% discount on a health MOT from Square Health. This lets you look at 20, 35, or 50 health markers and helps you get ahead of any illnesses.

Also, it’s not just you who gets to use the remote physiotherapy and mental health support. You can share these with your spouse or partner as you see fit.

Member Benefits

When you take out a protection policy with LV, you don’t just become a customer, but a member, too. This gives you access to a range of other member benefits.

Member Support Fund

Once you’ve held your policy for at least 12 continuous months, you can apply for practical or financial support from LV’s Member Support Fund. The fund has paid out one-off payments to members who’ve been unable to work, received a critical diagnosis, and struggled during the pandemic.

Member Discounts

If you have a protection policy and wish to take out a general insurance policy, you’ll receive a discount on what you’d normally pay. General insurance includes things like car, home, and pet insurance.

Legal Advice Line

As a member, you can receive a range of specialist advice from legal experts. It covers topics like property disputes, penalty notices, identity fraud, and more. Your family can also use the legal advice helpline. Also, access extends to your spouse, children, parents, grandparents, or any other family member who lives with you.

Care Navigator

If you or your loved ones need senior care, it can be tricky to navigate the UK care system. Care Navigator provides guidance and support from friendly nurses who can help you find the care you need.

Member Vote

Lastly, if it interests you, you can also make use of your members’ right to vote, having your say in how the business is run.

We’ve seen our clients make great use of LV’s remote GP services, physiotherapy and mental health support. These are particularly helpful for clients who are ill, even if they don’t necessarily have a critical condition.

Bradley Fedarb
Independent Protection Expert

Waiver Of Premium (Additional Cost)

For an extra cost, you can include Waiver of Premium cover in your policy. If you’re unable to work due to ill health, this add-on policy from LV will waive your monthly premiums for you. There’s a standard waiting period of six months, so the premium waiver will kick in if you’re still off sick after that.

Total Permanent Disability (Additional Cost)

With LV, you can usually opt to include or exclude Total Permanent Disability cover for an extra cost. This pays out your full benefit if you become completely and irreversibly disabled.

There are two definitions that could apply to Total Permanent Disability cover:

• Own Occupation
  You’ll be considered totally and permanently disabled if you’re unable to perform your own job role ever again.
• Work Tasks
  This definition applies if you’re unable to do three of six work tasks independently. These include walking, climbing a flight of stairs, lifting, bending, writing, and getting in and out of a car.

If you decide to include total permanent disability cover, LV will provide your definition in your policy documents.

How Does Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Compare?

To help you decide whether LV might be the right provider for you, we’ve highlighted some of the key comparison points for you to consider.

Unlimited Benefit

LV has no limit to the amount of Life & Critical Illness cover you can have. Many other providers do, and while limits like £3 million will be enough for most of us, those who do want more cover can apply for it with LV.

Minimum Entry Age Of 17

With most other insurers, you have to be 18 to apply. But with LV, you can take out a policy from the age of 17. Since premiums are hugely impacted by age, the younger you are when you apply, the cheaper your premiums will be. This makes LV a great option for younger people who want cover.

Enhanced Critical Illness Payouts

As we mentioned above, LV enhances your benefit for certain conditions at no extra cost. They’ll pay out twice your benefit (up to an extra £200,000) if you develop one of 17 conditions under certain circumstances.

Many other providers offer aspects of enhanced cover when you upgrade your policy. But 17 enhanced payment conditions is the highest number offered by any provider on the market.

14-Day Survival Period

All insurance providers impose a survival period for Critical Illness Insurance. This is the length of time you need to survive after your diagnosis. LV’s survival period is 14 days. There are insurers that have only a 10 day survival period.

Competitive Children’s Cover

Whether you decide to stick with Standard Children’s Cover, or upgrade it to Enhanced Children’s Cover, your children get a good amount of protection.

For instance, LV covers children from birth (or 24 weeks’ pregnancy for Enhanced Cover). Many other providers start cover from 30 days old. Similarly, LV covers your children up to age 23. But with other insurers, cover often stops at 18, or at age 21 if your children are in full-time education.

LV also provides a Junior Option, where children under a parent’s policy can convert their cover to a policy of their own. There aren’t many other insurers who offer this option.

Waiver Of Premium Not Standard

There are some insurers that provide Waiver of Premium cover as standard. But LV is not one of them, so it’ll cost you a bit extra to include a premium waiver.

Optional Total Permanent Disability Cover

Total Permanent Disability is included in all Critical Illness policies. It’s just a matter of whether it’s included as a standard condition, or whether it’ll cost you extra.

Total Permanent Disability (TPD) is an optional add-on to LV’s Critical Illness policy. As such, it’ll cost you extra to include it. But there are other providers which include it as standard.

Core Policy Available

Like many other providers, LV does offer a cheaper policy that provides standard critical cover. If you’re interested in finding out more, you can take a look at the Key Facts and Policy Conditions.

However, as we mentioned before, we don’t recommend basic coverage to our clients. In most cases, it doesn’t meet people’s coverage needs, and only saves you a few extra pounds per month.

Great Additional Benefits Package

LV= Doctors Services is a great additional benefits package that comes free with their Life and Critical Illness Insurance.

Many other providers don’t include services like physiotherapy or mental health support. These tend to be more common with Income Protection, but LV provides them to Life & Critical Illness policyholders.

It’s often said prevention is better than a cure. And LV’s benefits provide a great package to manage your health and wellbeing.

In fact, musculoskeletal issues and mental health issues are the most common cause of absences from work. Benefits like these which help you maintain a healthy lifestyle can help prevent your health—and earnings—from taking a knock in the future.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert

How Much Does Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Cost?

Critical Illness Insurance is known to be a more expensive kind of protection. This is because we’re all more likely to become critically ill at some point during our lives than we are to die young.

We know that costs and budget are important to our clients. So, to give you an idea of cost, we’ve gained some examples below. These are based on a person of various ages, who:

• Wants £250,000 of decreasing cover to link to their mortgage
• Needs a policy term of 25 years
• Is in a low risk, office-based role
• Has no pre-existing conditions
• Does not smoke.

Because the risks of illness increase with age, so do the costs. But these are just examples. The cost of your own cover will be based on your circumstances, such as your age, medical history, and lifestyle.

If you’re looking for cover, don’t wait to apply. The application and underwriting process can take a while. And if you pass a birthday during that time, your premium rates will increase by the time your policy starts.

It’s always best to speak to an expert to get your cover in place. If we can help you, pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk

Alex Wier
Independent Protection Expert

Compare Liverpool Victoria Critical Illness Insurance Quotes & Get Expert Advice

Taking out a Critical Illness policy can be a complicated task. In fact, many of our clients feel concerned about covering a particular condition, or have specific needs the policy should meet. And it can be tricky to find the policy with the best coverage.

On top of that, it takes time to compare all the different Critical Illness policies out there. Every insurer has its own approach to risk and different definitions of critical conditions. So, having an expert on your side can help ensure you’re getting the best coverage possible.

We’re a completely independent and impartial consultancy. In other words, we’ll compare quotes across the whole of the market. And our friendly team will make an expert recommendation specifically for your needs.

Why Speak to Us?

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are an award winning 🏆 independent insurance broker who works with all the leading UK insurers
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
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• Claims support when you need it most.
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To speak to a friendly member of our team, pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.