Critical illness cover? Let's kill it off

clock • 3 min read

Ian Sawyer, managing director of Assured Futures, puts forward some controversial views on the relevance of critical illness cover compared to income protection.

I'm not a lone voice on this. It's an opinion shared pretty much unanimously with my colleagues and many peers. In my view, Critical Illness (CI) cover should be marginalised or even removed as a product because it gets in the way of Income Protection (IP), which is a far more superior product in terms of suitability and customer needs. Yet all too often IP takes a back seat, especially in the mortgage industry. If the IP market is ever going to achieve the widespread and sustainable growth it deserves, we need a radical rethink about both the relevance of CI and the way in which I...

To continue reading this article...

Join COVER for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, key trend analysis and industry insights.
  • Stay on top of the latest developments around health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion and the cost of living crisis.
  • Receive breaking news stories straight to your inbox in the daily newsletter.
  • Members only access to monthly programme 'The COVER Review'
  • Be the first to hear about our CPD accredited events and awards programmes.

Join now

 

Already a Cover member?

Login

More on Critical Illness

A wake-up call: Cancer prevalence and protection

A wake-up call: Cancer prevalence and protection

“We can no longer walk away from this conversation”

Cameron Roberts
clock 12 March 2026 • 5 min read
CIExpert adds Guardian to Children's CI Customiser Tool

CIExpert adds Guardian to Children's CI Customiser Tool

Cover amount between £10,000 and £100,000

Jaskeet Briah
clock 27 January 2026 • 2 min read
Total & Permanent Disability – what's the real story?

Total & Permanent Disability – what's the real story?

Analysing claims data

Phil Cleverley and David Ferguson
clock 04 November 2025 • 4 min read