LV= has made significant changes to its Life and Critical Illness insurance following feedback and suggestions from financial advisers.

The company’s CI cover now includes 87 conditions and the number of full payment conditions has increased from 44 to 49, with much of the focus on improving family cover.

Full payment options include brain injury due to trauma, anoxia or hypoxia, Crohn’s disease, severe mental health and severe sepsis.

For cancer, the most claimed condition, LV= has introduced a new £1,000 payment for policyholders, or any child covered, if they are correctly diagnosed with one of the listed cancer conditions.

Cover is now available up to a 50-year term and up to age 80 (for level and decreasing cover).

Other changes include simplifying the amount paid for enhanced payments to pay twice the amount of cover up to an additional £200,000, increasing the age of diagnosis to 55 for neurological enhanced payment conditions and introducing three organ-related enhanced payments – major organ transplant, liver failure and severe lung disease.

Extended children’s cover is now standard and overall features improved include:

·      From birth to age 23 (with no requirement to be in full time education) for 85 conditions and no minimum survival period

·      Pays out 50% of main policy cover, up to £25,000 per policy plus enhanced payments for 13 conditions through either accident or organ-related payments (up to £50,000).

·      New £5,000 child’s funeral payment and new ‘junior option’, allowing a child to take out their own CI cover within six months of their 23rd birthday without medical underwriting.

·      Confidential member helpline for older children (and parents) to support them through challenging times, providing day-to-day mental health support to dependants from age 16.

Earlier this month LV= announced it is working with Maggie’s, a charity offering emotional and practical support for people living with cancer and their family and friends.

Debbie Kennedy, director of protection at LV=, said: “We consulted widely when developing our new critical illness policy and many of the enhancements followed suggestions from financial advisers.”