The critical illness cover age limit for starting a policy is 64 at Aviva, Beagle Street, LV= and Scottish Widows, 67 at Legal & General and 69 at Zurich, in each insurer's own policy summary or key features. Where those papers also give a life cover start age, it is well above the critical illness one, and each of these policies has a latest end age as well, from 70 next birthday at Scottish Widows to before 80 at Beagle Street and on LV='s level or decreasing cover.

Which of these cut-offs still fits you can come down to a birthday a few months off. An FCA-authorised broker can weigh your dates against them for free on a call, which the form on this page books for you.

What is the maximum age for critical illness cover at each insurer?

Start ages for critical illness cover come first, with each paper's print code. The last column adds the life cover start age wherever that paper prints one, so the gap between the two shows.

Insurer and productDocumentAges to start critical illness coverLife cover start age, same paper
Zurich, Personal Protection (sold through advisers)Key features, PW720494014 04/2618 to 69; 18 to 64 with the Renewal Option83
Legal & General, directPolicy Summary, QGI14786 2026/1018 to 6777 (74 for decreasing life cover)
Aviva, Critical Illness PlanPolicy Summary, DA09001 05/202318 to 64No life cover in the plan
Beagle Street, Life Insurance with Critical IllnessPolicy Summary, 31589 003 04.202618 to 6477
LV=, Life and Critical IllnessPolicy Summary, 49027-2022 04/2617 to 64 for level or decreasing cover; 17 to 59 for inflation linked coverNot given
Scottish Widows Protect, Personal ProtectionPolicy Summary, 61041 01/2618 to 6479

Zurich's Life Protection key features (NP720500009, dated February 2025) print the same critical illness row as its Personal Protection paper: 18 to 69. Zurich explains how to read its table: "if the age is shown as 83, it means before your 84th birthday". On that reading, 69 means a policy can start before your 70th birthday.

The two columns show a pattern. Where an insurer prints both, the critical illness start age sits well below the life cover one: 67 against 77 at Legal & General, 69 against 83 at Zurich, 64 against 77 at Beagle Street and 64 against 79 at Scottish Widows. Start and end ages for life cover on its own are set out in life insurance cover till what age.

These are the latest ages at which an application can be made, not a promise that an insurer will accept one. Health and the amount of cover still decide that, and the table covers only the six insurers named.

When does critical illness cover have to end?

A start limit alone does not tell you how long cover can last, because each insurer also fixes a latest end age and a range of term lengths. Insurers word the end age differently, so the wording below follows each paper.

InsurerPolicy has to endTerm length printed
Legal & GeneralBefore age 752 to 50 years
ZurichMaximum age at end of term 74, which Zurich's note reads as before the 75th birthday; 69 with the Renewal Option5 to 40 years
AvivaBefore you turn 765 to 50 years
Beagle StreetBefore the oldest life assured's 80th birthday5 to 40 years
LV=Before the insured person reaches 80 for level or decreasing cover; before 70 for inflation linked coverAt least 5 years, no more than 50
Scottish Widows"70 next birthday" is the maximum age when cover finishes, on its undated adviser web page1 year minimum for level and increasing cover; 3 years for decreasing

Because of the end age, an older applicant cannot use the longest terms. Take Legal & General's rules for someone starting at 60: the policy has to end before age 75, which leaves less than 15 years, against a maximum length of 50 years. For anyone starting in their sixties, then, the end age rather than the longest term decides how long cover can run.

Legal & General sets 18 as the youngest age for any of its policies and adds that "A policy cannot have an expiry date before your 29th birthday." At the other end, once the policy has ended there is no cover: LV= says "if you die or are diagnosed with one of the listed critical illnesses after your policy ends, we won’t pay a claim".

How do birthdays, joint policies and renewal options change the limit?

On a joint policy the older person sets the limit. Aviva's summary says "For a joint policy, the maximum age applies to the oldest life covered." Beagle Street's ages are marked to apply to the oldest life assured on a joint policy, and LV= says that if you are insuring two people, they must both meet its age requirements.

Scottish Widows prints its latest end age as "70 next birthday" rather than as a whole age. Working out how that sits against a particular birthday is a job for the broker when it rings you back.

Zurich's Renewal Option does not raise the end age: it lets a shorter first policy be renewed without Zurich asking about changes to your circumstances. Its key features say it has to be chosen when you start the policy and cannot be added later, and that "You can renew as many times as you like before age 70, but the policy term must end before age 75 (if policy includes Critical Illness Cover) or 90 (Life Cover only policy)." Zurich also says premiums on a renewed policy are likely to rise, and that it cannot go on a decreasing cover, family income or joint life second event policy.

What if you are past 64, or close to it?

Past 64, only two of the six insurers above print a later start age: Legal & General's 67 and Zurich's 69, which Zurich reads as before the 70th birthday. Nearer any cut-off, the end age is what fixes the longest cover you could hold, and the shortest terms printed are 1 year (3 for decreasing cover) on Scottish Widows' adviser page, 2 years at Legal & General and 5 years at Aviva, Zurich, Beagle Street and LV=.

If you are over every start age above, critical illness cover from these insurers is not open to you on the figures printed, and other protection may be worth asking about. Income protection set against critical illness cover shows how the two differ, and the sum to aim for is explained in how much critical illness cover you need. Dementia has a page of its own: is dementia a critical illness looks at what the definitions require.

Near one of these cut-offs, the broker's call-back is the place to ask which insurers' age rules still fit you, and the form here sets it up.

Frequently asked questions

How long does critical illness cover last once it starts?

It runs for the term you pick, inside the limits set by the insurer, unless a claim for the full cover amount ends it early. Aviva's summary says the policy "can last between five and 50 years" and that when it has paid a claim for the full cover amount the policy will end.

Do critical illness and life cover share one age limit?

At Legal & General, Zurich, Beagle Street and Scottish Widows they do not: critical illness stops at a younger age, as the table shows. For a comparison of the two covers, life insurance and critical illness cover compared sets them side by side.

Can critical illness cover be extended when the term ends?

Zurich's Renewal Option, described above, is one route and has to be chosen at the start. It allows renewals before age 70, and a renewed policy that includes critical illness cover must still end before 75.

A few months either side of a birthday can move you past a cut-off, so mention your exact birthday when the broker rings after you send the form here.

Sources