Planning layers
Protect
CI is a living / accelerated benefit: cash while alive on specified illness, terminal illness (e.g. roughly ≤12 months prognosis) or listed procedures. It usually replaces income and flexible costs—not medical indemnity. Markets offer acceleration-of-death vs standalone CI shells; ask cash purpose before product names.
Public shelves list medical beside CI: bills vs cash. Mixing them leads to the wrong tool in hospital. Read waiting periods (often ~90 days), shared sums across illnesses/multi-pay, recurrence rules, and—if accelerating death benefit—beneficiary release effects on residual life cover.
Material non-disclosure is not excused by later “no causal link”: facts like sleep apnea or alcohol history can resurface at CI claim time. This site states principles only; plan definitions follow the policy and licensed advice—see /articles/ci-cash-vs-medical-bills.
Key questions to ask
- Does the sum cover family duties and key loans—not just “peace of mind”?
- How do definitions, early CI and multi-pay clauses differ?
- Overlap with company group or Mainland CI cover?
- How do waiting periods, survival periods and waiver of premium affect usability?
Common tool types (catalogue-level)
- Critical illness
- Early CI
- Multi-pay
- Waiver of premium
Compliance & boundaries
- Suitability must capture need and affordability; do not overstate claim certainty. Material facts are not excused by later “no causal link” arguments.