‘Reviews’ Life Insurance’ UK (2024) *Best Broker Deals > 15 secs

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UK ‘Reviews Life Insurance’ 2024

It makes good sense to regularly review life insurance & finances in these difficult Pandemic 2020’s

We review life insurance policies from leading Insurance Company brands below we currently work with – as whole of market Life Insurance Brokers.

As Financial Advisers, we understand that having insurance protection in place is the bedrock of most sound financial planning.

Comparing any Top 10 UK Reviews Life Insurance or Critical Illness, could save you both time & money. Therefore, we are committed to helping protect yourself, your family or business when they may need it most.

These reviews of life insurance companies plans are all in alphabetical order & into their various protection insurance areas they may all specialize in. There are also ‘Defacto‘ star links across each insurance sector.

Note: Our UK broker life insurance review centre comments in 2024 will always depend upon your own individual circumstances, and so should not be taken as personal advice.

*Defaqto Reviews’ Life Insurance Star Ratings

Defaqto Star Ratings life insurance policy reviews show the quality, comprehensiveness, product features & benefits of different life insurance reviews. Below are defaqto star ratings on term life insurance, critical illness, whole of life assurance & Over 50’s products offered by UK providers. So when comparing term life insurance reviews consumer reports & critical illness note that some are part of an overall menu plan, and others offer their insurance best plans as a standalone policy.

For those on a fixed budget, go for life & critical illness plans with fixed premiums. Initially cheaper life quotes insurance reviews may show deals that are age-costed or increasing premiums. However, these cheaper plans rise over time as you get older, ie; indexed life insurance reviews yearly can get very expensive in the longer term. We have commented on the life insurance best & worst performers, as Defaqto tested.

Often these leading Insurers may also offer their insurance products via a bank, building society, supermarket, 3rd party or direct with free gifts. These plans could be easily sold without advice & so are classed as their budget versions.

Sometimes, you can buy the same basic products via a bank or building society but compared like for like, these may cost more than via life insurance agents as they cover their margins or overheads. Get a free quote & compare >

Note; Several Insurers may offer their insurance protection products in 3 versions based upon your budget ie; Gold, Silver, Bronze.

Invariably the lowest bronze stars basic life insurance reviews can be star rated worst performers by Defaqto. However, their ‘best life insurance reviews’ uk performers are often reserved for those only sold via brokers and with advice.

Note: Defaqto / Financial Adviser have not compared ‘Reviews Life Insurance’ on all UK Insurers. It seems in their comparison ratings the Providers may not have these plans in their portfolio hence n/a.

Review Life Insurance ‘Term Cover’ Quotes >

Review Life Insurance ‘Critical Illness’ Quotes >

Review Life Insurance ‘Whole Life‘ | Over 50’s Quotes >

Note: Martin Lewis is not a big fan of over 50’s no medical exam life insurance reviews. Some over 50’s life cover no medical life insurance reviews show you could pay in more than the premiums.

Reviews Life Insurance Customer Service

Any feature doing a ‘best life insurance reviews uk‘ should also feature the broker service standards offered by any UK Life Insurance Companies.

We have therefore used a recent Financial Adviser service reviews’ life insurance awards as the overall guide here. You will see that perhaps some of those well known advertised brands are not ranked into top life insurance reviews as highly as maybe you initially thought?

* Life Insurance Review Department on Broker Customer Services are:

1. LV, Scottish Widows, Royal London & Vitality Life
2. Zurich, Exeter, Aviva & AIG
3. Legal & General

Review Life Insurance Waiver of Premium

Waiver of premium is a very important insurance product feature that is often overlooked when doing life insurance reviews. It will help protect your life insurance premiums if off work re an accident, sickness, critical illness or hospitalisation. Some UK providers also cover redundancy.

This means your premiums are waived or paid by the Life Insurers. They will pay it either until you get back into work, or potentially to the policy end. Many UK Insurers may charge you extra for this benefit & with varying waiting periods before the benefit applies.

However, if comparing life insurance review wether waiver is standard inclusive or paid for extra. Many Insurers recognize its importance in offering long term peace of mind, as it runs alongside any life insurance policy. Note, some Insurers may not offer this feature above a certain age eg; over 55

Consider if you suddenly had a serious heart attack or were diagnosed with cancer, and was then off work for along period of time. How could you pay your ongoing life insurance premiums? If you had to then cancel the life policy because of this, then it could be you may never be able to get affordable life insurance again.

* Premium Waiver Reviews’ are:

1. Guardian 1821 as their waiver of premium is inclusive for all ages & occupation, take maternity or paternity leave, involuntarily made redundant (see T&C’s)
2. Next joint are 3 Insurers – Aviva, Royal London & Vitality Life – they all offer a variety of premium waiver deferral periods
3. Every other Insurer who only offers 26 weeks – although if your work paid you sickpay for upto this period, then it can make sense

CONCLUSION: Premium Waiver is a very valuable benefit. Don’t risk your life insurance policy cancelling, as you may never get affordable life cover again. The costs for waiver of premium benefit is often small, in relation to helping protect the large amount of those life insurance deals.

Review Life Insurance Terminal Illness

Terminal Illness is often included for free but forgotten on review life insurance policy features.

Terminal illness means that you have an incurable illness. On a life insurance it also means it will now payout (or accelerated death benefit) if you sadly have medically confirmed you have less than 12 months to live.

Note; It is also not to be confused with Critical Illness coverage, which is an underwritten policy that pays out instead upon survival of diagnosis of a specified critical illness eg; Cancer, Heart disease or Stroke etc;

However, many uk life insurers won’t pay out until their chief medical officer agrees medical proof that you have less than 12 months to live. Once agreed, the Insurers claim team will then payout the lifecover earlier ‘death claim’ in advance.

Not all Providers terms & conditions are the same. Some life insurance reviews in the recent past, several providers have also excluded this benefit into the final 12/18 months of the plan.

* Terminal Illness Reviews’ are:

1. Guardian 1821 Insurance as terminal illness is also paid when diagnosed with incurable stage 4 cancer, Parkinson-plus syndromes, motor neurone disease, CJD. (see T&C’s)
2. Everyone else’s life insurance review just offers terminal illness diagnosed with 12 months to live

Review Life Insurance Lowest Starting Premium

Any level term life insurance reviews always focus on price. But does mean the cheapest is a smarter insurance move? Some insurers policies are ‘age costed’ or reviewable. This means many comparison websites online life insurance reviews may start or show with their lowest premiums. However, these increase annually over time. As such, what perhaps started as only £5/£6pm, could be £100pm or more in the future.

The lowest starting premium (even if the premiums are fixed) could also mean the lowest levels of life cover offered via some insurers.

For example, an insurer selling their cheapest plan and advertising their prices ‘starting from a low £5pm’ could offer you £100,000 insurance cover. So you go ahead and buy it along with their free gift voucher given after you have paid 18 months premiums.

However, another starting from £6pm could instead have offered you £185,000 lifecover. So those headline grabbing starting prices could be misleading ie; a good reason as why should I review my life insurance regularly.

* Lowest Starting Premium Reviews’ are:

1. Guardian and AIG = £4pm
2. Aviva, Scottish Widows, Zurich & Royal London = £5pm
3. Legal & General = £6pm

Note: if you are taking out an insurance plan as part of a ‘menu multi-plan’ offerings, then if sold alongside some other plans, some life review quotes are from as low as around £1pm.

Review Life Insurance Claims Payouts

The bottom line with any bragging rights when you review your life insurance policy, ultimately is the Insurers claims payout that counts.

Not withstanding the Pandemic 2020’s which *ABI state cost the industry millions or the bogus Canoe Man John Darwin, this is what it is all about.

Below are the Providers death claims stats declared at the start of the 2020’s for term life cover alone. Note: i review life insurance stats will all differ for claims payout re terminal illness, whole lifecover, critical illness or income protection.

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‘Reviews’ Life Insurance’ Broker FAQ

* How much Insurance Cover?

As Brokers in an ideal world – we suggest this simple formula.

• LUMP SUM > Repay any Mortgage & Debts, cover Funeral costs
• INCOME  >  Help cover your Monthly Bills
• LUMP SUM > Back up for Holidays, Education, Emergencies

What does Money Savings Expert Martin Lewis on Life Insurance review questions to consider? His Best Formula instead suggests covering 10 x annual salary of the main breadwinner.

Using that principle, if you earned £33,500pa gross, Martin says you should maybe consider insuring yourself (after any debts, mortgages & loans are fully repaid) for say £335,000 (ie; 10 x the annual gross income).

Following on from this simple Martin Lewis example formula above, if you then worked for the next 30 years until state retirement, you could potentially earn over £1 million gross ie; £33,500pa x 30 years [or more with any future inflationary wage ises].

As such, unlike the 10 x £33,500pa gross salary example above – you could instead protect your family with either;

1. Income = £2,791pm or £33,500pa family income benefit policy
2. Lump sum = £1 million level term policy [if invested @ 3.35% return = £33,500pa]
3. Or a mixture of the 2 policy types over the next 30 years – all dependant on your family circumstances.

• You can also decide wether you want the cover to be level or inflation linked

However, as Financial Advisers we are not saying this ‘Money Saving Expert formula’ 10 x salary is therefore a 100% one size fits all scenario ie; This formula is not applicable for everyone’s own personal situation.

Martin Lewis also says never blindly buy life insurance or critical illness cover direct from a bank or insurer as could be expensive.

Why should I review my Life Insurance?

Why insurance policy review is important may depend on where you bought the policy from originally or the terms offered.

For example, you may have originally bought the plan via a bank or building society (who are often tied to just one Insurer). They may have overcharged their margins onto your plan against life insurance reviews on the whole market.

Or you may have been a smoker then, or your health was poorer at the time eg; raised BMI kg? Back then the insurance underwriting decision meant you paid higher rated premiums.

Top 10 Life Insurance Policy Review Checklist:

1. Getting Married
2. Having a Baby
3. Buying a Property
4. Increase in Mortgage
5. Home Loan
6. Salary Change
7. Health Status Change
8. Quit Smoking
9. Divorce / Seperation
10. New Occupation / Job Loss

How to Review Life Insurance Policy?

In these difficult financial times, when against other regular bills your review life insurance is on the line, for some it is easy to consider just cancelling their policy.

Cancelling your insurance policy could be the worst financial move you ever make for you & your family dependants. So what are your other choice fast life insurance reviews ?

• Life Insurance review phone call to your existing Insurers or Brokers
• See if they may temporarily allow you to reduce cover
• Premium holiday for several months
• Consider maybe reducing the insurance sum assured
• Remove any paid for features like RPI index life insurance reviews
• Shop around Insurers to see if you are currently overpaying like for like
• Convert plans from age costed premiums to fixed premiums
• Reduce the period of cover if this will not affect the overall situation
• Family life insurance reviews – Do not confuse terminal illness v critical illness
• Never cancel your existing plan until anything new has been agreed & terms fully in place
• If your health status is worse then don’t cancel your existing plan as could be best deal already

Insurance Policy changes?

Most Insurers allow you to change your policy midstream, without further medical evidence and under a special option. This is called the guaranteed insurability option. Many people are unaware of this no medical increase feature, but the best in life insurance plans may automatically include this.

It can be very useful if you have had health issues since you took out the original underwritten insurance policy eg; you now have raised blood pressure due to raised BMI kg and are now being re-quoted extra rated health costs.

It can be used when someone for example is increasing their mortgage, large rent increase, getting married or civil partnership, have a new born child or adoption, IHT tax changes etc; Typically this inclusive benefit ends around age 55. These optional increases will all be subject to the Insurers policy limits & will require proof within a nominated time scale, as they are being allowed without medical evidence.

Importance of Disclosure re Insurance Claims?

All Insurers are in business to best protect, insure & payout. All cover is therefore based on your full disclosure at the time you took the original policy out ie; being 100% as honest & accurate as possible.

It is not always easy to remember all your historic health details when applying. The Consumer Insurers Act 2013 says you must not be acting careless, deliberate or reckless when applying. If so, it may not payout !

For example: If you a familial hereditary history of raised cholesterol, then you best tell them this (even if you don’t have this anyway).

Should you make a claim, your Insurers will send you a claim form for you to complete. Once received back, they will usually contact your GP to confirm any health details.

They will then assess if your claim is valid and cross check if you originally disclosed all the correct details. If you look at most reviews life insurance recent claims payout above, you will see that it is Good (but like most Insurers – not 100%).

What if my health changes after taking the cover out?

Any health or lifestyle changes since, usually does not void your existing insurance cover, if it wasn’t relevant at that time of initial application.

It maybe the Insurers request GP reports when you originally apply, to check any health details disclosed. Likewise they may not.

So take care to doubly re-check on your application what you initially disclosed to the Insurers, as this information then stands now and in the future. Please check your original T&C’s.

What does putting a “Policy into Trust” mean?

This is a common question we are asked as brokers when doing life insurance reviews.

• Putting the ‘policy into trust ‘can help to avoid both probate delays & Inheritance Tax IHT
• Ensures it should go direct to you nominated beneficiaries via the trustees & falls outside your estate
• Without a trust the insurance policy could fall back into your estate. For technical cases, seek legal advice
• This applies even if you have made a valid uk will or more importantly if you have not
• UK Inheritance tax is 40%. So for larger estates, any life cover payout is then reduced by this amount.
• Most Insurers do supply free a range of generic insurance trusts, ideal for many client situations

Joint Insurance or Single Life Cover?

• Single life policy is setup on the sole life & death of a policyholder
• A joint life 1’st death insurance pays out on a death claim on that 1’st policyholder. Then it ends
• Insurers may often setup a joint life 1st death plan to repay a joint mortgage
• Joint life assurance 2’nd death pays on last death ie; usually used for Inheritance tax cover
• Family life Insurance cover may be setup either joint life 1’st death or 2 x single policies or ‘dual life’

Note: 2 x separate life insurance are often more costly BUT they may payout twice

Review Life Insurance Conclusion

Speak to a Financial Adviser in 2024. Let them discuss your individual case circumstances & review life insurance choices.

Article on ‘Reviews’ on Life Insurance’ by Martyn Spencer Financial Adviser (2024)

For reassurance re health for men & women – we review many of the best Life Insurers selling Life Insurance in UK (inc NI)