Standard life cover policies only pay out when a customer can prove they have less than 12 months to live, a prediction that can be difficult for doctors to make.

Our Life Protection is different. We don’t need proof someone has less than 12 months to live before paying out. We pay out on diagnosis of incurable stage 4 cancer, regardless of life expectancy.

We do the same for motor neurone disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and Parkinson-plus syndromes.

In 2025, 34% of the terminal illness claims we paid wouldn’t have met the industry standard definition.

Source: All claims with a decision made between 1 January and 31 December 2025.

Greater certainty with our own job definition.

Our Income Protection uses an own job definition, meaning we assess claims against the policyholder’s exact role and responsibilities, not just their wider occupation.

If they can’t do their specific job, we’ll pay, without expecting them to switch to another role in the same profession. This provides greater certainty at claim time and helps us pay quickly and continue payments until they can return to their own job.

When providers improve their critical illness cover, those benefits are often only available to new customers. We believe existing customers should be treated as well as new ones.

That’s why we offer a cover upgrade promise. If we improve our Critical Illness Protection definitions for new policyholders, we’ll automatically make those improvements available to existing customers.

This means they can claim under the definitions in their existing policy terms and conditions, or any improved definitions we introduce later.

Dual life vs joint life.

Our dual life approach still only requires a single quote, application and direct debit, however, as this example shows, clients get twice the amount of cover for just a small extra cost:

A confirmation from a UK consultant is all we need for a payout.

We cover all malignant cancers, including all malignant skin cancers. Here’s 2 examples of 
where we stand out:

Prostate cancer

• Additional payout if the patient is placed under observation.
• We pay 50% of the cover amount (up to £50,000) for a Gleason score of 2–6 when the patient is monitored rather than treated.
• If the cancer progresses to a Gleason score of 7+, we then pay the full cover amount.

Malignant skin cancer

• 10% of the cover amount (up to £50,000) for a low-risk diagnosis.
• 50% of the cover amount (up to £50,000) for high-risk non-melanoma skin cancers.
• If the cancer later progresses to meet the full definition, we pay the full cover amount.

Confirmation from a UK Consultant is all we need to pay out.

If a UK Consultant confirms that there is death of the heart muscle due to inadequate blood supply, which has resulted in a heart attack, we pay out.

A simple and fast claims assessment.

With a Guardian policy, if symptoms have lasted for more than 24 hours and a UK Consultant Neurologist says it’s a stroke, we pay out.

No need to have symptoms at point of claim.

There’s no guarantee a person will have symptoms when they’re first diagnosed, as they come and go – especially in the early stages.

That’s why we pay out if a UK Consultant Neurologist says there ‘has been’ an impairment due to multiple sclerosis – even if the symptoms are not apparent when they make the claim.

If we offer someone cover, they automatically get waiver.

Premium Waiver comes as standard with our Life Essentials, regardless of age, occupation, or activities. If the policyholder becomes too ill to work, we waive their premiums after 26 weeks.

If we offer someone cover, they automatically get waiver.

Premium Waiver comes as standard across our PROTECTION range, regardless of age, occupation or activities.

For Life Protection, Critical Illness Protection, Combined Life and Critical Illness Protection and Income Protection, we not only waive premiums after 28 days if they’re too ill to work, but after 12 months, we also waive them for up to 6 months for maternity/paternity leave or if they involuntarily lose their job.

For Income Protection, we’ll begin waiving premiums after 28 days of a customer being unable to work, even if they haven’t yet experienced a loss of income, regardless of their chosen deferred period.