Life Insurance for Politically Exposed Persons 2023

When you apply for life insurance insurers are always looking for any risks that could make you more likely to make a claim on an insurance policy. This is because they want to make sure that they fully understand things like your health, travel, job and sports that you do.

Just like you want to see the Terms and Conditions of the insurer and life insurance product that you are buying, the insurer also wants to check over specific things about you too. 

A politically exposed person is someone that is in a public position, who could be influenced to do something that’s not legal. A PEP will have a prominent public position where they are generally well known. Some examples include:

• Politicians
• High-ranking judges
• High-ranking military officers
• Central bank governors
• Senior government executives
• Board members of international organisations

There are more types of politically exposed people than this and it’s important to know that not everyone in these positions is at a high risk of being influenced. Even so, within the UK there is something known as the Sanctions List and if you are on this you can find that getting life insurance is a bit trickier.

Insurers are all about risk and as I mentioned earlier for most people the focus is upon any health, travel, work and sports that mean you are at a higher chance of dying. For a politically exposed person this is still the case but there is additional risk too.

The extra risk for life insurance comes from what is known as money laundering. This is where somebody uses money from illegal activities to pay for things. The illegal activities tend to have some kind of connection to terrorism, drugs and other forms of crime.

Many politically exposed people have absolutely no connections to such crimes, but the worry comes from the potential that they could be influenced to use the money. It could be that they are being bribed and trying to protect themselves or their loved ones. They might have simply become a target for a criminal group, who have backed them into a corner that the do not know how to get out of.

The last thing that insurers want to do is be involved in any kind of activity that would allow this kind of money to be used to pay for life insurance.

It isn’t just about the payment of the life insurance premiums either. It’s also making sure that there is confidence that any proceeds from a life insurance payout will not be used to fund such crimes. It’s a very extreme example but let’s say someone wanted to set up a life insurance policy and make it so that a claim would be paid to a person living in a place with high terrorist activities, with no clear connection between the policyholder and the person. This would set off alarm bells.

Not only do insurers monitor this but a lot of advisers monitor too. At Cura we perform a UK Sanctions check on all of the people that we advise, to make sure that we can identify and support any politically exposed persons as much as possible. 

What happens if I’m on the list?

If you do show on a UK Sanctions list the first thing to do is not panic. Many people have the same name and there are times that we have had people show as being politically exposed, but it’s simply that they share the name of a politician in another country. It’s all resolved very quickly and you get the life insurance that you need.

If you are a politically exposed person then it’s important to speak openly with us and the insurer about the position that you are in. It means that we can all then have a clear conversation about what we need to know to get your life insurance in place.

Most of the time there are options to arrange life insurance for people that are politically exposed, it is just a matter of finding the right insurer to match your circumstances. For many PEPs it is quite likely that any extensive travel that you do outside the UK will also be of interest to the insurer and influence which one is best for you.

There can however be times where life insurance is not available to someone in a prominent position. We can take a current example from the Ukraine and Russian war. As with many countries the UK placed restrictions upon Russia and people connected to the country. This has meant that quite a few people had their names added to the UK sanction list if they had connections to Russia. It also meant for quite some time that life insurance would not be available from a UK insurer, to these individuals.

The Sanctions List is reactive and changes over time so you might find that your name is on it now, but is no longer on it in the future. If you do appear on the UK Sanctions List please do not assume that you are uninsurable for life insurance. That can sometimes be the case, but there are also many times that life insurance will be available to people. 

How do I get life insurance?

As a politically exposed person it is probably going to work out best for you if you do receive advice on your life insurance. This will involve determining how much life insurance that you need and the best insurer for you.

With your position it is quite likely that your insurance needs will be high and this can lead to insurers asking you to have a medical and complete financial questionnaires, to get the level of life insurance that you need. By using an adviser like ourselves we can step in and take away a lot of the administrative side of things, so that you can focus on your work and family.

We offer no obligation quotations so you can find out what the likely cost of your life insurance will be and take the time that you need to consider your options.

Our multi award winning advisers will find you the right insurer that can support you and your career, to give you peace of mind for the future. Get a no obligation quotation from us today.