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A serious illness can change everything, but having financial protection in place gives you one less thing to worry about.
Lee Doran
Underwriting Manager
Critical illness is an optional benefit that provides a lump sum if you or your child are diagnosed with a defined specified medical condition.
This financial support helps cover essential costs, giving you the freedom to focus on recovery rather than worrying about expenses.
Living and working abroad comes with unique challenges—especially when faced with a serious illness. Critical illness insurance helps protect your financial stability, no matter where you are in the world.
Critical illness can affect anyone, at any stage of life. That’s why we offer separate optional benefits for both adults and children, ensuring the right level of protection for you and your family.
You must have a life insurance policy with us before you can add critical illness insurance. Critical illness is an optional benefit designed to work alongside your life insurance policy, giving you even greater peace of mind.
These flexible benefit add-ons allow you to tailor your coverage to your needs. Whether you’re securing your own future, protecting your family, or both, they offer peace of mind when it matters most.
At William Russell, your critical illness benefit will pay you a lump sum if you or your child are diagnosed with a specified medical condition. You’ll have cover for a wide range of conditions (subject to waiting periods), which are detailed below:
To be eligible for adult critical illness insurance, you must purchase international life insurance with William Russell. For child critical illness insurance, you must have selected adult critical illness on your policy. You can then add cover for up to 10 children.
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The quickest way to reach us is by email.
There are certain situations that won’t be covered by critical illness insurance:
For a full list of exclusions, please read the policy T&Cs.
We’ve made it as easy as possible for you to claim should you or your child be diagnosed with a critical illness. If you have any questions or need help, get in touch and speak to our award-winning team. To claim, simply tell us by following these steps:
Step 1
Download our claims form.
Step 2
Complete the form and send it back to us at claims@william-russell.com.
Step 3
Once we have assessed your claim, we’ll be in touch to confirm the next steps.
Still got questions about our critical illness insurance? You can find answers to the most common questions here, but feel free to get in touch and speak to our team. We’d be glad to help.
Yes, you can add critical illness insurance to your life insurance policy if your policy started on or after 15 April 2025 and your life insurance benefit exceeds your annual income or US$100,000. You cannot purchase critical illness separately. You can only purchase child critical illness if you’ve also added adult critical illness to your policy.
The premium you pay depends on your age. You can can get a quote online.
The maximum benefit for adult critical illness insurance is US$100,000. You can select the benefit you require in multiples of US$10,000, so you can choose the right amount of cover to suit your needs. Your adult critical illness insurance cannot exceed 50% of your main life insurance benefit.
The benefit for child critical illness insurance is fixed at US$5,000 or €5,000 or £5,000.
A waiting period is the time you must be insured by your policy before you can claim for your critical illness insurance. Each defined medical condition has a waiting period of either 3 months or 7 months.
You can add adult critical illness insurance to you policy provided you age are 64 or younger, and you can retain the the benefit on your policy until the end of the policy year during which you reach the age of 65.
You can add child critical illness to your policy from your child’s birth, and you can retain the benefit on your policy under the child is age 17.
No. You are covered for one lump sum payment per lifetime.
Once you have made a claim for critical illness, the benefit will be cancelled and removed from your policy.
Your life insurance policy and optional critical illness benefit each give you separate insurance cover.
Eg. If you have the optional adult critical illness benefit and you’re diagnosed with cancer, we’ll pay out your critical illness benefit upon diagnosis and we’ll pay out your life benefit if the illness causes your death.
We show the benefit limits in US dollars, but we can also denominate your policy in pounds sterling or Euros. You won’t find complete information for our products on this webpage, nor the full T&Cs, limitations, and exclusions that would apply if you purchase a life insurance policy. You can find complete information in the policy T&Cs, which we suggest you read together with this webpage. We work hard to ensure the information we provide on this webpage is accurate and up-to-date, but inaccuracies are possible. We rectify errors as soon as we become aware of them. The terms and conditions that apply to your policy are those found in your policy T&Cs.
At William Russell, we have over 30 years’ experience of providing international life insurance exclusively for expats like you. Become a member today to enjoy worldwide coverage, giving you total peace of mind wherever you move to live and work.
Joe Holden Global Relationship Manager
If you’re ready to see prices for life insurance, click on ‘Get a Quote’ below to head on over to our online quote tool.
We’ll ask you a few details (your age, your location), and then we’ll show you prices—it only takes a few minutes!
A couple of days after you’ve received you quote, Joe will email or call you to find out how we can help you further. Joe won’t bug you, and you can opt out at any time.
It’s filled with handy information and tips for expats.
We were one of the first insurance providers to cover people living abroad, and we’ve earned a reputation for our wonderful customer service.
The insurer behind our policies is part of the Allianz group
We’re proud of our award-winning service and our members rate it highly
You will get your own dedicated adviser when you join
If you’re not happy with your life insurance policy or the service we provide, and you haven’t yet made a claim, then we’ll refund the premium you’ve paid—no questions asked.
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