Home / Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who can apply for cover?
If you live in the UK , Channel Islands or the Isle of Man and are aged between 18 and 69, you can.
2. How much cover should I get?
It depends on your own situation. Some things to take into account are: how would your financial dependants meet their bills without your financial contribution? Ensure that any mortgage that you are responsible for paying for is repaid upon death, then add up how much additional cover would be required to support your family. Click here for our 'Cover Calculator'
Try a few quotes and see what you can get for your money. This is not advice or a recommendation. If you need advice then please call our customer services team free on 0800 980 9801 from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 3pm on Saturdays.
3. How long should I get cover for?
Most people usually take out their insurance until some key date in the future. It could be when they intend to retire, when their mortgage is paid off, or when they feel their children may leave home and support themselves. Work back from that date to now, and that will help you decide the number of years you need to be insured for.
4. Can I start my application now?
Yes, you can start you application online anytime which will in many cases mean the plan is in force within 24 hours. If you need cover “right now” then call free on 0800 980 9801 and we will be pleased to help.
5. Can I cover my mortgage?
Yes, we have level and reducing (mortgage protection) plans that can be set up to repay interest only and repayment mortgage types on death. You can also opt to include critical illness insurance and waiver of premium too.
Furthermore in most cases we can add insurance to help pay your mortgage during periods of long term sickness (which statistically is much more likely across the population) and if necessary unemployment insurance is available also.
6. Can we buy joint life policy?
Yes, joint life policies are available, but “advisers” will typically recommend two single life policies as they usually cost hardly any extra and will provide “double cover”, (this means that if both lives die together both policies pay out, rather than just one joint policy).
Having this “double cover” can provide very valuable extra cover which can help support surviving family members for hardly any extra cost.
Policies that include critical illness benefit would almost certainly be better split into two separate plans as if life 1 is diagnosed with say cancer, life 2 will not want their cover to be lost, which would be the case on a joint life, first claim policy.
7. How do I pay my premiums?
Monthly by direct debit is usual.
8. How do I make a claim?
If you have a living benefit (critical illness, income protection, waiver of premium or unemployment cover), then you should check the policy booklet for details about how to claim. If you need help then please call us on 01243 817917.
If you need to make a death claim on behalf of another, then please call us on 01243 817917, our team is highly efficient and very helpful.
9. Who gets the money?
You, if the benefit is a living benefit, and either your Trustees if the policy is in Trust, who are then responsible for carrying out the provisions of the Trust, or your Estate if you have not placed the policy in Trust.
If the policy is a joint life policy, not in Trust, then the proceeds are payable to the surviving owner of the policy, (the other life assured).
10. Will the proceeds be taxed?
Both terminal illness and life claims are usually paid free of personal liability to income and capital gains tax but in some circumstances inheritance tax may be payable. You can normally help avoid this by putting your plan under a suitable trust. Click here to visit our 'Trusts' section
11. Can I cancel the policy at any time?
Yes, but of course the cover will stop also.
12. Will my payments change?
Not normally. Good practice is normally to arrange policies with “guaranteed” premiums which whilst they might change during underwriting are fixed for the policy term once the plan goes into force.
Sometimes however plans with critical illness included are arranged on a “reviewable” basis as they provide significantly more cover at outset for a lower premium which might better suit the circumstances. Reviewable plans are clearly marked and normally the premiums are not reviewed up or down for the first fives years.
13. Do I get any money back if I don't die before the end of the term?
The policy provides life insurance (and/or critical illness insurance, income protection insurance, unemployment cover), only and there's no cash-in value.
27 July 2007 14:11:03
UK life insurance
firms must update their protection policies to stay relevant to modern life, according to one market expert.
Susan Ring, chief executive of protection firm Unum, told delegates at a Berlin conference that medical advancements meant life cover and critical illness policies had to adapt to stay current.
Ms Ring told the conference that family histories would become less relevant to pricing applications for critical illness cover, as heart attack and stroke incidence improves.
"I would question the future relevance of some of the current critical illness products, given the reduction in incidence of conditions often typically covered by these," she said.
"Maybe a fresh look needs to be taken at long-term care given that people will be in the workforce for longer and their car needs are likely to be different. For healthcare, there will be more of a need and potential opportunity for treatment relating to mental health conditions."
Friends Provident recently announced that they would show lenience when non-disclosure mars a critical illness claim.
30 April 2008 17:15:44
Life insurance premiums may be affected by the results of a new study which claims binge eating and then dieting could increase the risk of sudden death and significantly reduce lifespan.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow, who used fish for their research, discovered that while a fluctuating diet has no effect on body size or reproduction rate, it could reduce lifespan by as much as 25 per cent.
The findings could have implications for young people who follow extreme diets while they are still growing, the scientists claim.
During the research, one group of stickleback fish was fed a consistent amount of food each day while another group was given the same amount of food but in a more erratic feeding pattern.
Reproduction processes carried on as normal in the second group but on average their lifespan was 25 per cent less than the fish in the first group.
The researchers claim the difference in lifespan was not a consequence of more rapid ageing but of an increase in the risk of sudden death.
Professor Neil Metcalfe said: "It seems that uneven growth, due to the fluctuation in the amount eaten per day, is responsible for the increase in the risk of sudden death.
"This is possibly because the body tissues are more likely to have imperfections due to growth spurts."
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Please click here for advice on UK life insurance, life insurance policies and a life insurance quote
13 May 2008 16:45:23
An alarming number of UK adults are unaware of the importance of their Body Mass Index (BMI) when it comes to keeping healthy.
Weight loss experts at management programme LighterLife claim that at least at least 1.7 million adults are overweight or obese without realising it - a factor which may cause their life insurance premiums to rise.
Undertaken for the organisation by research company BMRB the survey is being used to launch BMI 4 Life Fortnight - a campaign to highlight the "life-and-death importance" of the statistic.
The research, which calculated the BMI for more than 1,000 adults, found that a quarter of respondents did not know what BMI meant while half had no idea how it was measured.
Juliette du Plessis, programme director at LighterLife, remarked: "Many just don't realise the significance of BMI. The research showed that 36 per cent of all respondents thought blood pressure was the most important number when it came to health dangers, with BMI second at 30 per cent.
"But a high BMI is actually one of the main causes of high blood pressure - and losing weight can eliminate this."
BMI is used to establish if someone is a healthy weight for their height. The 18.5 - 24.9 band is seen as healthy, while 25 plus is overweight, and 30 is obese, increasing risks of stroke, heart disease and diabetes.
Meanwhile Kieran Platt, director of Life Direct, has recently claimed that BMI, along with smoking, "greatly affects" life insurance premiums.
