Life Insurance: A Guide to Key Life Insurance Providers

There are a lot of insurance providers offering Life Insurance in todays market, so it would be difficult to list them all in this article and do their products any justice. To help you understand some of the insurance products that are available to you we have taken 6 of the main insurers within the UK and compared their products for you.

Here are some of the key products that the insurance providers offer to their customers. This is not an exhaustive list of the insurers products but it will hopefully give you a general guide to some of the valuable insurances that are available.

• Life Insurance – This provides a tax-free lump sum payout upon the death of those insured by the policy.
• Critical Illness Cover – This policy provides a tax-free lump sum payment should the person insured on the policy be diagnosed with a serious medical condition listed on the policy at a specified severity.
• Income Protection – A monthly payment that is made to the insured should they be unable to work due to an accident or injury.
• Business Protection – This is typically a form of Life Insurance specifically designed for business owners and company directors.
• Private Health Insurance – This cover provides the funding for private health care should those insured on the policy fall ill with a condition that requires enhanced diagnosis and treatment, as per policy guidelines.

An important factor of looking at the different insurance providers is to note that whilst they will all offer these products, some details of the policies will differ between each insurer. We now look at a general background of each insurance provider and note any significant differences that they have with the other insurers discussed.

Ageas

Formerly known as Fortis (an amalgamation of Northern Star and Bishopsgate), Ageas began trading in 2000 and has built partnerships with some large brands including Tesco. Ageas offer some of the most unique underwriting terms for customers which has made their policies available to a large majority of insurance customers.

• Life Insurance comes with terminal illness cover built in for the full policy term.
• Critical Illness Cover comes with an added bonus of access to the Best Doctors service, where any medical diagnosis you have can be monitored and second checked by the worlds leading professionals for your condition.

Aviva

Previously known as Norwich Union and CGU, Aviva has been operating under its new brand name since 2002. The company has been connected to insurance businesses since 1696 and is considered to be one of the most well established insurers available to the UK market.

• Life Insurance includes terminal illness cover for the duration of the policy.
• Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover includes access to RED ARC health services which provides you with a personal nurse adviser who will help you come to terms with your diagnosis and arrange access to therapists and counsellors if needed.

Friends Life

Friends Life is an insurance provider that developed from a merger of AXA, Bupa and Friends Provident in 2011. The merger brought together three of the leading firms within the insurance market who combined the best parts of their policies to offer some of the strongest insurance plans available today.

• Life Insurance has terminal illness cover included for the full term of the policy.
• Critical Illness Insurance policy comes with Best Doctors cover automatically included. This provides you with access to the leading health professionals for your medical condition, so that you can get a second opinion of diagnosis and enhanced support for treatment.

Legal & General

Established 1836, Legal & General is one of the most well known insurance providers available to UK customers. Having grown over a significant period of time the insurer has been able to develop quality products that are well suited to the UK market.

• Terminal illness cover is included with the Life Insurance policy provided that the diagnosis is not made within the last 12 months of the policy term.

Liverpool Victoria, LV=

Liverpool Victoria began its operations in 1843 and has grown to be one of the leading insurance providers within the UK. A well recognised brand, LV operate within many insurance markets and provide a core set of competitive products.

• Terminal illness cover is included with the Life Insurance policy provided that the diagnosis is not made within the last 12 months of the policy term. Terminal illness cover is included until the end of the policy term if you include critical illness in your plan.
• LV offer a tailored Income Protection package for Doctors and Surgeons that complements the NHS sick pay package.

PruProtect

Pruprotect is a subsidiary of Prudential, linking it to one of the largest international financial services groups operating today. This has allowed Pruprotect to develop one of the largest insurance underwriting systems on the market, with clear guidance on the types of cover available to meet most individual circumstances.

• Life cover includes terminal illness protection, provided that the diagnosis does not occur within the last 12 months of the policy term.
• Critical Illness Cover offered by PruProtect is actually referred to as Serious Illness Cover and has a primary focus on severity based claims. This provides a great deal more chance of a claim being paid on the policy than standard Critical Illness Cover.

We have provided a brief overview of the six providers discussed, highlighting some of the areas where the policies stand out against the others. When choosing your insurance provider there are a lot more things to consider than what we have been able to fit into this article. If you would like to hear about one of the insurance providers in detail, or additional differences between them, please feel free to contact one of our advisers who will discuss your insurance needs with you.

Further Reading:

• https://www.ageas.co.uk/
• http://www.aviva.com/
• http://www.friendslife.co.uk/
• http://www.legalandgeneral.com/
• http://www.lv.com/
• http://www.pruprotect.co.uk/ (Vitality Life)