Growth of Critical Illness Cover in Canada

Likewise to the USA and the UK, the process of integration of critical illness cover in the Canadian market had been slow. But the Canadian life industry expects to see critical illness insurance be as successful as in the UK during the coming years. Let’s have a look at how critical illness cover developed in Canada.

The agency field force could be held responsible for promoting critical illness cover sales in Canada. The agency field force may also consist of agents, brokers and associates. The popularity of group critical illness cover or employer sponsored critical illness cover may be increasing in Canada. Thus, individual critical illness covers may be left behind during the process. Also, the worksite marketing may have also accounted for some critical illness cover sales in Canada. As the term critical illness cover may become more familiar to Canadians, insurance companies believe that sales could be made by direct response programmes in the future. Besides, the internet may also act as a powerful means to attract potential consumers due to the growing maturity of the Canadian insurance industry.

Munich Re, 2000 may affirm that critical illness cover sales in Canada may not have depended on specific people of specific sex and age groups. Therefore, policyholders may range from young to old, men to women and small business owners to professionals. However, one trend had been noticed. More critical illness cover sales may stem from people who are high earners. One possible explanation to this fact could be that critical illness policies may be relatively expensive, thus hardly affordable by low earners. The high price tag of critical illness policies may be due to the fact that the policies may last for a lifetime. Further reports may also reveal that critical illness policies may have more women buyers than men. Around 40 percent of women may possess a critical illness cover as most business owners could be women in Canada.

Furthermore, standalone critical illness policy may have been the first plan initially introduced in Canada. Soon, the combination of critical illness cover to disability and life insurance made way. Nowadays, insurers may be aiming at providing a critical illness cover which can compete effectively by providing more benefits to consumers. Some had chosen to accelerate the death benefit of a life policy upon diagnosis of a critical illness. Other companies might also be moving towards giving limited critical illness coverage on a guaranteed issue basis. Another option added on critical illness cover may have been the ROP (Return of Premium). With critical illness policies holding this option, it could be made clear that the advantage with that policy could be significant.

Some companies had the ROP automatically added to their policies as a rider benefit. Meanwhile, other companies may refund the premiums if the policyholder did not encounter any critical illness until the end of the policy. Other firms may also provide their customers with the ROP on lapse benefit which may have refunded the premiums once the critical illness policy had been ceased. Some people view this option as misleading as companies may be in fact encouraging their policyholders to terminate their policy ahead of time.

Critical illness cover in Canada appears to be on the same path as in the UK. As sales may be relatively lower than that in the UK, critical illness cover in Canada is yet to completely bourgeon.