Life cover claims increased in value by 25% to £54.9m, while 37% more claims were made for critical illness cover, bringing the total to £33.2m.
Cancer accounted for 62% of critical illness claims in 2013, followed by heart attacks at 12% and strokes at 8% .
Dougy Grant, protection director at Aegon UK, said: “The research we carried out last year highlighted one of the key barriers to people buying protection was their lack of trust in providers to pay claims.
“Our claims figures continue to be strong and consistent. We continue to work closely with advisers and their clients to minimise the occurrences of misrepresentation and continue to streamline the process of paying claims through our tele-claims service which was launched in 2009.
“We continually look at how we can improve our customers’ experience in the event that they have to make a claim. For Aegon, the customer experience at point of claim is equally important to the number of claims paid.”
The five critical illnesses of cancer, heart attack, stroke, multiple sclerosis and benign brain tumour accounted for 90% of critical illness claims.
Cancer was the most common cause of death at 43%, followed by cardiovascular conditions at 24%.
Of the life claims that were declined in 2013, 93% were declined due to misrepresentation and 7% were due to the definition not being met.
