Life insurance FAQ's

1. Who can apply for cover?   
Anyone who lives in the UK, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man and is aged between 18 and 69.   

2. How much cover should I get?   
It depends on your own situation. You should take into account:   

How would your family who are financial dependant on you meet their bills without your financial contribution?   

How much would you need to pay your mortgage off if you died?     

Get a few quotes from us and see what you can get for your money. 

 This is not advice or a recommendation.   

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 you intend to retire, when your mortgage is paid off, or when you feel your 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.   
This is not advice or a recommendation.  

4. Can I start my application now?   
Yes, you can start your life insurance application online anytime and in many cases you could start your policy within 24 hours.   
If you need life insurance “right now” then call us free on 0800 980 9801 and we’ll be pleased to help.   
Office hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 9pm
Saturday 9am to 3pm   

5. Can I cover my mortgage?   
Yes, we offer two types of life insurance policies;  
Level Term Life Insurance  
Mortgage Protection Life Insurance (sometimes known as decreasing or reducing life insurance  
These plans can be set up to repay an interest only or repayment mortgage when you die.   
You can also include critical illness insurance too.  

6. Can we buy joint life policy?   
Yes you can, joint life policies are available or you can buy two separate policies (single life).  
An “Adviser” would typically recommend two single life policies.    
Although two single life policies may be slightly more expensive you would get “double the cover”   
This means that if both people die during before the policy ends your estate would receive two payouts, one from each policy.  
If one of were diagnosed with say cancer, you would claim off your policy and the policy would stop and the other person’s policy would continue.   
However, if you had a joint life policy the whole policy would stop when the claim had been paid.  
This is not advice or a recommendation.
 
7. How do I pay my premiums?   
Monthly by direct debit is usual.       

8. How do I make a claim?   
If you have critical illness insurance you should check your policy booklet for details about how to claim.   
If you need to make a claim because someone has died then please call us on 01243 817917.   
Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am to 5.30pm    

9. Who gets the money?   
You will receive the money, if your policy is a critical illness insurance policy.  
If it’s a life insurance policy the money will either go to your Trustees (if the policy is in Trust) or to your Estate if the policy is not in Trust.  
If you have a joint life policy which isn’t in Trust the money will be paid out to the surviving policy holder.   

10. Will the proceeds be taxed?   
Both terminal illness and life insurance 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.   

11. Can I cancel the policy at any time?   
Yes, but of course the insurance will also stop.    

12. Will my payments change?   
Not normally.  Most of our policies offer “guaranteed” prices once the policy has started.    
If you have a critical illness insurance policy which offers “reviewable” prices, these are considerably less to start with but the insurer may review the price you pay every five years.         

13. Do I get any money back if I don't die before the end of the term? 
No you don’t.  Our policies only pay out if you need to claim, there’s no cash-in value.