Aviva will now provide free automatic life insurance for children who experience a defined critical illness.
The new Child Income Benefit and Child Support Benefit will be available under parents' policies for income protection and critical illness respectively.
Under the Child Income Benefit, Aviva will pay up to $25,000 in income protection to enable parents to look after their critically ill children.
The Child Support Benefit provides critical illness cover of $10,000 for each dependant child, without the need for further underwriting, where critical illness cover of at least $100,000 is held.
The new benefits will be provided to more than 58,000 of Aviva's existing customers at no additional cost.
"Millions of families in Australia have dependant children, so the number of families with children that could experience a critical illness is staggering," Aviva general manager protection products Natalie Eckersall said.
"This is an invaluable benefit - it can allow parents to take time off work to take their child to the hospital or a specialist during a critical time of need."
