Hot Topic #4

Do you see life through rose tinted glasses?

Most of us think that premature death, serious illness, accident or injury will never happen to us … Sadly, the chances of prematurely dying, suffering a serious illness or having an accident at a young age are a lot higher than you may think.

Statistics from one of Ireland’s leading insurers for 2015 is quite frightening …

	Life Cover	Specified Serious Illness	Income Protection
No of claims & total amount paid	1,051 claims totalling €103.1 million	763 claims totalling €48 million	3135 claims totalling €53 million
Average amount paid per claim	€66,462	€62,913	€19,380
Average age of claimant	64	53	47

LIFE COVER – GENDER VARIATIONS

·         Men accounted for 2 in 3 death claims with women accounting for 1 in 3

·         Higher percentage of women (48%) died from cancer than men (39%)

·         Heart related conditions were the cause of death for twice the rate of men (16%) than women (8%)

·         Rates for accidental deaths were higher for men at 8% compared to just 3% for women

SPECIFIED ILLNESS COVER - GENDER VARIATIONS

·         Men made up over half (55%) of Specified Illness claims, with women making up 42%

·         Breast cancer was the number 1 overall cause (15%) of all Specified Illness claims. Among women, cervical/ovarian was the second biggest cancer related claim

·         For men, prostate cancer was the main cause of cancer related claims (almost 10% of all specified illness claims) followed by lung and colon cancer

·         Men accounted for 4 in every 5 Specified Illness claims paid for heart related conditions – reflecting the significant gender difference related to heart conditions.

Source for all stats above is Irish Life 2016