These days a growing number of income protection insurers are bolting on medical assistance services to their policies in a bid to make their policy stand out above the rest.

But is the promise of a personalised answer to non-urgent medical questions within 72 hours worth paying for?

Should advisers be sticking with basic policies that simply pay out if a client is ill and unable to work or is it now expected that a policy should do more than simply send a cheque if your client has a listed medical condition?

This guide will explore the different sort of medical assistance bolt-ons you will find attached to income protection policies these days, what impact these extra features should have on your recommendation and how to go about comparing the different services now attached to provider’s cover.

We will also explore some of the small print you may find attached to these bolt-ons.

Contributors of content to this guide include Alan Lakey, director of CI Expert; Christine Husband, managing director of Red Arc; Anna Spender, head of group protection proposition at Friends Life and Deepak Jobanputra, deputy chief executive of Vitality Life.