Merchant Navy & Life Insurance

When you are in the merchant navy or a marine and need life insurance you will need to be sure that the right insurer is chosen for you. This is because insurers will view your occupation and travel in different ways, some might even consider your application differently if you have a UK mortgage.

Our advisers are here to find the right insurer for you based upon your specific needs.

There are a few things we need to know to get started:

• Where do you travel for work?
• What is your rotation pattern?
• Are you a UK taxpayer?
• Are you likely to visit a high risk location?
• What are your duties?
• What size vessel and crew do you work with?

For most people working in the merchant navy, life insurance should be available at standard rates. If you are travelling to areas that insurers do consider to be dangerous or where the FCO are currently advising against going, you’re likely to see non-standard terms. This would usually be an increase to the policy premiums, it’s often nowhere near as big a change as most people think.  

Our advisers will research the market for you to find the insurer that is going to offer you the best price for life insurance.

Critical illness cover pays out a cash lump sum of money, if you are diagnosed with a medical condition that is listed in the insurer’s claims set e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke.

When applying for critical illness cover as a person in the merchant navy, we expect that you will get asked all of the same questions as an application for life insurance. Again, we would expect you to receive standard terms unless you’re travelling to risky areas or your duties are higher risk than normal. If either of those did apply, you would usually see an exclusion on your policy rather than a price increase. 

For the exclusion this will be completely dependent upon your specific job duties. You might find that there is a specific exclusion listed for your occupation. This is quite broad as it means that if you are diagnosed with any of the critical illnesses on the policy due to something that happens at work, then the policy might not pay out. There are still many situations where the policy will pay out and our advisers will help you to decide if the policy suits you and what you are wanting to achieve.

Income protection pays you a replacement of your monthly income, if you are unable to work due to ill health.

For income protection, you must be a UK taxpayer which is why you’re likely to see a question about that on your application. As well as the questions mentioned already, you might be asked if you have had any periods of time off work over the past few years, due to ill health. 

We find that there are several mainstream insurers who won’t provide income protection for a person in the merchant navy, but we do have access to insurers that often can do. The good thing is that these more specialist insurers don’t tend to increase the premiums or put exclusions on the policy, based upon your occupation

If we are unable to find an income protection insurer that will offer you cover, we can look into other types of insurance that can protect your income that might be suitable for your circumstances. 

Are you planning a holiday? We work alongside a specialist travel insurance broker who can help you choose the right insurance. To find out more, please visit our dedicated travel insurance page.