Critical Illness Cover

Critical Illness Cover can be added to your Life Insurance and means that, if you suffer from one of the conditions specified in your policy, you will receive a lump sum payment. Adding Critical Illness cover to your Life Insurance policy helps to ease the burden on your family at a difficult time.

If Critical Illness cover is added to your policy we’ll pay the owner of your policy a tax-free lump sum payment if one of the twenty four conditions covered under the policy are diagnosed.

Cancer diagnosis are the most common reason we pay Critical Illness claims, but you’ll also be covered in the event of a heart attack, stroke and many other conditions.

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The Basics

Getting covered

You can apply for Critical Illness at the same time that you apply for life insurance.
If you are aged 20 to 59 and living in NZ, Australia, USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong or Singapore you can apply.
All of our policies have a 30 day free look period, so you can buy with confidence

Once your policy is in place

If you get married, divorced, take out a mortgage or become a parent, you may be able to increase your cover by up to 50% with no medical questions asked. We understand that life changes!
You can decrease your Critical Illness cover or remove it from your Life Insurance policy at any time without penalty.
Your payments will increase each year as you get older.
When you turn 70 your cover will cease.

When you need to claim on your policy

You will get a cash lump-sum payment, depending on the amount you cover you’ve selected of up to $625,000.
Your level of Life Insurance cover will reduce by the amount of the lump sum.
Your claim will be paid in New Zealand Dollars anywhere in the world, to the person who owns the policy.
Your policy will be reinsured by Hannover Life Re, one of the largest reinsurers of life insurance in the world.

What else?

If you don’t apply for Critical Illness at the same time as your Life Insurance, you may have the option of adding Serious Illness cover to your policy later. Serious Illness will cover you for the four main reasons that people claim on their Critical Illness cover. (Critical Illness covers you for 24 different conditions.)

Critical Illness and Serious Illness are also known as Trauma Cover. Every company has a different version of trauma cover, read what’s covered by each of our policies in the links below.

Pinnacle Life - What's Critical Illness Cover?

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FAQs

How can I pay?

You can pay your Pinnacle Life premiums monthly, six-monthly or yearly. We prefer it if you pay by direct debit, however we also accept internet banking/automatic payment, cheque (for six monthly or annual premiums only), or credit card. When paying via credit card, a charge of 3.95% is added to your premiums.

We do not accept weekly or fortnightly payments.

What are your age limits?

We offer life insurance cover to people aged between 18 and 75. You can apply online if you are aged 20 to 69, otherwise you’ll need to contact our office. For funeral cover you need to be aged 50 to 75 and live in NZ.

For income protection, we offer cover to people aged between 20 and 59 who are living and working in NZ.

Why do I need critical illness cover?

If you are diagnosed with a critical illness this cover will pay you a tax free lump sum.Others have used it to pay bills while they aren’t able to work, help fund their treatment, get some extra help at home. It helps make your life easier while you are dealing with an illness.

Critical Illness covers you if you are diagnosed with any one of 24 different conditions. We also offer serious illness which covers you if in the event you are diagnosed with one of four conditions.