Canadians are living longer than they ever have before. The most recent figures from Statistics Canada reveal that, on average, life expectancy is 81.7 years, up from the previous five-year average of 80.5 years.
That’s what made 2018 the right time for Aviva Canada to enter the critical illness insurance market with Aviva Group Critical Illness Insurance, along with the pressure on people’s wallets to pay for treatment in times of sickness.
“At this point in time, advancements in technology and medicine are letting people live longer. People are recovering from illness and disease, and there’s huge financial strain on people who are trying to recover from these illnesses,” said Terri Mitchell, executive director of accident and health for Aviva Canada. “Critical illness has been around for quite a long time, but it’s not as important a component of people’s financial plans as it really should be.”
Though it should be treated as a must-have, like life insurance, critical illness only makes up 15% of a $60 billion industry, according to Mitchell, so there’s a lot of room to create awareness in this space for Aviva. The new product, which provides coverage for up to 24 conditions, follows the launch of Aviva Commercial Accident last year.
“We started two years ago heading down the path of an accident and health strategy. We launched our corporate accident product in October,” explained Mitchell. “This is the second product in a suite of products that we will be rolling out with the ultimate goal of having a complete set of corporate products, which would be inclusive of insurance, wellness, which we do a lot of in the UK, and lifestyle products.”
While this product is aimed at commercial clients – employees, unions, and associations – Aviva Canada’s three million personal clients will soon have an insurance option for them as well.
“We’re launching a critical illness product in Q4 of this year that is specifically for personal lines clients and it’s a complete digital end-to-end delivery, which will make it easier for the brokers to deliver it to their clients,” said Mitchell.
Launching disability into the corporate market is likewise in the future for Aviva’s accident and health portfolio as it continues to roll out products over the coming months.
“It’s an important move for Aviva strategically from a product diversification perspective and getting to those clients that we have,” said Mitchell.
