5 Ways to Get the Most Our of Your Life Insurance 2023

Life insurance is one of the simplest policies to arrange. It is pretty straightforward, if you die while the policy is active it will pay out money to your loved ones.

 

A lot of insurances have a lot of technicalities and there can sometimes be debate over whether you can make a claim, but life insurance is different. With life insurance there is not usually much room for debate over whether or not you are dead or not.

 

Life insurance is now so much more than just a claim if you die. Many insurers now offer what is known as value added benefits. These are non-contractual extras that come with your life insurance, without you having to pay more to access them. 

 

This is now the area where a lot of insurers are competing. For the majority of people life insurance is pretty cheap, so insurers have ow decided that the best way to compete is with these extras.

 

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ones.

 

 

 

The GP can then provide you guidance, potentially arrange a prescription for you and contact your GP to let them know if you need a referral arranging. 

 

I have this with my insurances and it has been so helpful over the years, especially with young children. It was so useful during lockdown as we could still get a hold of a GP and in good time. I also always remember being on holiday in Malta and I really needed some advice for one of my children. I went onto the app about 8pm on the night and had a video consultation with a UK GP for lunchtime the next day, perfect.

Mental health wellbeing is such an important point of life and insurers are taking steps to provide support to their policyholders. Many insurers now offer mental health support so that people can call up have a bit of talking therapy and get some pointers on things they can do to help themselves. 

 

Some insurers offer this service from within themselves but they might also use an independent mental health service, to give you support. Please be assured that these services are highly confidential.

 

It is important to know that there are limitations to mental health support offered this way. If you are wanting to get a diagnosis for a mental health condition, you will not be able to get a diagnosis this way. Also if you are experiencing a mental health crisis this is not the best place for you to get support and you would be far better calling your GP, NHS 111 and the Samaritans for help.

 

The kind of mental health support that is offered is more linked to the management of symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression and bereavement. 

 

 

Having access to the NHS is a wonderful thing and I am sure many of us have a great deal of gratitude for the this service. We have all seen the news reports and social posts that share how much the NHS is struggling for resources and how overstretched doctors and nurses are.

 

Some insurers have decided to offer what is known as a second medical opinion service, to help you if you with your existing medical conditions, or help you if you not well and aren’t getting anywhere through usual routes.

 

A second medical opinion service does just what it says. You will contact the medical company that the insurer is linked to and with your permission they will access your medical records. Medical specialists will then look at your test results, the treatments that you have had and make sure that everything matches up and you have the right diagnosis. They will then provide you guidance on what to do going forward. 

 

 

 

It’s not always easy to get to the gym and know where to start with a balanced diet, if it’s not something we are used to. Some insurers offer you access to nutritionists and exercise specialists that can help you tailor your diet and exercise to suit your lifestyle.

 

There’s also a benefit to the insurer to because if you living a healthier lifestyle you are far less likely to make a claim. This isn’t the insurer trying to get out of paying a claim, they absolutely do pay claims, hundreds of millions each year. This is simply insurers trying to do right by you and also give back to society, by encouraging healthier lifestyles and less strain on the NHS.

 

This is a really useful benefit to life insurance, but it’s important to know that there are limitations. The difficulty that we see with Terminal Illness Benefit is that it was originally designed 40 or so years ago, when things like cancer often did mean that someone would not live for long.

 

Now with medical advances it is quite unusual for someone to be told that they definitely have less than 12 months left to live. A lot of the time the specialists will say that they believe the person has less than 12 months left to live. Unfortunately the word ‘believe’ is enough for the insurer to say that they are postponing the claim until a person is told that they definitely have less than 12 months left to live.

 

There are many steps being taken by ourselves and insurers to modernise the way that terminal illness benefit works and I hope that I have a positive update soon.