Misleading Life Insurance Adverts 2025

Misleading Life Insurance Adverts 2025

Life insurance is one of the most valuable products that people can buy, to provide financial protection for their loved ones. 

A big problem that we see within the industry is an almost fanatical drive to speak to new customers. Ultimately a business needs new custom to be able to continue to run, but sometimes it can feel like an insatiable monster that can never have enough. At times this ends up with misleading life insurance adverts being put out, especially across social media.

There are going to be times where firms don’t like other firms marketing approaches. This is perfectly natural, if everyone did the same thing it would be very boring. However, there are times that marketing crosses a line.

Let’s take a look at some that we’ve spotted.

“Why take out life insurance that only pays out if you die?”

This is one of the most recent life insurance adverts that has been popping up non-stop on my facebook feed. In case you are wondering why you might be seeing these adverts it is part of the paid for sponsorship that some firms use on social media. They say to facebook “We want this advert to show to women, in their 30s, who have children, and live in the north of England”. 

Back to the advert itself.

The reason that this is misleading is that the advert suggests that most life insurance policies don’t pay out, if you don’t die. That this firm has a special life insurance policy that pays out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The reason that this is misleading is that the majority of life insurance providers within the UK will pay out on a life insurance policy, if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and certain rules are met. I have commented on one of these posts to ask for a list of the insurers that don’t include terminal illness cover, I am yet to have a response.

I know which insurers don’t pay out for terminal illness claims in the UK. It is a handful of insurers and they are specialist insurance providers, the ones that you would not generally come across as a member of the public doing your own research. 

Another reason that the advert is misleading is because it is making a song and dance about terminal illness cover claims. These types of claims are incredibly hard to claim on. I will explain this with an example.

• A 36 year old woman is told that she has terminal breast cancer
• Her oncologist states that they believe that she has less than 12 months left to live

Most terminal illness rules state that an early pay out from a life insurance policy can be considered if you are told that you have less than 12 months left to live. There are some really important words in the above bullets and the previous sentence. Believe and consider.

The reason that these two words are so important is that they can lead to terminal illness claims being turned down (postponed).  The oncologist believes that there is less than 12 months left to live, this means it is not a fact and the insurer is very unlikely to approve the claim. There is an insurer that is an exception and will pay out a terminal illness claim if you are diagnosed with stage 4 incurable cancer, but most won’t automatically do this.

Terminal illness definitions and rules have not been updated for decades. They have not advanced and evolved with the medical world. When terminal illness rules were initially put together a diagnosis of stage 4 incurable cancer would have meant that a person had less than 12 months left to live. The ability to claim on terminal illness cover is now much harder as people do live with incurable cancers, there are also new medicines and trials being developed all the time and being a part of these can also postpone a terminal illness claim. 

I say this from first hand experience of helping people try to make terminal illness claims, with the responses that we received as to why the insurer would not pay out under the terminal illness definition. 

Another key thing to remember is that terminal illness cover is not critical illness cover!

And another key thing, life insurance policies do pay out and they pay out a lot of money each year! In September 2024 the Association of British Insurers shared that protection insurers paid out £7.4 billion in 2023. £3.92 billion of this was for life insurance claims with a successful claim rate of 96.7%.*

“Why pay £12pm for a life insurance policy that will last 35 years, when you could have one for £5pm over the next 10 years?”

I haven’t seen this one for a while but it is worth mentioning. When you see the price of life insurance on adverts, make sure that you look at the small print. The advert will say something about getting life insurance for £3.68pm and then in the small print say that this is for a 24 year old, non-smoker, insuring £100,000 over 25 years. The price that you will pay for insurance is likely to be different as you might need more or less insurance, you might be older, you might be a smoker.

The reason that these adverts are misleading is by suggesting that you only need to take life insurance out now for 10 years, worry about the life insurance you need later on in life when the time comes. It might be that you want to arrange your life insurance this way, but it often doesn’t make a lot of sense to.

Life insurance is cheapest when you are younger and it gets more expensive as you get older. This is linked to your age when you apply for life insurance, but it is also linked to your health and your family member’s health too, as well as other things. The longer that you wait to take out life insurance, the more likely that something could happen to alter your ability to arrange life insurance.

I have just done a quotation now for the 24 year old: 

• £250,000 over 10 years – £5.32pm
• £250,000 over 30 years – £6.50pm

You get an extra 20 years cover with a premium that is guaranteed not to change, for a difference of £1.27pm. 

Ultimately, you need to decide what is right for you when it comes to your life insurance needs. Go direct to an insurer, use a price comparison site, speak with an adviser like ourselves, whichever route feels best for you. But, try and spot if you are being led by an advert or marketing gimmick.

Our award winning advisers arrange life insurance day in, day out. We know the ins and outs of the insurers, their product quirks, how their customer services act and most importantly how they behave when they receive a claim. We are here to help you, so that you can have peace of mind that your loved ones will be financially secure if you pass away.

Get in touch with us for a no obligation quotation today.

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