I have a critical illness insurance policy for £75,000. A friend told me that if I had a heart attack, which is one of the illnesses covered by my policy, and i died within the following month, the policy would not pay out. Is that true?

On all critical illness policies there is something called a "survival period" which is usually either 14 or 28 days depending on the insurer. The effect of this survival period is that you have to survive for 14/28 days following the diagnosis of a critical illness. If you were to die within the survival period the policy would not pay out.

This means that to be 100% sure that there will be a payout if you became critically ill and died, you need to add a term life insurance policy to you protection portfilio. Then, if you were to die within a survival period the life policy would pay out and if you died outside the survival period, both policies would payout.

Best of luck.
Broker Boy