What is Keyman Insurance? Do We Need It? How Much Does It Cost?

Keyman Insurance – also known as Key Person Insurance – protects your business from the financial impact of losing a key member of staff. This might be the business owner, founder or an employee your company simply can’t do without.

It’s designed to pay a cash lump sum into your business to help you cope with the death or (potentially) critical illness of that key employee. You have two main options in terms of cover:

• Life Insurance only
  Should a key person die or suffer a terminal illness (diagnosed with less than 12 months to live) the plan pays out a cash lump sum to the business.
• Life & Critical Illness Cover
  Adding Critical Illness Cover also enables the plan to pay out if a key person were to suffer a serious illness such as a heart attack, cancer or stroke.

What Does Key Person Insurance Cover?

It is designed to provide business continuity if a key staff member can no longer perform their job due to serious illness or death. The payout can be used for a variety of means, including:

• Providing a buffer against loss of profits
• Paying for recruitment and training of a replacement
• Repaying outstanding loans
• Loss of important personal or business contacts
• Loss of confidence from suppliers and customers
• Difficulties in raising finance for new developments
• Loss of detailed knowledge of the business’ processes and systems
• Winding down a company in an orderly fashion.

Who Needs Key Person Insurance?

53% of businesses stated they would fold in less than a year if one of their key workers died or suffered a serious illness (Legal & General). How would your company cope?

Despite this apparent risk, Legal & General found that more than half of businesses don’t have any kind of protection. They’re running the risk of severe disruption to business continuity without having cover in place.

Why Key Man Insurance is so important for small businesses…

• According to the Office for National Statistics, around 90% of companies registered in the UK in 2016 employed fewer than 5 people.
• The vast majority of UK companies are small, and small companies are particularly vulnerable to the loss of one or two key members of staff.
• Without them, there could be issues securing investment, maintaining lines of credit or even simply with keeping the company going.

If the death of a key individual would have a significant impact on your business then it is definitely worth considering this protection, especially given the risks involved.

Most companies have at least one key individual whose loss would cause serious business disruption or even collapse.

The loss of that person’s ambition, talents, vision and drive could have a devastating financial impact on a company.

Josh Martin
Business Protection Expert at Drewberry

What’s the Risk of Passing Away?

According to ONS life expectancy data, the chances of a healthy male passing away within the next 10 years are as follows:

What’s the Risk of Becoming Critically Ill?

Approximately 4 in 5 claims on Critical Illness Insurance policies are made up of the ‘big three’ illnesses: cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

• Around 1 in 4 new cancer cases diagnosed every year are among people aged under 60 (Cancer Research UK).
• 50% of people born after 1960 will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime.
• Almost 1 million people in the UK have survived a heart attack and more than 1.2 million people in the UK have survived a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) – and almost half of these are under the age of 75. (British Heart Foundation).

How Much Does Key Man Insurance Cost?

There are a number of factors that will determine the cost of cover. Some of the key policy factors you can control, such as:

• Level of cover
  The more cover you require the higher the cost of the policy.
• Length of cover
  The longer the policy term the higher the risk of needing to claim and this is reflected in higher premiums.
• Including critical illness insurance
  As the risk of suffering a critical illness such as heart attack, cancer or stroke is far higher than dying you can expect significantly higher premiums.

Other personal factors that you have less control over which will still impact on the cost of the policy include:

• Age
  The older we are, the greater the risk of passing away during the term of the policy
• Current state of health
  Those with severe health conditions, especially those which might limit life expectancy, will typically pay more for key person insurance to reflect the greater risk the insurer is taking on.
• Smoker status
  If the key individual smokes, they are at greater risk of developing a serious, fatal health condition and so insurers will charge more.
• Lifestyle and hazardous activities
  Lifestyle habits, such as regularly drinking more alcohol than is recommended, or participating in hazardous activities, could result in an insurer increasing the cost of the cover.
• Family history
  Has any of the key individual’s immediate family ever suffered a serious and / or hereditary illness that could impact on them? If so, the premiums may be increased to reflect this.

Average Cost of Key Man Insurance Policy

We have calculated the monthly cost of Keyman Insurance split out into Life Insurance and Life Insurance with Critical Illness Cover for a healthy non-smoking individual aged 35, 45 and 55.

They’re looking for £150,000 of level cover (i.e. cover that will remain fixed throughout the policy term).

You can use our Key Man Insurance quote calculator to get instant online quotes from the UK’s leading insurers including AIG, Aviva and Legal & General.

How is Keyman Insurance Taxed by HMRC?

The tax treatment of such a policy by HMRC will be dictated by the purpose of the plan and, ultimately, who is to receive the benefits. The rules can be complicated.

How the policies and benefits are taxed can appear quite arbitrary depending on how they’re going to be used.

Protecting Shareholders…

If a plan benefits anyone other than the business — such as a lender or the company’s shareholders (including shareholding directors) — then, by definition, it won’t be ‘wholly and exclusively’ for the benefit of the business. For this reason, it’s unlikely that the premiums will be eligible for corporation tax relief.

Meanwhile, payouts on plans that cover the company’s shareholders usually count as a trading receipt, which means that they’ll also be taxed. So it’s worth remembering that policies that benefit shareholders could be taxed on the way in, and on the way out.

Covering Employees…

By contrast, policies that cover employees are usually regarded as being for the benefit of the business, in which case the premiums should be tax deductible.

However, the benefits still count as a trading receipt (so they’ll be taxed). This means that these policies will also need to have their sums assured grossed up so the business is left with the appropriate amount to protect the business.

Protecting Business Loans…

Policies to protect a business loan are taxed differently. As the cover benefits the lender (not the business), the premiums can’t be deducted against corporation tax.

However, as the payout from the policy is intended to rebalance the company’s capital account it’s not generally classed as a trading receipt and so isn’t typically liable to any tax. This means that there’s no need to gross up such policies, which naturally reduces the premium.

The details above set out the general consensus on how it is taxed however we strongly recommend discussing your specific situation with your accountant.

Other Types of Business Protection

Keyman Insurance is one option to protect your business should an important individual within your company pass away, but there are also other Business Protection Insurance options to consider, such as:

Legacy Planning with Shareholder Protection

Shareholder Protection Insurance is designed to make it possible for the surviving / remaining shareholders to repurchase the deceased / absent shareholder’s shares, retaining control of the company.  It can work alongside Keyman Insurance to ensure a business is fully protected should an important shareholder die or become critically ill. However, rather than paying out to the business to make up for lost profits etc., Shareholder Protection pays out to a shareholder’s fellow shareholders.

Should a shareholder die, their shares typically pass to their family, which could have major implications for the future success of the business if the family has no aptitude for running the business but is entitled, thanks to their inherited shareholding, to a proportion of the profits.

Shareholder Protection prevents such a situation for the business, as well as ensuring a deceased shareholder’s loved ones are properly compensated for their shares.

Debt Protection with Business Loan Insurance

Business Loan Protection is an insurance policy designed specifically to repay outstanding corporate debt such as company overdrafts, commercial loans, venture capital funding and commercial mortgages.

It’s typically arranged as a decreasing Life Insurance policy, meaning that the value of the payout falls in line with the outstanding loan.

Personal Protection with Relevant Life Insurance

Many company directors choose Relevant Life Insurance because it’s a far more cost-effective method of securing Life Insurance over paying for it personally.

Thanks to the trust set up at the time you buy the policy, there’s no inheritance tax or corporation tax issues on the payout because the money doesn’t go into the deceased’s estate or back into the business in the event of a claim.

What’s the difference between Relevant Life Cover and Keyman Insurance?

Unlike Key Man Insurance, Relevant Life Insurance is designed to compensate the family of the director should the director pass away.

It’s still owned and paid for by the business and is eligible for corporation tax, income tax and National Insurance relief, which is how it generates its cost savings over a personal plan, which is paid for after all of those taxes / contributions have been deducted.

Compare Best UK Key Man Insurance Providers

Aegon

Aegon was founded as Scottish Equitable in 1831. Dutch insurer Aegon N.V. bought a 40% stake in Scottish Equitable in 1994 and became a 100% stakeholder in 1998.

• Critical illnesses covered: 43
• Plus partial payouts for 15 additional illnesses

AIG

AIG Life is the UK arm of US insurance giant American International Group Inc. The insurer got its foothold in the UK protection market when it acquired Ageas Protect in 2014.

• Critical illnesses covered: 43
• Plus partial payouts for 5 additional illnesses

Aviva

Aviva was formed out of the Norwich Union-CGU PLC merger in 2000, but the company can trace its roots back to the 17th century.

• Critical illnesses covered: 41
• Plus partial payouts for 10 additional illnesses

Legal & General

Legal & General was founded in 1836 and has since grown to become an international provider of insurance, pension and investment products.

• Critical illnesses covered: 39
• Plus partial payouts for 2 additional illnesses

Liverpool Victoria

Liverpool Victoria has traded as LV= since May 2007. It is one of the largest insurers in the UK with more than 5 million customers across the country.

• Critical illnesses covered: 44
• Plus partial payouts for 20 additional illnesses

Royal London

Royal London began as a friendly society in 1861, later changing to a mutual society in 1908. Today, Royal London is now the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company.

• Critical illnesses covered: 46
• Plus partial payouts for 14 additional illnesses

Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows dates all the way to 1812 with an original remit of setting up a general fund to protect the assets of widows and the female relatives of fund-holders. In 2000, Scottish Widows demutualised and became part of the Lloyds TSB Group and in 2009 became part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

• Critical illnesses covered: 49
• Plus partial payouts for 8 additional illnesses

Vitality

Vitality is owned by South African insurer Discovery Holdings. Discovery entered the UK market in 2007 via a joint venture with PruHealth and PruProtect, part of the Prudential Group.

• Serious illnesses covered: Up to 174

Zurich

Zurich Insurance Group is one of the world’s largest insurers and operates across the globe, with locations in more than 170 countries worldwide. Zurich has 60,000 employees, including around 11,000 in the UK.

• Critical illnesses covered: 40
• Plus partial payouts for 2 additional illnesses

Get Keyman Insurance Quotes & Expert Advice

Setting up this cover can become quite complicated when taking into account the level of cover and tax position. For help and advice, please do not hesitate to pop us a call on 02074425880 or email us at help@drewberry.co.uk.

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to let us help.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are independent and impartial
  Drewberry isn’t tied to any insurance company, so we can provide completely impartial advice to make sure you get the most appropriate policy based solely on your needs.
• We’ve got bargaining power on our side
  This allows us to negotiate better premiums for you than you going direct yourself.
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
  You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
• Benefit from our 5-star service
  We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 2643 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.91 / 5.
• Gain the protection of regulated advice
  You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the policy we set-up for you. Doing it yourself or going direct to an insurer won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.
• Claims support when you need it the most
  You have support should you need to make a claim. The most important thing when it comes to insurance is that claims are paid and quickly. We are here to support you during the claims process and make sure it’s as smooth and stress free as possible.